La Strada
![Watch film La Strada — LA STRADA Rerelease Trailer [1954]](https://www.acmodasi.in/amdb/images/posters/d/m/la-strada-1954-QOYhl.webp)
Short description
La strada follows Gelsomina, a poor and naïve young woman whose mother sells her to Zampanò, a coarse travelling strongman who needs an assistant for his roadside act. She joins him on the roads of a still largely rural Italy, where the two perform for small change and live barely better than they did before. Zampanò treats her harshly and shows her little warmth, yet Gelsomina stays with him, drawn to the wandering life and bound to the man who bought her. Their uneasy partnership is unsettled by Matto, a tightrope walker whose kindness toward Gelsomina stirs jealousy in Zampanò and pushes the pair toward a turning point.
Federico Fellini directed and co-wrote the film with Tullio Pinelli, produced by Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis. It was Fellini's fourth feature as director, arriving between I Vitelloni and The Swindle. Giulietta Masina plays Gelsomina, with Anthony Quinn as Zampanò and Richard Basehart as Matto; Aldo Silvani, Marcella Rovere and Lidia Venturini appear in supporting roles.
On IMDb the film holds 8 out of 10 from around 70,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.9 from roughly 1,200 votes. A critics' rating of 9.2 from 80 reviews places it above both audience scores, indicating stronger admiration among reviewers than among general viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- Fellini considered Maria Pia Casilio, who successfully played in 'Umberto D.', for the role of Gelsomina, and Alberto Sordi for the role of Matto. However, due to Sordi's candidacy being rejected, the friendship between him and Fellini was strained.
- Alessandro Corda wanted to release a sequel to the film – 'The Adventures of Gelsomina.'
- The idea for the film was initially sketched by Tullio Pinelli and Federico Fellini while working on «The White Sheik», and it was a story about a knight traveling through medieval Italy.
- Finding a producer was very difficult, and Fellini faced no less difficulty in casting the actors he had chosen for the roles.
- Filming of 'La Strada' was periodically interrupted and took place from October 1953 to May 1954 in various locations in central Italy, such as Bagnoregio, Fiumicino, Ovindoli, and Castelli Romani.
- As a tribute to Mazzini, in his film 'Eight and a Half Women', Peter Greenaway named one of the characters Juliet.
- At the Venice Film Festival, the film was awarded the 'Silver Lion.' That evening, supporters of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini clashed, and the altercation reached its peak when Franco Zeffirelli, a supporter of Visconti, and Moraldo Rossi, Fellini's assistant director, came to blows.
- Nino Rota's musical theme later became the popular song 'Stars Shine In Your Eyes'.
- The film has two soundtracks: in the Soviet distribution version, in addition to the original music by Claudio Santoro, there is a melody that later became famous as "The Driver's Song."
- Fellini noticed Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart when they were filming Giuseppe Amato's 'Forbidden Women,' in which Giulietta Masina also played one of the female roles.
- Anthony Quinn dubbed Arnoldo Foà.
- The film was shown in Soviet cinemas in 1967 under the title "They Wandered the Roads" and with a runtime of 97 minutes, 21 minutes shorter than the original.
- In Switzerland, cigarettes are called Zampano.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
