La Strada

Zampano's Song College

A simple girl raises the instrument to her lips. Her eyes are filled with wonder, her face with laughable, caricature delight. In an instant, the trumpet is snatched away, and a strongman harshly reproaches her for the presumptuous act—“Do only what I tell you to!”

A simple girl is presented with a trombone; she is encouraged by the Fool to give it a blow, and she excitedly marches around with her Chaplin-esque, penguin walk as she learns a tune. At night, the simple girl finds the Fool by following the sound of his haunting motif on violin. With a few reiterations, the tune is soon indelibly associated with him.

Scenes later, the simple girl performs the haunting tune of the Fool for a nun—his signature melody that she has made her own. Upon finishing, her face briefly clouds over with nostalgic longing. A scene later, it is the simple girl who will be indelibly haunted by this very tune, as she witnesses the climactic death of the Fool.

A final scene with the simple girl—she has been irreparably, psychologically damaged, is deserted by a similarly tormented Zampano, left asleep with money, clothing, and most notably, the beloved trumpet that she was once so forcefully denied.

It is years later when every one of these scenes...

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