The Element of Non-Surprise in Fellini's La Strada

There is an understated simplicity in Federico Fellini’s La Strada which resonates at times in boring monotony. This is not to say that this Italian masterpiece is anything near boring or monotonous, but rather reflective of the Neo-Realism present throughout Italian cinema at the time of the making of La Strada.

The fact that much of the film is a silent study of two characters facial and physical expressions, only lends more credibility to the feeling that these characters may still be roaming the roads of the post War World II Italian provinces with their everydayness and universality intact.

In a fantastic review by film credit Roger Ebert, the writer makes an observation that in all of Fellini’s films there are elements which obsessed the filmmaker throughout his career: a man suspended in the air, the seashore, a parade, clowns and prostitutes. These elements are woven masterfully into a timeless story of love and heartbreak and the intricacies of understanding everything else in between.

The bond between Zamapano, the travelling and brutish artist, and his dimwitted lover/assistant/conscious, is saddening and comical, repudiated by both at times and impossible to escape as well. Gelsomina, played to staggering perfection by the pantomime master Giulietta Masina, could not have spoken a single syllable in the entire films and the effect would have been the same: beautiful and freighting almost at once. Her comic timing is perfect, only balanced by the powerful expressions of fear and loathe that her facial features so effortlessly portray. With core simplicity all that Gelsomina expresses is all there is in her: genuine emotions she cannot hide making it seem like she is incapable of self reflection .Her companion/owner, Zampano, played with gusto by the Mexican American actor Anthony Quinn, is a disheveled mix of machismo, stubbornness and male insecurity. His physical characteristics: strong, tall, boorish, more than rough on the edges, deliver the needed morphology that will ultimately expose the human element that is hidden inside him throughout the story.




Both characters prove to be misleading at the films melancholic end in part to the volatile presence of the third character present in the film, The Fool, who’s constant pressings and teasing of Zampano, lead to his doom and in an ironic twist of unwanted fate, the endings of the other two characters as well. Three characters to dissect humanity in endearing and seemingly uncomplicated terms: a clueless and innocent soul, a hard headed and emotionally closed man and a clown, a buffoon capable of loving and destroying with equal ease.




Isn’t life so? The struggle between understanding one’s place in a hard and cruel place, trying to love and not receive love in return, or pretending not to and then asking for forgiveness and answers to unanswerable questions.
This symbiotic and emotional dystrophy present throughout this quietly deceiving film is a testament to its relenting reflection of everyday life: A man and his struggle to understand, sometimes beyond his own comprehension the cruel insistence of a quiet world surrounded by the absurd and the loving.