Art Theatre and Film
La Strada or the road, is an Italian film which was produced in 1954. A girl called Gelsomina is sold to a caravan entertainer; she endures emotional and physical pain from a violent man along the way. Her story is sad as she was sold for 10,000 lire to Zampano. Zampano is a fierce and strong man, and he portrays his high power by breaking a chain tied around his chest. He teaches Gelsomina to play trumpet and drum; he mistreats her and beats her when she tries to run away. They later join a traveling circus where Gelsomina is convinced by a tight-rope walker to change her mind. The film was shot with difficulties since it was during immediate post-war Italy.
A film short in difficulties like in the aftermath of post-war in Italy would not have pleased viewers the way la Strada did. From the moment it was released in 1954, it was comprehensive that it had everything. An instant box office hit and scoped the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Back home, it raised its director, Federico Fellini, to the fast ranks of Italy’s most exceptional filmmaking talents. It restored acting hopes of its American star Anthony Quinn and created his co-star, Giulietta Masina, a world –full taking point. La Strada’s unique bittersweet fun-drama was heartwarming in a way not many films have managed to do.
Fellini once confessed that he was a clown. Clowns were used as a symbol of life because they represent lightness, fantasy, and the possibility of being a new self. Their role was to serve as a metaphor of life, the rings Jungian symbols of unity and wholeness. The motif is in the form of music, which Zampano want Gelsomina to play drum the exact manner he wants.