Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

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Mr. Arkadin
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Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

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A heads up for a head spinning film, Juliet of the Spirits (1965) has often been termed excessive, pretentious, flashy overkill, and other fine adjectives by reviewers who never took the time to understand Federico Fellini’s first venture into color.

Giulietta Masina is Juliet, a timid, faithful housewife to a faithless husband who cannot even remember their anniversary. Her world is one of quiet submission and servitude until rising emotions compel her to examine the reality of her existence.

Critics have often labeled this film a female counterpart to Fellini’s earlier 8 ½ (1963) and there are many parallels. Juliet like Guido, can only change her future by visiting the past. Acceptance of that past is what gives her the power to change present circumstances. These experiences flood her world in kaleidoscopic visions that relate in various ways to her present life. For instance, the vision of a Christian martyr she enacted in a school play has significance in her tortured martial relations. A man who is pulling a rope (and hands it to her) is in real life the private detective she has hired to discover the truth about her husband.

Fellini was seen by many as an exploiter of women, but actually he was always a supporter of female empowerment. From I Vitelloni (1953), when gigolo Fausto must learn respect for his wife and child, to The Nights of Cabiria (1957) where a prostitute learns her self worth does not come from others, but within, Fellini’s women are always growing (in this period) in self awareness and realization. Juliet is a continuation of this theme, where a grown woman faces down her childhood fears to discover a new world that is waiting for her and fantasy is left behind.

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Juliet of the Spirits plays tonight on TCM.
Last edited by Mr. Arkadin on December 19th, 2007, 2:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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moira finnie
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Post by moira finnie »

Hi Ark,
Your description of this as a "head spinning film" is so perfect. Having seen all of the Fellini's major films except 8 ½ (1963) and Juliet of the Spirits, I found myself perplexed, dazzled and engaged, but never, ever bored during my viewing of this remarkable movie.

Despite the fact that absurdist cinema can often be cold and offputting, the warmth and artistic eye of Fellini and--perhaps most of all--his obvious love for his gifted wife, Giulietta Masina, the endearing star of La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, filled every frame of this disorienting film. I suspect that I'm going to have to see it again to notice everything that is happening on screen and between the actors, especially since the Sandman crept into my house last night and, no doubt noticing the dream-like images on the tv screen, decided to let me snooze a bit---so I missed the very end of the movie!!:roll:

Despite this, I hope to see this truly eye opening movie again in its entirety. I also hope that others who might have seen it post their thoughts about it.
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Post by cinemalover »

I am very upset. I was recording this on the upstairs TV last night and my beautiful wife, not realizing something was recording, switched the station to get her fix of Dr. McDreamy, or whatever the heck they call him. Oh, well. I hope they'll show it again. Discretion being the better part of valor, I didn't express my disappointment to the lovely Mrs.
Chris

The only bad movie is no movie at all.
Mr. Arkadin
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Moira, Juliet and 8 1/2 are probably Fellini's most complex works. I would never expect anyone to understand them on one viewing--I certainly didn't. I think 8 1/2 is aptly named. It took almost that many tries for me to get through the film a single time! :shock: It took longer still for me to understand what I was seeing. There is so much to see that it's pretty much impossible to comprehend without some kind of crib notes or perhaps watching along with a good commentary. The colors here are amazing though, and I think one could possibly enjoy it just on that basis alone.

Fellini always made films that dealt with his own life and understanding, but as he began to mature, his work took on more of a personal nature. Finally, his films became such a detail of his psyche they made sense only to him. I personally feel Juliet is the last truly great film he made. He had some interesting projects here and there (The Clowns and others), but nothing to equal his run from 1953-1965. I know Amacord (1974) has a lot of fans, but I'm not one of them.

One thing that has helped me to decipher some of Fellini's ideas is checking out film criticism on his work. There is a book that has a pretty good breakdown of Juliet, but I don't remember the name at the moment (checked out from the library). I will look for it next time I go and post the name and author when I find it.
Mr. Arkadin
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Moira, I found the book:

Federico Fellini: Essays in Criticism by Peter Bondanella

Apparently it's out of print, but you should be able to order it as an ILL (Inter Library Loan) from your library. Ebay also has a copy:

http://tinyurl.com/3ya7j5
Last edited by Mr. Arkadin on December 19th, 2007, 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Dawtrina »

I enjoyed Juliet of the Spirits but don't think I got it, even though I tried very hard. Here's what I wrote in my reviews blog:

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Of all the great world directors that I'm discovering of late, Federico Fellini may be the one that I most enjoy without really understanding why. My first Fellini was La Strada, which introduced me to both the director and his wife, the delightful Giuletta Masina. I enjoyed the film on the first viewing but didn't appreciate it fully or really understand what it was truly about until the second. I'm fully aware that the same may well apply to Fellini's other films and that even further viewings may assist also.

