Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina on the set of La Strada (1954, dir. Federico Fellini)  Is [your wife, Giulietta Masina] a good actress, in your opinion? Federico Fellini: Excellent. I think she would have interested me as such even if she hadn’t been my wife. Her mimicry, for example, and that little round face which can express happiness or sadness with such poignant simplicity. That little figure, with its tenderness, its delicacy, fascinates me no end. Her type is crystallized, even stylized for me. As an actress, she represents a special type, a very specific humanity.

Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina on the set of La Strada (1954, dir. Federico Fellini) 

Is [your wife, Giulietta Masina] a good actress, in your opinion?

Federico Fellini: Excellent. I think she would have interested me as such even if she hadn’t been my wife. Her mimicry, for example, and that little round face which can express happiness or sadness with such poignant simplicity. That little figure, with its tenderness, its delicacy, fascinates me no end. Her type is crystallized, even stylized for me. As an actress, she represents a special type, a very specific humanity.

Giulietta Masina on the set of La Strada (1954, dir. Federico Fellini) (via)

Giulietta Masina on the set of La Strada (1954, dir. Federico Fellini) (via)

Nino Rota - La Strada Theme (Tema della strada) (La Strada: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

One of Federico Fellini’s initial sketches of La Strada’s Gelsomina  (via)

One of Federico Fellini’s initial sketches of La Strada’s Gelsomina 

(via)

Giulietta Masina on the set of La Strada (1954, dir. Federico Fellini) (via) “Mr. Fellini says that his wife sometime resists his view of her talents, which he summarizes as ‘a mingling of youngish and clownish.’ But make no mistake: in suggesting that his wife is a clown, Mr. Fellini means no insult. ‘The clown is the aristocracy of acting,’ he says. ‘To be a clown means to have the possibility of making people cry and laugh.’ (via)

Giulietta Masina on the set of La Strada (1954, dir. Federico Fellini) (via)

“Mr. Fellini says that his wife sometime resists his view of her talents, which he summarizes as ‘a mingling of youngish and clownish.’ But make no mistake: in suggesting that his wife is a clown, Mr. Fellini means no insult. ‘The clown is the aristocracy of acting,’ he says. ‘To be a clown means to have the possibility of making people cry and laugh.’

(via)