The brute and peddling strongman, Zampanò, acquires the outlandish Gelsomina from her mother. A tyrannical Pygmalion, he forces her, to participate in exhibits of endurance as a female clown, and bear the burden and hardships, of life on the road. Despite his cruelty and sexual contempt towards her, Gelsomina develops a masochistic dependance on her companion. Even when the tragic conclusion of their encounter with a wandering high-wire artist, reveal Zampanò more than capable of killing, all that she could ever love. The great road-melodrama—where Fellini reveals his personal mythology, naked and exposed, was his most difficult and traumatic production. Contrary to others’ objections, in the director’s departure from neorealism, the themes of Christian “martyrdom” and the victimisation of his protagonist, made La Strada (The Road) into one of the creator’s most beloved films.
