La Strada is concerned with the unholy pact between feral Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) and angelic Gelsomina (Giuleta Masina), after she is purchased from her mother for 10,000 lira to act as a kind of Sideshow Bob in Zampanò’s touring strongman show. The tonic for when cabin fever kicks in and fantasies of a post-lockdown nomadic existence begin to appear deeply attractive. Today, to refer to a film as ‘Felliniesque’ suggests that it has a surreal, carnivalesque essence, a whirling blend of sights and sounds that was typical of a Fellini flick. Chief among these is the circus (indeed, Fellini claimed to have run away to join a travelling circus when he was only seven). When Fellini says he’s remaking the same film, he’s talking about his leitmotifs and obsessions. He began his career during the Italian Golden Age of gritty neo-realist cinema, but after the 1950s his work grew more flamboyant, experimental, and self-referential, reflecting the changing times as well as key western influences like the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton.
“I always direct the same film,” he once said, “I cannot distinguish one from the other.” While it’s possible to imagine Michael Bay heaving a heartfelt, companionable sigh at hearing this, a quick glance at Fellini’s filmography demonstrates that a “you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” label doesn’t stick with the Italian maestro. No doubt his centenary coinciding with the silent streets of the epidemic would have appealed to his well-developed sense of the surreal.ĭescribed by critic John Powers as the “cinema’s great laureate of the id”, Fellini wrote and directed the majority of his output, receiving four Best Foreign Language Oscar nominations and winning a Palme d’Or (for La Dolce Vita) along the way. But life is messy, a truth that Italian writer-director Federico Fellini examined over two dozen films during a four-decade career. A darkened room, bottomless popcorn, the doors opening at a pre-arranged time – if only lockdown was as straightforward as cinema.
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