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Styrous® ~ Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Today is the birthday of Mexican-American actor, painter, writer, and film director, Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca, better known as Anthony Quinn, born on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution.
Two of his films demonstrated to me his brilliant acting ability, the 1954 Italian film, La Strada, directed by Federico Fellini, and in 1962, Requiem for a Heavyweight, written by Rod Serling (link below). Both are fantastic but La Strada holds a special place in my heart.
It is one of the great tragic love stories of cinema and one of my
all-time favorite films; the casting was superb and the score by Nino Rota was out of this world. There is a beautiful interpretation of the music from the film by l'Ensemble Ô-Celli (links below).
The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman (Giulietta Masina) bought from her mother by Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a crude and cruel strongman who takes her with him on the road. It also starred Richard Basehart as the acrobat and clown, Il Matto ("The Fool") (link to complete plot and cast below).
La Strada - 1954
Fellini has called La Strada "a complete catalogue of my entire
mythological world, a dangerous representation of my identity that was
undertaken with no precedent whatsoever."
publicity photo
The film demanded more time and effort than any of his other works, before or since.
The development process was long and tortuous; there were various
problems during production, including insecure financial backing,
problematic casting, and numerous delays. Finally, just before the
production completed shooting, Fellini suffered a nervous breakdown that
required medical treatment so he could complete principal photography.
Initial critical reaction was harsh, and the film's screening at the
Venice Film Festival was the occasion of a bitter controversy that
escalated into a public brawl between Fellini's supporters and
detractors.
La Strada has become "...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 1957. It was placed fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films.
La Strada - 1954
photo: © 1954 Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografia
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina:
"Masina's character is perfectly suited to her round clown's face and wide, innocent eyes; in one way or another, in Juliet of the Spirits, Ginger and Fred and most of her other films, she was always playing Gelsomina."
Giulietta Masina ~ La Strada - 1954
Viewfinder links:
Lene Lovich ~ Flex & The Freeze
Net links:
The Guardian ~ The film that makes me cry: La Strada
YouTube links:
La Strada ~
l'Ensemble Ô-Celli ~ La Strada (musique du film)
David Letterman ~ Anthony Quinn (13 mins., 32 seccs.)
Anthony Quinn: An Original (58 mins., 42 secs.)
Martin Scorsese on ''La Strada' (13 mins., 46 secs.)
"I have lived in a flurry of images,
but I will go out in a freeze frame."
~ Anthony Quinn
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