If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Watching these early Fellini movies one more, I seem to be enjoying them more than ever. Strange here though is that surprisingly I enjoyed Il Bidoni a little more than this. Maybe because I couldn't recall much of the former film and was blown away whereas with this one maybe I was a little disappointed. maybe just disappointed that it doesn't end up as well as it had started. For Giulietta Masina's character that is. Over thirty when she made this and yet you are easily convinced she is a rather simple child. Amazing performance against the abrasive if not done right abusive giant that is Anthony Quinn's character. He maintains his performance consistently throughout whereas Masina goes from wastrel to starry eyed child, and then keen performer with an eye on another man. Some of her wonderful early scenes are with the aid of hat and costume and a dash of facial paint but mostly she draws the character from within ( or from within Fellini, maybe!). Less neorealism and more magical reality, a very fine film.

LA STRADA is a film about wandering and aimless life, the harsh truth and beautiful poetry. The film emphasizes the sadness, loneliness and need for love, purpose and understanding. The story is about an unusual friendship between strongman and mildly mentally retarded girl in the entertainment show.This film is a quite realistic and honest life's journey, in which lack of tenderness and compassion. It is fascinating that in said film does not express the tragedy nor exaggerated melodrama. Simple passions, fears and emotions is the easiest to recognize. In addition to expression and pantomime words are superfluous. Love hurts when it does not recognize.Acting is extremely touching. Anthony Quinn as Zampano in the role of a strong, simple and ruthless primitive. It is interesting to see how his characterization develops. The inherent solitude can not resist the poetry. Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina is versatile and all the story revolves around Gelsomina. Her eyes, sadness or joy on her face were enough to change human life. So much for the purpose.This is truly a beautiful film filled with sadness, humor and understanding.

How can you write about The God of Cinema, than in the manner in which it is said that the Bible was written, that is inspired by God himself? But that Fellini was still earthly, like me, with a biography similar to mine plus physically resemblance(Mussollini was for him what Ceausescu was for me...) so, I'm having easy words come to mind from somewhere in the ether, the infinite, where perhaps he, Fellini, still creates characters, directs, writes, draws, takes everything for his films which he never realized as long he lived on Earth. Very seriously, what can you write about La Strada? What can you write about the faces of Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina? About what they can express only by their presence? What about the music of Nino Rota? What can you write about the work of Fellini, who was going through the deepest depression, after his only child just died in real life? You can not write anything, you just got to see the film, again and again, and feel yourself what Fellini wanted to communicate to the world. The fact that La Strada won an Oscar, for me, is zero. I appreciate what is beyond the film, the simple message about life and love. I will only quote Zampano: "If there's any delicate person in the audience, I would advise him to look away 'cause there could be blood." Much more than 10.

A care-free girl (Giulietta Masina) is sold to a traveling entertainer (Anthony Quinn), consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.This film is huge and "one of the most influential films ever made", according to the American Film Institute. It won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1956, and it was placed fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films. At no time has it ever disappeared from the IMDb Top 250, showing that general audiences love it, too.This is a great film, a fun film, with two characters really driving the story. Quinn and Masina tell the story with their faces, the laughs and snarls and everything else. Although the film was recorded in Italian, it could have survived as a silent film just as easily.