Saturday, September 08, 2018

CLOWNS 2 #2


5 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Annie Fratellini was the 1st female

clown in France & started a circus

school that continues to this day

She was born into a multi generation

circus family in French Algeria of

Italian decendants & her grandfather

was 1 of the 3 famous Fratellini

Brothers of European clown fame

I was her guest at a circus school

graduation program in 1 of Paris's

outer arondisments many years ago

Roger Smith said...

Giulietta Masina's Gelsomina character is so similar to Ms. Fratellini, that I wondered if she derived her film role in LA STRADA from her.

Chic Silber said...


There is certainly a similarity

to the impish character but the

waif like wife of Fellini was

a most incredible film actress

La Strada is a classic film

They tried a Broadway version

that didn't do very well

It played 12 previews & only

1 actual performance in 69

at the "Lunt Fontanne"

Bernadette Peters was the

leading lady "Gelsomena"

Paul Binder said...

I toured all over France with Annie...Nouveau Cirque De Paris. Juggling act with Micheal Christensen. It was the model for Big Apple Circus

Roger Smith said...

It's hard to see how any show starring Bernadette Peters didn't make it.

Then again, LA STRADA was a dark story of The Strong Man abusing the demure wife sold to him by her destitute mother. But Sam Peckinpah looked at it differently. He said this was the one picture by another director he wished he had made.