Episode 13: The Salesman & La Strada

Oscar winners of the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award: the first winner and the latest winner. Jeremy Downing, Max Tarrant and Sarah Watt discuss the films The Salesman (2016) and La Strada (1954). The discussion touches on the treatment of the women in the films and the meta quality of Federico Fellini. The connection between the theatrical in both films is discussed, with the travelling circus in La Strada and the play “Death of a Salesman” in The Salesman. Both films are working just beyond a Neo Realist style and melding it with more fantastical influenced genres. Both films also use children in interesting ways, physically wrap up the female characters in clothing, have a significant second man and reflect the sociopolitical contexts of their times.