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Name:
SAAD NAWAB (Vadodara, India)

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saadnawab [at] gmail [dot] com

Cinema for the ages - Federico Fellini’s “La Strada (The Way)”

Federico Fellini’s “La Strada (The Way)” is a done to death plot of cinema till now. But some films are, well, made to be different, to last. A simpleton girl, Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is sold by her widow mother for 10,000 Lira to a travelling artist with a rickety caravan pulled by a motorcycle, Zampano (Anthony Quinn). What follows are the choices and the consequences of a carefree and what people have called a chaplinesque girl who thought that patience and following her heart would account to what she wanted. Zampano treats Gelsomina like a slave, even if he refers to her as his wife. He teaches her what he knows and she becomes his assistant in their travelling show. One day Gelsomina, tired of Zampano’s ways runs away. She stumbles upon a high-wire act performed by ‘Il Matto – The Fool’ in some provincial town and is struck by him. Zampano finds her and forces her to come back. He signs up with a travelling circus, where the Fool (Richard Baseheart) is employed.

Attracted to Gelsomina, The Fool mocks Zampano and the latter attcks him in a rage. Both of them end up in jail. The Fool tries to convince Gelsomina to leave Zampano in a delicate, quite existentialist way as you would to a child. That’s when he notices that Gelsomina is bonded to Zampano. He leaves her. A chance encounter on a barren highway makes way for a tragic turn as Zampano in a return fit of rage and jealousy kills The Fool while Gelsomina stares on in horror. Covering up their tracks they leave only for Gelsomina to be haunted by what had happened. She accepts it to be her own fault and goes insane slowly whereas Zampano is not ashamed of what he had done and wants to move on.

Fellini has created a poignant film, bearing its wounds in its imagery. His works are what can he termed Felliniesque by people who’ve analyzed his work. He blends reality and fantasy and as it turns out “La Strada” is a fable in a real world. There is no emotional or psychological examination of the characters. They are what they are presented to be, flawed with frailties. The world has made Zampano what he is. He has nothing except his one trick which he goes on performing over and over announcing it with a particular piece of dialogue all the time. Zampano doesn’t realize it but he has fallen in love with Gelsomina and is too dumb to understand it. It’s a semi beauty and the beast situation but wherein the beast may never realize the bond that he holds with his bought beauty, who charms him in every way to his annoyance. The film starts and ends by the seashore. It’s as if Zampano had asked something from the sea and due to his reckless misogynist way for Gelsomina, Zampano at the end comes back for redemption as a helpless, misguided soul. Whether he got it (in the real world it never happens) is never shown. But since the film is labeled with magic realism, who knows?

Amounting to the technical side of the film, the dialogue comes clearly as dubbed after filming. That was the way then with most Italian films. Cinematography is captured in a visceral manner, pointing to the performances rather than style. Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn both lend support to each other’s performances. Anthony Quinn does stand out at certain times due to Zampano’s instability opposite a staid one. Highlight of the film is Nini Rota’s sad, melancholic score. Listening to it when Gelsomina trumpets it to Zampano makes you wonder in the persistence of the sadistic brute.

Fellini’s “La Strada” is as an indulgence in the art of character buildup. His films have a story surpassing years, but his characters feel less evolved and more riped. The film leaves you with a lot unanswered and overlooks situations and timelines of Gelsomina and Zampano’s aftermath. But that what tales of morality are – understandable, appealing yet elusive.