Federico Fellini's first color film, 1965's Juliet Of The Spirits (Giulietta Degli Spiriti), which was written by Fellini and longtime collaborators Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, is, simply put, the female and color companion piece to 8½. Unlike that prior film, often considered Fellini's best, Juliet Of The Spirits was a critical and financial failure when it came out. The criticism of the film was too harsh for, while it is not as great nor good a film as some earlier Fellini classics, it is still Fellini, which makes it better than the overwhelming majority of films by others, for even when Fellini fails he succeeds at more things than most. However, like many of the first color films made by directors who started in black and white, Fellini seems to overdose on the new medium, with color schemes that seem off the charts, and which tend to bleed over into one another. However, given the oneiric quality of the film, this is not necessarily a bad thing, especially since this was at the start of 1960s psychadelia, and Fellini was supposedly affected by an LSD hit at the time.
Basically, Juliet Boldrini (Giulietta Masina- Fellini's real life wife) is a bored housewife who rightly suspects her wealthy public relations husband Giorgio (Mario Pisu) of infidelity, after their anniversary, when he mumbles another woman's name- Gabriella, a 24 year old model he's squiring around. Whereas the film, before this scene, was realist in the way that much of La Dolce Vita was, the seeds of doubt that are planted play havoc with Juliet's mind, and much of the rest of the film takes place entirely in Juliet's head. Even seemingly realistic scenes, such as when Juliet hires a detective agency to follow Giorgio and Gabriella, are tinged with psychodrama and images of repression, which make the viewer question if they are 'real' in the film's cosmos, or merely the fantasies of Juliet trying to nail her cheating husband. Aside from her faithless husband, Juliet has other people's idiocies to contend with- such as a neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), who is an old nymphomaniac who may or may not hold orgies- this is never certain, for this may be a product of Juliet's imagination, in her palatial home. There is also her attraction to and influence by the occult- which stands in direct contravention to her character's beliefs in Nights Of Cabiria, where Cabiria mocks the believers in religion. Juliet also has a cold mother, a boorish sister, and repressed memories of a Roman Catholic childhood that have scarred her in some way- possibly involving sexual abuse from an older male relative, although this is also unclear since the symbolism of the scene that explicates this is not definitive, and is open to more than one interpretation. However, the implications of abuse seem clear, and the way Juliet reacts to sex throughout the film do seem, to a modern eye four decades down the pike, like a textbook case of post-traumatic stress disorder in reaction to sexual abuse . Cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo seems to have been overwhelmed by the newness and use of color and spends too much of the film aping some of the distorted point of view shots that Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer Sven Nykvist perfected, only not as well as Nykvist. Even Nino Rota, Fellini's masterful musical composer, seems to be lost through most of this film where the film's visual images are often at emotional odds with Rota's score, which ranges from gorgeous classical music to atrocious jazz scats. Fortunately, despite her character's dourness, Masina again shines in this role, as she did in her earlier Fellini classics, La Strada (as Gelsomina) and Nights Of Cabiria (as Cabiria). Playing someone discomfited through the film is not an easy thing, yet never does the viewer think she is acting. While the screenplay may be overdone, Juliet's reactions to what is going about her are perfectly consistent with how a normal person would react to such bizarreness. This is quite a bit more than one can say with Woody Allen's dull re-imagining of this film, a quarter century later, with Mia Farrow as the titular Alice.
While Juliet Of The Spirits is not a masterpiece like Nights Of Cabiria nor La Dolce Vita, it is not a failure, and holds up much better than the similarly themed Robert Altman film from 1977, Three Women, where we get the mental breakdown of a single woman who fantasizes herself into the lives of two other women. Juliet never goes that far, yet the film is never as resonant as Ingmar Bergman's more brilliant film from the same year, Persona, in showing the inside out destruction of a mind, for Juliet never gives in, even as she is being targeted, it seems, for destruction from the outside in; and while that might make her a more admirable character than the pair of women from Persona, it does not make for as compelling a film. Juliet Of The Spirits is therefore a good and interesting film, one that will likely reveal a few hidden depths upon rewatch, despite its flaws, but it is not one for the pantheon. However, as a failure, and from a master, it is still leagues above many of the jewels in the crowns of lesser filmmakers. This is something about Juliet Of The Spirits that is perfectly appropriate.
Basically, Juliet Boldrini (Giulietta Masina- Fellini's real life wife) is a bored housewife who rightly suspects her wealthy public relations husband Giorgio (Mario Pisu) of infidelity, after their anniversary, when he mumbles another woman's name- Gabriella, a 24 year old model he's squiring around. Whereas the film, before this scene, was realist in the way that much of La Dolce Vita was, the seeds of doubt that are planted play havoc with Juliet's mind, and much of the rest of the film takes place entirely in Juliet's head. Even seemingly realistic scenes, such as when Juliet hires a detective agency to follow Giorgio and Gabriella, are tinged with psychodrama and images of repression, which make the viewer question if they are 'real' in the film's cosmos, or merely the fantasies of Juliet trying to nail her cheating husband. Aside from her faithless husband, Juliet has other people's idiocies to contend with- such as a neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), who is an old nymphomaniac who may or may not hold orgies- this is never certain, for this may be a product of Juliet's imagination, in her palatial home. There is also her attraction to and influence by the occult- which stands in direct contravention to her character's beliefs in Nights Of Cabiria, where Cabiria mocks the believers in religion. Juliet also has a cold mother, a boorish sister, and repressed memories of a Roman Catholic childhood that have scarred her in some way- possibly involving sexual abuse from an older male relative, although this is also unclear since the symbolism of the scene that explicates this is not definitive, and is open to more than one interpretation. However, the implications of abuse seem clear, and the way Juliet reacts to sex throughout the film do seem, to a modern eye four decades down the pike, like a textbook case of post-traumatic stress disorder in reaction to sexual abuse . Cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo seems to have been overwhelmed by the newness and use of color and spends too much of the film aping some of the distorted point of view shots that Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer Sven Nykvist perfected, only not as well as Nykvist. Even Nino Rota, Fellini's masterful musical composer, seems to be lost through most of this film where the film's visual images are often at emotional odds with Rota's score, which ranges from gorgeous classical music to atrocious jazz scats. Fortunately, despite her character's dourness, Masina again shines in this role, as she did in her earlier Fellini classics, La Strada (as Gelsomina) and Nights Of Cabiria (as Cabiria). Playing someone discomfited through the film is not an easy thing, yet never does the viewer think she is acting. While the screenplay may be overdone, Juliet's reactions to what is going about her are perfectly consistent with how a normal person would react to such bizarreness. This is quite a bit more than one can say with Woody Allen's dull re-imagining of this film, a quarter century later, with Mia Farrow as the titular Alice.
While Juliet Of The Spirits is not a masterpiece like Nights Of Cabiria nor La Dolce Vita, it is not a failure, and holds up much better than the similarly themed Robert Altman film from 1977, Three Women, where we get the mental breakdown of a single woman who fantasizes herself into the lives of two other women. Juliet never goes that far, yet the film is never as resonant as Ingmar Bergman's more brilliant film from the same year, Persona, in showing the inside out destruction of a mind, for Juliet never gives in, even as she is being targeted, it seems, for destruction from the outside in; and while that might make her a more admirable character than the pair of women from Persona, it does not make for as compelling a film. Juliet Of The Spirits is therefore a good and interesting film, one that will likely reveal a few hidden depths upon rewatch, despite its flaws, but it is not one for the pantheon. However, as a failure, and from a master, it is still leagues above many of the jewels in the crowns of lesser filmmakers. This is something about Juliet Of The Spirits that is perfectly appropriate.