La Strada (1954)

Description

Italian auteur Federico Fellini helmed this powerful rumination on love and hate, the Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film in 1956. This restored version (introduced by Martin Scorsese) tells the story of gentle Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), sold by her mother to the bullying circus performer, Zampanò, with whom she falls in love. When a clown, Il Matto (Richard Basehart), wins her heart, a doomed love triangle inevitably develops. There has never been a face quite like that of Giulietta Masina. Her husband, Federico Fellini, directs her as Gelsomina in 'La Strada', the film that launched both of them to international stardom. Gelsomina is sold by her mother into the employ of Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutal traveling strongman. They join up with a traveling circus where Zampanò encounters his old rival, tightrope artist the Fool (Richard Basehart). With 'La Strada', Fellini left behind the familiar signposts of neorealism for a poetic fable of love and cruelty. The Criterion Collection is proud to present 'La Strada', winner of the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film in 1956.