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23 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :- Technicolor Psyche of a Woman at a Loss for Love, 15 May 2000 Author: Randal Chicoine (cineaste-4) from Seattle
I was 15 years old when I stumbled into a cinema and caught my first Fellini film -- Juliet of the Spirits. I was so jazzed, wowed and bedazzled by it, I'm sure I went back a few more times. It led me to other Fellini films and, since, he's become my favorite film director.Though at age 15, I shouldn't have been able to relate very well with this story of an Italian middle-aged woman and her crumbling psyche (what with her failing marriage, her unsympathetic relatives and her repressive childhood), the movie made me care about this woman and showed me sights on film that I'd never seen before.Masina (Fellini's wife), in her performance, has nearly everything to do with making Juliet's story meaningful, even to a teenaged boy in California. The character's thoughts flash, unspoken, across her face. Her fear, herbemusement, her insecurities--all are writ in italics and I had no trouble empathizing with Juliet.Fellini, though, makes the film an occasion to witness how far the medium can go in bringing alive a person's inner life. The weird and awful power of (subjective) memory, the dream state, the spectres of loneliness, betrayal and Catholic mythology: all these and more overtake the screen, dominate the imagery and play the antagonists to Juliet who, as seen by the other "real" characters in the story, is just a simple, loving housewife and neighbor. Juliet finally has to face her demons and either vanquish them or go mad. By the end of the film, we know most of her demons, where they came from, whom they represent and what they mean. What an accomplishment!In a clinical setting, Fellini dropped LSD around the time he concocted this film. That may be one reason the movie is so psychedelic. This also was his first feature in color. The music is unforgettable. Costumes should have won the Oscar, but that honor went to "Man for all Seasons".Incidentally, I've bought and viewed the DVD of this movie. It's quite washed-out and not as good as an available VHS letterboxed version.I'll always miss Fellini, but am so grateful that he was able to make this film and over a dozen others.
20 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :- Fellini at his dazzling, colorful peak!, 7 February 2004 Author: Feanor_Nordol from Los Gatos, California
Fellini casts his real-life wife, Guilietta Masina, as Guilietta - an upper middle class housewife whose life is coming apart. The film's plot serves a vehicle for some of the most dazzling, psychedelic scenes ever put on film, all before anyone used computer graphics to make cinema more fantastic. Fellini uses costumes, makeup and, most of all casting of supporting actors and extras, to achieve his surrealism.His first film is color, this is Fellini's most Felliniesque movie.
14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :- Unique to the medium, 6 April 2005 Author: (dain@nyu.edu) from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
This film by Fellini is basically the female version of 8 1/2. Instead of delving into the mind of a middle-aged Italian man dealing with problems with his wife and trying to figure out who he really is, it is about a middle-aged Italian woman dealing with problems with her cheating husband and trying to figure out who she really is. (I still can't decide who I like more as a lead in a Fellini film... Masina or Mastroianni.) The film is very enjoyable, and is definitely one of the films I would classify as a work of art. The one thing that really stands out to me, however, is this: It could only exist as a film. Most films are adapted from previously written novels, or at the very least can suffer the indignation of a "novelization" without losing the quality of the story. But I cannot fathom any way a writer could capture this film with words. It is very visual, but could not be painted or drawn either. I think this is one of the few films I've seen that is completely unique to the medium of film. Towards the end of the film, there is a scene where she is trying to avoid voices and images around her while hosting a party. It was at this point that I realized how perfectly every shot was set-up, and that there would be no way anyone could capture the feeling or the images with words.I would be extremely fascinated to see what the shooting script to this film looked like. It's the fifth Fellini film I've seen, and I must say, I think I can call him my favorite director. He's the only director whom I've been enthralled by every single film I've seen of his. He has a perfect record, 1.000% batting average so far with me. I'm going to keep seeing more, and hopefully I won't ever be disappointed.
