24 July 2009

Pure iron, stronger than steel

La Strada

(1954)
What a face! If the film had nothing else to recommend it (and it does), just watching Giulietta Masina smile and frown and run and swing her arms and wave goodbye and moan in sorrow and just generally work her rubber face would be worth the price of admission. You kinda get the idea she had Harpo Marx in mind; if so, well channeled.

Meanwhile, Americans Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart play the brute she loves and the goofball who won't admit that he loves her, respectively. When Quinn's Zampanò finally does the right thing by letting Gelsomina go, it's the ruin of both of them.

Oh, and you know that great theme by Danny Elfman in Pee-wee's Big Adventure? This is the Nino Rota score from which he stole it.

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