"The Fool is hurt." Gelsomina
☆☆☆☆☆ Masterpiece
La Strada - The Road (1954) is a heart wrenching look at true love.
Directed by Federico Fellini.
Starring Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina and Richard Basehart among others.
The first time I viewed La Strada I was dumb struck by the three leads performances. Anthony was mesmerizing in his portrayal of a brutish man who cannot understand how in love he is with the young retarded woman he bought to help him with his traveling strong man show. I was equally dazzled by Giulietta's poignant, subtle and ironic performance. Masina brings out the pathos within her soulful eyes. Finally Richard stunned me with his sarcastic and evil undertones within his generous and patient characterization. Fellini manages to exceed the brilliant acting work by adding multiple layers of subtext to the story with his cinematography and direction.
I notice that the actors seemed to be counting instead of doing lines, so I did a little research and discovered that Frederico did in fact have actors count. To give you an idea of how meticulous Federico was during every moment of filming he had the actors count numbers in sequence, eg... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8... When Fellini wanted a specific action in say number 35 from Anthony, he would yell out, Anthony on number 35 snarl more profoundly. Federico later had the actors dub the dialogue into the film. What an interesting way to work. In the Method as taught at the Actors Studio, we concern ourselves with what each moment means to us personally and as the character. Then, gradually the actual dialogue replaces the adlib lines we use to express each moment in a scene. This is a very expensive and time consuming way to perform on film, but the results are truly amazing as can be seen in this movie.
In the scene below watch as Giulietta slowly and beautifully goes through an entire arch of emotions in the scene. Keep in mind that she is counting numbers in sequence in her mind, as Federico is yelling out directions to her; Giulietta, now you are worried, now you are relieved, etc.... As an audience member Federico slow pace gives me the time to empathize with Masina's rollercoaster of emotions. I worry as she does at the start of the scene, then feel her relief, then her joy and finally her anguish at the thought of living a life in hell with this unfeeling, abusive monster that she truly loves and cares for.
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