One Paragraph Movie Review: La Strada

Three hundred and seventh film: La Strada, a 1954 Fellini film that I didn’t like starring Mrs Fellini Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn. She’s a simple-minded girl whose destitute mother sells to a travelling strongman, and they can’t stand each other but sort of fall in sort of love anyway, despite her developing a crush on a tightrope-walking jester who is eventually killed by the strongman. As I’m typing that I realise that makes it actually sound like a pretty good movie, but I was irritated most of the way through. Perhaps bleak poverty, grime, exaggerated facial expressions and lots of shouting just aren’t my cup of soup. I guess it’s about people who show a lot of emotion but hide their feelings, with a bit of greasepaint and trumpeting mixed in. A review I read said that this film becomes more complex and rich on repeated viewings, but I’m happy to take the risk of missing out. One and a half purposeless pebbles out of five.