14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :- Fellini's deepest dreams, 17 January 2000 Author: Dr.Mike from Chicago, IL
Juliet of the Spirits has become one of my favorite Fellini films. The story involves a woman who discovers that her husband is cheating on her. The forces of family, tradition, the church, and an immoral society all pull at her and force her to make a difficult decision. These forces would be banal in a standard film but Fellini chooses to visualize them as images and dreams. The dream sequences are nearly perfect and create a sharp sense of the hazy logic and unreality of dreams. Other comments (as well as our friend Maltin) have noted that the symbolic nature of the film is a detriment. This is true only if you are constrained by reality and demand that film adhere to the rules you have set down (or more likely had set down for you). Taking the journey with this film is well worth the time and effort. I hesitate to state that a male director has successfully penetrated the inner desires of a woman, but in this case I think Fellini has at least come close to the mark. A film to be looked at, talked about, and enjoyed again and again.
12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :- A very sensitive Fellini masterpiece, 22 November 2005 Author: Maurizio Von Trapp (maurivontrapp@yahoo.it) from United Kingdom
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I can never get too tired of seeing Fellini. Over and over again. When I bought this film I was very anxious about it, but I had sub-estimated the film in my imagination. When I actually saw it, I was awed, amazed, in love. Giulietta Masina is a genius, a real actress. Even though this time she doesn't act in her brilliant clownesc style, she is as convincing and loving as she always is. The colours are brilliant, even more so for a film done in 1965 (and much better than the colours used in later works such as Casanova). The film is full of hidden hints so the attentive eye can understand the story more in depth. Fellini is a master on putting things in a very metaphorical way, and here he achieves to better himself even more. The clothing is fantastic and ageless. The flowers flowing from all the other female character's clothes contrast with the linear and simple ones from Giulietta, showing how introspective she is in her life, specially in her sexual one. The film is very Fellini, but very feminine in the other side, something rare until then. Even though women played a central part in most of his films, they were always seen through other men's eyes. This time the whole world is seen through Giulietta and her feminine repressions, caused by the typical Fellini factors - education, the church, family and of course Italy. Fellini might be good for those who love cinema, but for those who love it and understand what being an Italian conveys, it is a wonderful delight. Nothing better than a Fellinesc big southern woman, or an outrageously funny Ruma'...
12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :- There are movies and there is Fellini!, 15 February 2004 Author: vdg from Vancouver, Canada
No spoilers here, just a simple feeling that I have every time I see a FELINNI movie: "There are movies and there is Fellini" This is an art film, as most of Fellini's movies, so I wont try to explain or comment anything on it, everybody has to have his own vision about the movie. Don't try to explain everything, don't try to see flaws in the screenplay, just take it the way it is: a beautiful fantasy. YES, it is very pretentious, if you don't like it or if you don't understand it that means this movies want not meant for you, but for the rest of us! The Criterion version of this movie is pure perfection, even though the 1 channel sound is not enough to get the full experience of this masterpiece. You'll love it or you'll hate it, there is nothing between!
6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- Fantasy informing and transforming reality., 10 April 2007 Author: Kara Dahl Russell from United States
One of Fellini's most accessible films (his use of color really helps), he once again plays reality against an active fantasy life... fantasies that combine memory, fears, fleeting desires and the way we imagine the lives of others. For me, one of the things that makes a film 10 star is that it provides something that only film can provide, and this is it; while the presentation is very theatrical, this quick intercutting of time/memory/mood can only be done in film.While the overall message is a very conservative (pre/anti-feminist) one of it's day, Fellini DOES liberate a woman's fantasy life, and this is the essence of his leading "little woman." The predominant action of the film is in her imagination. This was the day when middle/upper class Italian women did not work, and Masina represents the "good little woman." Rich enough to have servants, there was little to occupy her time or mind, other than similar friends who have veered to the outre and weird just to have something to do. Masina's character searches more internally, and her fantasies color her vision of the lives of others. (Note that her usual circle of friends are equated with a fantasy of death, and you'll be clued into her psyche as these begin.)I think you have to have lived a bit to "get" Fillini - I didn't like his work when I was younger - I love this. Also note his use of color as "percieved color" not literal color and this is worth many viewings. And finally, if you are a larger woman... nothing makes you feel so great about being a large woman as watching Fellini's glorious Amazons!
