La Strada

A brutish travelling strongman (Anthony Quinn) acquires a waif-like young assistant (Giulietta Masina) before taking to the road in Federico Fellini’s acclaimed neo-realist fable.

An unassuming milestone of world cinema, Fellini’s heartbreaking tale of Gelsomina, a guileless young woman sold by her mother to travelling circus strongman Zampanò (Quinn), made a star of his wife and muse Giulietta Masina. Rich in allegory, La Strada’s influence has been profound, stretching far beyond the medium of cinema (Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson, for instance, both wrote songs inspired by the film).