La Strada (1954) tells of the childlike Chaplin-esque stage partner Gelsomina (played by Giulietta Masina) as a clown, to the rough cruel strong man Zompano (played by Anthony Quinn) as they travel along Italy, struggling to get laughs and pay the bills. As the story progresses, the cruelty of Zompano chips away at the tender kindness of Gelsomina, all the while Zompanos rough outside slightly softens at the face of Gelsominas warm loyalty (Newland). Fellini paints a picture of a cruel world, where his characters are put through tests of endurance to survive, both physically and spiritually (Newland).
La Strada was Fellini's first leap from his previous work in Neo-realism, where there was an attempt to show a cold view of the effects of WWII on Italy, and his first attempt at creating philosophical dialogues accompanied by visual poetry (Newland). As quoted by Manoj Sharm, “Fellini's story thus announces its departure from neorealist historicity and its preference for an historical rendering of the human condition” (961).
Neo-realism sought to present a raw picture of Italy, in a way closer to actual documentation than fiction. The more that Italy escaped the aftermath of the second world war, the less that Neo-realism films were sought after to be created.
The departure from Neo-realism would warrant Fellini both praise and backlash, “Federico Fellini adapted and personalized neorealist aesthetic to such an extent that he was sometimes referred to as a betrayer of the cause of neorealism” (952). The other perspective of La Strada was to lean towards Fellini's poeticism, as stated by Georges Sadoul and quoted by Manoj Sharm, “‘Far from betraying neorealism, Fellini enriched it by guiding it along a new path’” (Sharm 961).
Along with Fellini’s departure from Neo-realism, came an example of Fellini's semi-fanaticism towards the circus, and specifically the clown. for Federico Fellini, the circus inhabited a spot in his heart and memory, as both a point of nostalgia and symbolism. The clown would appear throughout Fellini's career, but with an emphasis being in Fellini's semi-neorealism period, as explained by Veronica Manson, “in Fellini’s view, a perfect metaphor for life itself with all its mysteries and magic as well as the decadence of Italian society in the late 1950s with its pompous yet clownish characters.” As a whole, La Strada was Fellini's real first step toward what it considered Fellini-esque in that he employed poeticisms versus harsh neo-realism, while also presenting his nostalgic semi-intense interest in the circus.
