Review: La Strada

Seen once and 4/13/15

2/4

Let me tell you: there is very little reward in this experience, even for the philosopher, even for the  viewer accustomed to mid-20th-century film. The depressing nature of this film is hardly even its subject matter--rather, it's the horrible acting, the bland plot and script, etc. If there is anything here, it's cinematic innovation (irrelevant to me) and symbolism (which cannot carry an experience). There must be more that works in order for me to call this a good film in the present era. I can see a few themes, and I commend Fellini for presenting them with such subtlety, but I simply can't make this fit into my 21st-century life.

My best philosophical interpretation of this film, after essentially just one viewing, is an analysis of Gelsomina as a Sartrian character. This was difficult to see, given how much the immediate events, style and bad acting distracted from the whole. But her life echoes some key ideas in Sartre's writing, which makes this film more interesting to me. What I must do, when encountering styles that are imminently distracting, particularly those of films from before the '60s, is try to see the film as a whole; as one cohesive idea.