The Dryden will screen La Strada (Federico Fellini, Italy 1954, 108 min., 35mm, Italian w/subtitles) as part of the Academy Awards at 90 series.

The cinema of Fellini is marked by a passion for life often revealed in the glowing face of the director's wife, Giulietta Masina, who stars here in one of his finest films. Masina is Gelsomina, a pantomime artist in the spirit of Chaplin, who, being sold to strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), serves as his dutiful assistant and eventually develops a genuine affection for the brute. While Zampanò overtly rejects Gelsomina's warm heart, he doesn't hesitate to confront another circus performer, the Fool (Richard Basehart), whom he sees as an interloper. This important transitional film for both Italian cinema and Fellini's career (moving away from neorealism) garnered Anthony Quinn long overdue acclaim as an actor of stature and won more than fifty international awards, including the first official Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Academy Awards in 1956.

[source: George Eastman Museum, 2018-Mar-12]