La Strada
classified PG SPlease note: This was screened in May 2017
Over sixty years since it won the first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and launched its director Federico Fellini (8½, La Dolce Vita) and lead actress, Giulietta Masina to international stardom, this marvellous film returns in a sparkling new digital restoration.
Fellini’s beautiful, emotionally-harrowing triumph tells the tale of a surly, drunken circus strongman Zampanò (an immensely charismatic Anthony Quinn), his young assistant who he repeatedly abuses (Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina), and the Fool who tries to offer her a better life (Richard Baseheart), only to risk his own. Soon all three find themselves in the same travelling circus, but with tragic consequences.
La Strada is the story of true outsiders, and marks Fellini’s move towards a symbolic cinematic language combining autobiography with universal concerns. A film full of beauty, sadness, humour and understanding, honest and realistic yet genuinely tender and compassionate - La Strada is a road well worth travelling.