Night on the big screen. Before us, ocean waves arriving at a beach. We follow a man who staggers on the sand, suffocating under the effects of liquor. He is veteran touring artist, Zampanò, his suit visibly broken and his face bruised. He comes from a bar, having left a fight affirming he doesn’t need of anyone and wants to be alone. However, nearly two minutes afterwards in film time, our subject collapses in tears by the shore, with only the spectator as a witness and no one to offer him a hand. Such is the scene that closes Federico Fellini’s film, La Strada (1954). The movie follows the experiences of young Gelsomina, calm and innocent, with the temperamental Zampanò, whose final solitude reflects the absence of his partner, who has passed away. The force of this moment, channeled in the emotion with which Anthony Quinn portrays the afflicted circus actor, is effectively transmitted to us observing from the screen by the different elements of film language that, charged with meani...
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