Finally got around to seeing Fellini's Italian neo-realist classic and I have to say I didn't care for it that much.
I might be a biased audience, because I've never really taken to Fellini. I would love to be persuaded otherwise but I think he's an overrated director. "8 1/2" and "La Dolce Vita" are both tiresome exercises in repetitiveness (Fellini is a pro at harping on the same point for three hours), but I was looking forward to seeing something smaller, shorter, and more representative of his earlier work, before he became an internationally IMPORTANT director. I certainly understand "La Strada's" appeal among fans, and I also understand how it gave audiences at the time something quite unlike any of the movies being produced by Hollywood. But Anthony Quinn irritates the hell out of me (I know he was supposed to in this movie, but still), and the mannerisms and affectations that others find charming and endearing in Giulietta Massina I found to be distracting.
And I wish I could look past it because it seems like a petty reason not to like a movie, but I had trouble getting past the terrible dubbing. It's one of those movies where the soundtrack never seems to be in sync with the picture.
"La Strada" won the first ever competitive Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and it brought Fellini and his co-writer, Tulio Pinelli, a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Grade: B-
I might be a biased audience, because I've never really taken to Fellini. I would love to be persuaded otherwise but I think he's an overrated director. "8 1/2" and "La Dolce Vita" are both tiresome exercises in repetitiveness (Fellini is a pro at harping on the same point for three hours), but I was looking forward to seeing something smaller, shorter, and more representative of his earlier work, before he became an internationally IMPORTANT director. I certainly understand "La Strada's" appeal among fans, and I also understand how it gave audiences at the time something quite unlike any of the movies being produced by Hollywood. But Anthony Quinn irritates the hell out of me (I know he was supposed to in this movie, but still), and the mannerisms and affectations that others find charming and endearing in Giulietta Massina I found to be distracting.
And I wish I could look past it because it seems like a petty reason not to like a movie, but I had trouble getting past the terrible dubbing. It's one of those movies where the soundtrack never seems to be in sync with the picture.
"La Strada" won the first ever competitive Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and it brought Fellini and his co-writer, Tulio Pinelli, a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Grade: B-