Prix : Lion d’argent du festival de venise - Deux Rubans d’argent - Prix de la critique du cinéma italien pour le meilleur film et la meilleure réalisation - Prix de la critique du cinéma new yorkais - Oscar du meilleur film étranger 1956.

Gelsomina est l’innocence et la bonté incarnée.
Zampano, lui, est une bête à l’état brut.
Saltimbanques, ils parcourent les routes d’Italie.

Fellini évoque la condition humaine de l’artiste qui se balance paradoxalement entre les rêves idéalistes et la Grâce, et la puissance terrestre de Zampano.

Gelsomina, a clownish young girl, is sold for a few coins by her impoverished mother to Gypsy carnival strong man Zampanò, who makes a living by drawing a crowd to a square, expanding his chest in order to break a chain, and then passing the hat. Zampanò is physically and emotionally cruel, and viciously trains Gelsomina as his sidekick. She has a bird-like quality, delicate and strangely beautiful, as well as a prophetic ability to predict the weather, yet she is unable to avoid the brutish fits of rage and violence of Zampano. Nevertheless, she retains a tireless child-like optimism. She considers herself an artist because she learns to play the snare drum and trumpet, do a bit of dancing, and play the clown. Along the road they encounter "Il Matto"/"The Fool", a circus acrobat and clown who teaches Gelsomina that there might be more to life than her servitude to Zampanò.
Original version with French subtitles.