"The
story is nothing. I am trying to free my work from certain constrictions
- a story with a beginning, a development, an ending. It should be more
like a poem, with meter and cadence"
Federico Fellini
Federico
Fellini's first full length color film, Juliet of the Spirits (1965),
is a hallucinatory blast of insane characters and set pieces which will
surely delight art film fans (If you thought the interior designs of
Suspiria were strange, check this flick out). Juliet of the Spirits
stars Fellini's wife and collaborator Giulietta Masina as a depressed,
bored housewife who is suspicious of her uncaring husband.
After
Juliet attends a seance she begins to communicate with various spirits
including her eccentric grandfather and a horrifying little girl who
died when Juliet was a child. Through these visions Juliet begins to
accept herself, looking to begin life anew.
Those
familiar with Fellini's work know the story comes second as the rich
visual feasts that are his trademark is what it's all about, and Juliet
of the Spirits doesn't quit, it's possibly the most beautiful color
film in cinema history. Lavish interiors too oddly beautiful too describe,
including a plush bedroom with a slide that leads into a tunnel which
empties into a pool, and the coolest tree house you'll ever see make
Juliet of the Spirits a trippy masterpiece.
Throw
Fellini's usual mix of beautiful buxom women and ugly but fascinating
looking characters (Which the Gap and all those bullshit fragrance commercials
steal from) and you have one of the finest Italian films of the last
fifty years.
