La Strada

In Brief: Though I'll take The White Sheik (1952) for my dose of early Fellini any day of the week, I don't deny the greatness of La Strada (1954) and I certainly understand its appeal on numerous levels. While The White Sheik looks forward to the more fantastic works of Fellini from the 1960s, La Strada is brimming with the basic iconography of the filmmaker — from Gelsomina's (Giulietta Masina) cloak to the circus aspect of its story and beyond. It is also Fellini's most Chaplinesque work, and not just because Gelsomina is herself Chaplinesque in appearance. On the one hand, La Strada might easily be viewed as the the dark counterpoint to Chaplin's The Circus (1928) — and it is very dark indeed. But more, it has the feel of earlier Chaplin. There's a sense of the film being built around a basic story, but made in such an off-the-cuff manner that it feels unscripted. It exists in that realm of poverty so endemic to Chaplin, especially early Chaplin. To wit, Gelsomina — who is at once Chaplin and a Chaplin heroine — comes in for bullying and punishment at the hands of brutish oaf Zampano, which would not be out of place in a 1916 Chaplin short. There's a freshness here and an obvious and deep love for early cinema that is most appealing.