In terms of issues with characters in the film by Fellini starring Masina, “La Strada” the fact that Zampano turns constantly to other women for sexual affection and that he actually rapes the sexually naïve Gelsomina confirms that he does not find her attractive, but other characters insist upon reminding the character Gelsomina, played by Giulietta Masina in the film “La Strada” that she lacks certain qualities that other women have. In fact, the Fool, to whom Gelsomina is strangely attracted, tells her she has a face like an artichoke, and takes great delight in his observation, as well as the way in which Gelsomina’s facial expression collapses from pleasure to pain when he says this without any regard for Gelsomina’s feelings.
Gelsomina, then, unlike Libby in “Sidewalks of London,” cannot use her good looks as a means of gaining access to any better circumstances for herself. Nonetheless, she does use her body and her skills in much the same way that Libby does. Gelsomina, it turns out, is incredibly skilled at both achieving and conveying deep feeling through her guise as a circus and street performer clown, a role that fits naturally with her simple looks and what Bondanella describes as her dimwittedness (56). Gelsomina’s skill as a clown evolves over the course of the film. In an early scene in the character Gelsomina, played by Giulietta Masina in the film “La Strada”, Zampano tries out several different hats on Gelsomina’s head; with each change of the hat, Gelsomina tries on a different expression without being prompted to do so. When other props are introduced in the character Gelsomina, played by Giulietta Masina in the film “La Strada”—a trumpet, a stick, a drum—she infuses her own spirit, even when it is dull, into its embodiment, an act which infuriates the overly serious Zampano, who insists that Gelsomina act just as he instructs her to do.
The character Gelsomina un the film by Fellini, “La Strada” must beat the drum three times at just the precise moment and with precisely the beat that Zampano feels is befitting a performer of his skill; she must blow the trumpet with exactly the combination of notes that Zampano feels are most effective, and her timing must be coordinated. What is interesting, though, is that even when Gelsomina fails to conform to the norms that Zampano and the profession of street performing impose upon her, she charms her audiences. It does not matter that she is not beautiful or that is she is not particularly intelligent. She has a capacity for expressing a range of emotions, and the audience is captivated by her expression.
Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s wife and close creative partner, was the perfect woman to be cast for the role of Gelsomina. Although Masina had been trained as a theatre actress, Bondanella notes that Masina has been “[p]raised by critics as the ‘female Charlie Chaplin’” (xii). Her character does, indeed, evoke Charlie Chaplin. Throughout the entire film, Gelsomina is dressed in a simple costume that is quite similar to that of Chaplin, and she often wears a hat that evokes the spirit of the exemplary clown. Masina as Gelsomina also tries on a variety of faces that remind one of Chaplin. One of the most memorable scenes in which Chaplin is recalled is when Zampano has killed The Fool and tossed his body and his car underneath the overpass of a bridge. Gelsomina is deeply wounded by Zampano’s actions, and she spends ten days sleeping and crying, frequently repeating “The Fool is hurt, The Fool is hurt.” Her eyebrows change during this ten day period of mourning, painted on in a quizzical expression that persists throughout the ten days and that only disappear when she emerges from the back of the motorcycle’s tent one morning.
Gelsomina lacks the kind of independent spirit that Libby embodies, but she remains endearing to the viewer, if for no other reason that the audience feels sympathetic for her. The audience recognizes that Gelsomina has been dealt a difficult hand in life, and that for all of her limitations and difficult circumstances, she gets along as well as she can and she is, ultimately, successful in what she does—clowning—even though she never achieves the kind of acclaim and admiration that Libby receives in “Sidewalks of London.” What is important to recognize in a comparative analysis of these two female characters, however, is that the characters, much like the films themselves, were intended to achieve two distinct purposes.
