Criterion Creeps Ep. 189: La Strada

Welcome to the Criterion Creeps podcast. A podcast hosted by two chums (Jarrett and RJ) talking about the Criterion Collection spine by spine in order of release. Here is our review of spine #219 in the Criterion Collection: Federico Fellini's LA STRADA from 1954.
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[@muusbueb]

Keep it up, guys. In the age of the Coronavirus you are my go-to Creeps while working at home.

[@CriterionCreeps]

You listening to the full length episodes via whatever your podcast platform of choice is? Lots of self-isolatin' prime material there!

[@johns123]

Dang I really enjoyed this. It fills a need for in-depth film analysis that I've been craving. Thanks a ton for your work, and I look forward to listening to your backlog more!
As for La Strada, I've been watching it and thinking about it for years, and while I wouldn't call myself an expert, I thought I'd comment about some of what I've come up with about the film, and hopefully it can help us all get to the bottom of things.
The first thing is that I always figured they weren't really married, but they just said they were married bc Zampanó didn't wanna explain/was embarrassed about the real nature of their relationship. Especially in regards to the nuns
I think it's best to look at the film with Zampanó as the main character specifically. Gelsomina is his foil
The part where Zampanó kills the clown is a turning point for the characters, in that their personalities and occupations kind of change. Both becomes tortured by the event but Zampanó becomes guilty, while Gelsomina becomes traumatized and frightened. It takes Zampanó to reach the logical conclusion of his behavior in order to bring the guilt.
It's ultimately a film about self-destruction (something that Martin Scorsese has talked about and taken influence from btw). You feel that if Zampanó could have controlled himself and learned a little repentance earlier, he wouldn't have ruined everything, but of course he ultimately does. It takes the worst sin he could have committed for him to experience guilt as an emotion.
Fellini's films are often seen as wacky carnivalesque comedies, and on the surface they are, but they always seem to mask a darker, more tragic side, almost like the characters are putting on a performance to cope with the tragedy of their lives. The most obvious example of this is the party scene in La Dolce Vita. None of this is to say there's no such thing as happy endings for Fellini (8 1/2 has a happy ending after all), but if you think about it, he really was in the business of making tragicomedies.
I love Fellini and Italian film, and I hope you guys dive into even more. Keep up the good work!

[@Dan-sx9gl]

I’ve stumbled upon your podcast this past year. I think it’s great. I’ve been using each episode as companion pieces whenever I watch a new title.

[@CriterionCreeps]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@saladin5]

OK, here is what is with the title: la stada doesn't just mean the road in English it also means drama in Greek, yes, the word drama means the road and it comes from dromena(Δρομενα) which means "stories of the "road"", it's a Greek phrase

[@saladin5]

Δρομενα in Greek sometimes means "the news", sometimes are "urban legends", sometimes are slightly sad non-supernatural "tales" and sometimes are "cautionary tales"