My very first Fellini film and what a terribly, terribly sad one it is. Giulietta Masina is completely heartbreaking... something about those big innocent eyes. While I was ranking this on Flickchart, one of the match-up comments had it paired against Breaking the Waves, and I absolutely see the connection. Both are about women who keep choosing to stay in very psychologically abusive relationships. Although La Strada didn't break me as much as Breaking the Waves did, I still felt very connected to the story. I'm still processing it, and I feel I will be for some time, so I'm sure this review is a little rambly. Let it be said that I really enjoyed La Strada and will have to check out more Fellini after this. 4 stars.
Flickchart: #517 out of 1861, below The Lady Vanishes and above Dark Shadows.
2 comments:
La Strada was my second Fellini film, after 8 1/2. I wrote quite a bit about both of them in my Letterboxd diaries in case you care to delve that far into the matter.
The best single word I can think of for La Strada is "bittersweet". There are lots of times when I smiled and laughed, only to wince and want to just hug Gelsomina.
I recently came across a paperback book reprinting the screenplay along with some analysis of the story. I'm keen to read through that and see what I can learn from it.
On a more personal note, I would advise you to shy away from 8 1/2 for a while. I could easily be wrong, of course, but my reading of you is that you haven't been in quite the right state lately to really connect with it in a way that I think would be very satisfying for you. I'd happily endorse further Fellini in general, though the only other film of his I've seen to date is Amarcord. I quite liked it, and I think you'd be more apt to enjoy that than 8 1/2.
I rented 8 1/2 from Netflix once. It sat in my room for three months. I watched 30 minutes of it and got distracted, had to go somewhere or do something. It sat in my laptop for another three months. Finally I realized I was just never going to finish it, so I sent it back. One of these days I'm going to see it, but per your advice I'll hold off on it for awhile. Just in case.
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