Review of La Strada (1954) by Mike H — 01 Feb 2012

The female lead is awesome, but this first-ever Academy Award for Foreign Film winner kind of sets the stage for the next 100 years of what is considered brilliant in a foreign movie: a weird penniless foreigner's metaphor-laden journey through a pointless life; a tragic human tale filled with tragedy plus humanity.

It's the pretension of those future works that annoys me more than this one specifically: Fellini shows signs of talent here, and he eventually ripened as a director, and, yes, for the 1950s, this is pretty outstanding.

I've simply far exceeded my tolerance for the stupider siblings of this kind of work. It's worth remembering that film is a medium; having actors do and say things that no one cares about for two hours does not demonstrate mastery of the medium.

Shock, depth, vividness, boldness, integrity, and rounded skill are not achieved through sophomoric scripted trifles masquerading as thought-provoking moments. Also, every good movie starts with a good script, but the script is not the end of production.

For a complete guide to proper moviemaking, see "Godfather" and "Godfather II.".