We begin here with a small party to celebrate the wedding anniversary of the Boldrinis: the Giuletta of the title and her husband Giorgio, played by Masina and Mario Pisu. The guests are a bizarre bunch including a young mystic lady called Valentina who sets up a seance. Here's where we first realise that the spirits of the title don't have anything to do with the next life, they're more like guides through what Giuletta sees either in visions or dreams or reminiscences; and they're set up exactly how I'd expect from Fellini, with outrageous costumes, outrageous sets and wonderfully lush hallucinatory images.

The school play is particularly memorable for many reasons, not least the faceless nuns and angel wings. It made me really wish I'd been there for a showing of that play, or even better to have acted in it. This is just now of many scenes though worthy of note: the beach scene, the visit with the man/woman mystic Bishma, the forest. Fellini is truly awesome at fashioning surreal beauty. Merely visiting the neighbour to return a cat turns into a magical journey that ends in the treetops. And everything is joyously colourful as Fellini was experimenting with colour for the first time.

There is a story here amongst the fancies. We learn at the beginning of the film that Giuletta is a loving wife, but she gradually learns that her husband must be having an affair. He mutters the name Gabriella in his sleep but evades all questions in the morning. From there everything seems to point towards an affair and this is confirmed by private investigation. However while this may be the central plotline, the film hardly works in such a linear or straightforward manner. What it's really about is Giuletta living in a world of imagination and having to work out which parts of her world are real and which imaginary and to come to terms with everything.

Giuletta Masina is awesome, as always, but while she's the central character she projects everything outwards so that it appears that the film is happening to her. Thus she really doesn't get to do anywhere near as much as anyone else in the film, it seems, and there's definitely a distance between her and the rest of the film. She gets to do plenty with her face and she could do more than anyone with that, as she has the most expressive eyes I think I've ever seen. The really overt acting, or deliberate overacting in some cases, goes to the rest of the cast: Sandra Milo, Valentina Cortese and others. Mostly they're women as the men don't get much to do.

And like any other Fellini movie, I'm going to have to follow the trend I started with La Strada: experience it once then come back at a later point in time to revisit and hopefully understand more. Right now Juliet of the Spirits is a gorgeous visual feast, accompanied by a memorable score by Nina Rota using an old instrument called a novachord. It doesn't seem to do what it presumably intends, as it apparently has much meaning when applied to the Fellini's own marriage. It purports to be a film about Giuletta, but really is a film about Fellini himself. At least that's what I'm seeing now, but I'll reserve judgement until at least the next viewing.
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Re: Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Post by charliechaplinfan »

It's helped me understand what Fellini was trying to express a little better. I didn't feel that Fellini was exploiting women in this film, I thought he was trying to understand this woman Guilietta, I felt the film was a homage to his wonderful wife who plays her role so straight, with such indignation at times and at others when viewing some of the more bizarre images, a childlike sense of wonder or amazement. It was Masina that made me stay with it and I can see a lot of similarities with 81/2 I did find 81/2 a far more accessible film, although I didn't pick up everything that was going on it flowed a lot better than the later film. Worth seeing and will probably be revisted one day.

I'm not sure I will try any of his later works as I feel he gets further and further away from what I really like about his work, I think my favorite films are La Strada and I Vitteloni because they are so human, La Dolce Vita and 81/2 are something else, visual spectacles with disconnected characters, very enjoyable but a different experience.

I do like Fellini, I wolud love to see the film he made with Anna Magnani, I think it was directed by Rossellini in which he tells her is Christ and she becomes pregnant by him and is ostracised by her community.

For fans of Masina and Mastroianni I would recommend Ginger and Fred, it's a small film by Fellini's standards but enjoyable nonetheless.

Lets hope they release Nights of Cabiria here soon.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

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Re: Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Thank you, it looks compelling by just looking at the screen captures. I'll watch over the next couple of days.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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Re: Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I watched Nights of Cabiria today. Another film to knock the emotional stuffing out of a person from Fredrico Fellini, this was viewed off youtube, heavens only knows the impact had I seen it on a bigger screen. I didn't realise until the end that Guiletta Masina is playing a character similar in naivete to Gelsomina, she's a woman of the night who refuses to employ a pimp, she knows what she does is at odds with her faith in religion. She has pride in the things she's earned, her house paid for, her thermometer etc. She even walks in a innocent way, she's touting for business almost by accident and sometimes finding herself astray. At the opening of the film I was unsure what is happening, Cabiria is almost drowned by her escort, is it a client or a boyfriend? The answer is her boyfriend, pushing her into a fast flowing river for her handbag. Heartbreakingly, she remembers this towards the end of the film. Another wrenching moment is in the hypnotist's show. At what point is she marked as a easy target? How Fellini takes us to a point almost beyond human endurance and never better than when portrayed by Guilietta Masina. I thought she'd never top Gelsomina but she comes extremely close her.

Hand in hand with Fellini's films is the music by Nino Rota, I've loved all his scores, particularly La Dolce Vita and Otto E Mezzo.

Thanks for posting the links :wink:
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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