#0000C/#149: FELLINI, Federico: Juliet Of The Spirits (1965)

FELLINI, Federico (Italy)

Juliet Of The Spirits [1965]

Spine #0000C/Spine #149

DVD/Blu-ray

2002 synopsis

Cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo's masterful use of Technicolor transforms Juliet of the Spirits (Giulietta degli spiriti], Fellini's first color feature, into a kaleidoscope of dreams, spirits, and memories. Giulietta Masina plays a betrayed wife whose inability to come to terms with reality leads her along a hallucinatory journey of self-discovery. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the fully restored version of one of Fellini's most dazzling dreams.

2020 synopsis

Federico Fellini partnered with his wife and muse, actor Giulietta Masina, for this phantasmagoric character study, the director’s first color feature. Drawing on details from her personal life, Masina plays a woman dabbing in spiritualism whose hold on reality begins to slip when she learns that her husband is having an affair, sending her on a hallucinatory journey of self-discovery in which memories, dreams, and supernatural forces merge in a kaleidoscopic gestalt. With virtuosic cinematography from Gianni di Venanzo and a fearless lead performance by Masina, Juliet of the Spirits is one of Fellini’s most visionary films, an opposite number to 8 1/2 that examines the director’s central preoccupations — sex and love, life and death, fantasy and reality — from a woman’s perspective.

137 minutes
Color

Monaural

in Italian

1:85:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2002/2020

Director/Writers

Story by Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli.

Screenplay by Fellini, Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi.

Fellini was 45 when he directed Juliet of the Spirits.

Other Fellini films in the Collection:

#0000C/#189: The White Sheik (1952)
#0000C/#246: I Viteloni (1953)
#0000C/#219: La Strada (1954)
#0000C: Il Bidone (1955)
#0000C/#49: Nights Of Cabiria (1957)
#0000C/#733: La Dolce Vita (1960)
#0000C/#140: 8½ (1963)
#0000C/#747: Fellini Satyricon (1969)
#0000C/#848: Roma (1972)
#0000C/#4: Amarcord (1973)
#0000C/#50: And The Ship Sails On (1983)
#0000C: Intervista (1987)

The Film

8½ was a hard act to follow.

The Fellini marriage was on the rocks at this point, and perhaps the best thing Federico could think of was to do another 8½ — but this time from his wife’s POV.

Let’s start with the positives. The color is gorgeous, with DP Gianni Di Venanzo making the transition from the stark B&W of 8½. Juliet is wearing red more often than not, and red/white combination (heaven/hell) is frequently unsubtle (the scene with Bishma [Valeska Gert, last seen in 1931’s The Threepenny Opera as Frau Peachum!]) …

But the film fails on so many other levels; what are we to make of this weary woman who is first curious and enchanted by her mysterious neighbor, Suzy (a wonderfully kooky Sandra Milo), and then terrified when she actually enters her realm?

And worse, what are we to imagine is the least possible positive attribute of her cheating husband, Giorgio (an idealized Fellini, played with gusto by Mario Pisu) who has some sort of vague PR-type job, which keeps him working late nights, and packing suitcases, until he can no longer hide the truth he knows Juliet has discovered?

At least, Juliet tries to break out of her shell — she goes to her rival’s house to confront the wicked woman, but finds she’s not at home.

Her husband’s Spanish friend (José Luis de Villalonga) tries to seduce her with sangria, without success.

And she’s almost tempted by Suzy’s “godson,” a character right out of Fellini’s next film, Satyricon.

Many characters — including her friend Valentina (Valentina Cortese) and her mother (Caterina Boratto) — seem posed like the dainty ladies of La Belle Époque.

One of the more entertaining characters — arising from Juliet’s childhood memories — is her philandering grandfather (Lou Gilbert), who ran off with a young dancer in a rickety aeroplane.

Film Rating (0-60):

53

The Extras

The Booklets

#0000C only:

Eighty-page booklet featuring an essay David Forgacs.

“Fellini conceived Juliet as a vehicle for his wife, Giulietta Masina, who had not acted in one of his films since Nights of Cabiria eight years earlier. It has an evident kinship with 8½ — both films draw on biographical material and intersperse scenes of fantasy and memory with more realistic ones — but there are some major differences. It is not about filmmaking, the central character is a woman — Fellini was fictionalizing his wife’s biography, not his — and it is in color … Fellini was enthralled by the aesthetic potential. He sought to exploit the whole range of the Technicolor palette in Juliet’s studio sets, costumes, nighttime scenes, and dream sequences.”

154-page booklet featuring an introduction by Bilge Ebiri and essays by Michael Almereyda (Primary Sources); Colm Tóibin (Imagined Homes); Carol Morley (Life on Earth); Stephanie Zacharek (Tough Love); and Kogonada (There is No End).

Morley:

“Extended, fleshy tongues feature in the phantasmagorical Juliet, as does the color red. Juliet, newly aware of the possibility of her husband’s adultery, attends an event of the guru Bishma. The people gathered are asked to examine a red apple for what it really is. When Juliet asks without guile, ‘Isn’t it an apple?’ Her friend Valentina replies, ‘Darling, you don’t get it — look beyond appearances.’ This is Fellini speaking — urging his characters, and us, to look beyond the surface, to plumb the depths. Juliet, dressed mostly in red, grabs for the apple with her red-gloved hands, and it seems she is being challenged to look beyond her own physicality

…

As Juliet walks away from the enclosures of her marital house, playful spirit voices greet her. They are friendly and agreeable, telling her it is her choice whether to keep them around. She smiles and looks up, with an open, liberated, powerful expression, finally in possession of her self.”

However, according to Roger Ebert, “the director and wife argued about the meaning of this scene. To Fellini, this meant she was free. To Masina, it meant that she was alone, abandoned and lonely.”

#149l only: Eight-page wraparound featuring an essay by John Baxter.

“Though Fellini’s 1964 Best Foreign Film Academy Award for 8½ confirmed his place among the world’s greatest filmmakers, he remained as unsure of his ability as when he had arrived in Rome from Rimini in 1939. If the success of the psychoanalytical 8½ persuaded him of anything, it was the need to examine even more thoroughly the sources of his creativity, which lay in dreams, and in his ambiguous sexuality.”

#0000C only:

Commentary

None.

4K Restoration

Of Toby Dammit, Fellini’s contribution to a 1968 omnibus film based on tales by Edgar Allan Poe.

Damn it, no! Terrible. Poor Terence Stamp.

Fellini: A Director’s Notebook

A film by Fellini from 1969, newly restored in 4K.

Preparing for Satyricon. The best stuff is about the “film that never got made” — The Journey of G. Mastorna — at that time, the set still existed, a full-size jumbo jet, a giant facade of the Cathedral of Cologne, etc. — all covered in overgrown weeds, and bunch of American and Italian hippies living in and around the discarded set.

You can tell the whole thing haunted the director — who tried in vain to make the film until the day he died …

Reporter’s Diary

“Zoom on Fellini,” a behind-the-scenes documentary.

The usual.

#0000C/#149:

Familiar Spirits

A 19-minute interview with Fellini by Ian Dallas.

The best part is his description of his first LSD trip. He saw nothing more fantastic than what he imagined every day when he woke up.

Trailer

Not a word of dialogue. That in itself speaks volumes about the film.

Extras Rating (0-40):

33

53 + 33 =

86

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