La Strada, 1954 (Grade A)

Director Frederico Fellini
Awards? - Nominations for Academy Awards and BAFTA awards
Cast: Anthony Quinn; Giulietta Masina; Richard Basehart; Also Silvani; Marcella Rovere; Livia Venturini.

sez says: I have known about this movie for years but I'd never taken the time to see it till now. What a treat.  It deserves all the praise it has received.  It is wonderful. Anthony Qninn did a pitch perfect job of being a hard, cruel man who lives on the thin edge of survival and who has no warmth or kindness to offer anyone.  Giulietta Masina offers a character entirely unique. A woman who is somewhat slow and who lives such a narrow existence  as to not even know why she should go on living -- but she is also able to find joy in tiny moments and actions where many would miss its existence. What she can convey with a sinlge change in facial expression is fabulous. 
It comes to a point where she questions continuing her life and Basehart's character tells here even the smallest pebble has a meaning and a purpose: She sets herself to do what no one else can do -- that is, to love Quinn.  What happens from there is agonizing and profound.  Events lead to her death and the film ends with Quinn weeping on the beach.  But it is not depressing.  It is a relief to see him recognize that there can be more to life than what he has known. That she is gone is sad: but that he has at long last experienced love provides a kind of joy. She accomplished her purpose.  And what was his purpose? Maybe it was to bring her into the world where she discovered and spread bits of joy,   And by staying her course, she brought Quinn to a knowledge of the possibility that life can offer gifts that he had never known--his life could have ended never knowing anything but harshness if it were not for her...thus the film ending with him weeping on the beach turns out to be a celebration of hope. (Grade A)