Special Events 2012 / La strada / Italy 1954
La strada, which brought worldwide fame to Federico Fellini (represented by an Academy Award and dozens of other prizes), is today known by almost everyone interested in the art of film. Centering on hapless Gelsomina, brutish Zampanò, and the scornful Il Matto, the film still touches the heartstrings, impresses with its aesthetic beauty and powerful performances, and provokes a variety of interpretations.
For Fellini, this tragic and poetic story of three characters – the coarse Zampanò, the somewhat feeble-minded but perceptive Gelsomina, and the provocative Il Matto who awakens her soul – represented the transition from Neorealism to his own, distinctive conception of film expression. Like the Neorealists, he depicts the social realism of the rural environment his itinerant circus artists travel through, nevertheless, in his symbols and references to myths, he lays emphasis on their private worlds. In Italy La strada was initially slated by the intellectual Left, however, the filmmaker also fought back against expressly Christian interpretations. This profoundly compassionate and moving film garnered world recognition and made international celebrities of both the director and his wife Giulietta Masina, who plays Gelsomina. Anthony Quinn stated that Zampanò was the most important role of his career. La strada remains one of the most treasured works in film history to this day.
108 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Federico Fellini
/ Screenplay Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano
/ Dir. of Photography Otello Martelli, Carlo Carlini
/ Music Nino Rota
/ Editor Leo Cattozzo
/ Producer Dino De Laurentiis, Carlo Ponti
/ Production Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografica
/ Cast Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani, Marcella Rovere, Livia Venturini
/ Contact Beta Cinema GmbH, BFI
Federico Fellini (1920, Rimini - 1993, Rome) entered the film world on the crest of the Neorealist wave. His films are characteristic for their oscillation between reality and irreality and his fanciful imagery blended superbly with the music of Nino Rota. His films La strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1956), 8 1/2 (1962) and Amarcord (1973) were awarded Oscars, and Fellini took the nod for La dolce vita as well (1960); Fellini also received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1993. His strong bond with Rome was underscored in the films Satyricon (1968) and Roma (1972). Recollections are the chief motifs of the films I Vitelloni (1953) and Interview (Intervista, 1987). He became a legend of world film during his lifetime, adding more works to an already imposing list: Juliet of the Spirits (1965), The Clowns (1970), Casanova (1976), Orchestra Rehearsal (1978), City of Women (1980), And the Ship Sails On (1983) and Ginger & Fred (1985).
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Phone: +49 896 734 698 828
E-mail: [email protected]
BFI
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United Kingdom
Phone: +44 207 255 1444
Fax: +44 207 436 7950
E-mail: [email protected]
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Vic Pratt
Film Institution Rep.
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