La Strada

According to the American Film Institute, La Strada is one of the most popular films in cinema history. The performances of Giulietta Masina as the waif Gelsomina, Richard Basehart as the Fool, and Anthony Quinn as the strongman Zampano, who buys Gelsomina from her mother and takes her with him on the road, have been acclaimed for their power and sometimes ridiculed for their sentimentality. The debates over what these characters and the story they enact represent--a Christian parable, a journey of self-discovery, a tale of beauty and the beast--and the position of the film within the neo-realist genre, continue today. This new translation and critical edition of the continuity script for La Strada is the only accurate guide to the film in any language. The notes to the shooting script enable the reader to reconstruct some of Fellini's changes while shooting the film. The edition also contains an introduction which analyzes the work's place in film history and within the so-called "crisis of neo-realism," and provides for the first time in English a number of articles on the film's production. Fellini's most important interviews and statements on La Strada are included as well. Finally, two of the best critical analyses of the film, by Frank Burke and Peter Harcourt, are reprinted, along with a number of the contemporary reactions by critics from France (Andre Bazin), Italy (Guido Aristarco), and the United States--including a description of its reception at the Venice Film Festival. The illustrations include some of Fellini's original drawings made during the shooting of the film.