6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Juliet is a Delight!, 11 September 2006 Author: katrowellpa from Tennessee
I loved this movie. For me, as a relatively new student of Fellini, I understand that there is a progression in his films over the years. His initial films are more generally coherent stories like "La Strada" and then his later films are more focused on the visual and surreal, like "8 1/2".This movie is somewhere in between. There is the coherent storyline of Juliet and her philandering husband and all the other strange characters in her life, like family and friends, but then there is also the psychedelic and surreal element of the spirit world that Juliet is in close contact with everyday.Masina is great as usual--she acts a lot just with her eyes and the expressions on her face.This film is just a delight. My suggestion is that you don't try to analyze it too deeply. Just sit back and let the colors, settings, costumes, and larger than life characters wash over you.
9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :- The Spirits are with us ..., 11 August 2005 Author: Andy (film-critic) from Bookseller of the Blue Ridge
I cannot wait to get my hands on my next adventure into the world of Fellini. I was more than impressed, I was captivated. I watched Giulietta degli spiriti (aka Juliet of the Spirits) and I couldn't help but think of other directors that have used Fellini's tactic in today's modern cinema. I think the reason I enjoyed this film so much is because I love the work of these directors, and I could see the homage they were paying in their films to Fellini. I am speaking of directors like David Lynch, Oliver Stone, and Akira Kurosawa. The colors, the images, and the overall elements of this film are original and provocative at the same time. You wouldn't expect this film a film created in 1965. I didn't when I put this film into the DVD player, but then I wasn't sure what to expect when I put Fellini into the player.The colors are one of the boldest marks of the film. For this to be Fellini's first color film he pulls it off like a professional. The darkened shades to represent insecurity and the unknown, while the bold colors represent happiness and control. You wouldn't expect these emotions could be combined with ease, but Fellini's master brush never misses a beat. This film is told through its colors. From the opening scene where Juliet is choosing which color hair to wear, all the way to the ending where she leaves the bright white house into the darkened unknown, it is the vivacious colors that lead us from point A to point B. The characters are important, but these colors are used to represent the true emotions of the characters even when they are lying to themselves. These colors tell the truth and Fellini controls them.I was always a believer that Oliver Stone's style of film-making was absurd and at times random, but little did I know that his odd placement of certain images is nothing more than a deep homage to Fellini. Since I have only seen one film, Giulietta degli spiriti, I can only take reference to it, but there were moments when I could have guessed Stone's hand was somewhere in the process. When Juliet sees the spirits, we are suddenly whisked away to a world of haunting images and imagination. We are afraid, yet excited at the same time. The scenes that come to mind are those when Juliet is at the beach and at the end when she finally confronts her demons. While some may see these as a director's "wet dream", I saw these as an insight into Juliet's character. We learn about her troubles, her life, her childhood, and her fears. It is these spirits that help us understand why Juliet is the way that she is, and why she has trouble leaving her cheating husband. They are a "guardian angel" for Juliet, ensuring that she stays true to whom she is even when times seem to be closing in on her. This is seen when she was about to do something sexually that she had not intention of doing. A moment of revenge saved by a spirit.This was a magnificent story that could be retold today and appeal to mass audiences. Juliet is the common person, dealing with issues that face us today. The horror of discovering your husband is cheating on you and the spirits that you consult to help. Juliet is neither insane nor crazy, nor would I consider this a "tale of terror". This is a story about a normal person who is placed into extraordinary events that cause her to regress to her childhood. This also brings out the spirits from her childhood to help her in her bumpy path.This is not to say that this film is without faults. While Fellini has obviously mastered the field of directing, showing us with bold colors and creative storytelling, there is something that could be said about his choice of music. I feel that the music used in this film conveyed a message opposite of what was to be felt. I felt that when we were to be shocked or surprised by Juliet, there should be equal music playing, but instead all I head was this happy go-lucky tune that seemed to trample the overall theme of the film. Perhaps Fellini used most of the money for the colors and story and only had one record left for the soundtrack of the film. Who knows? All I know is that the music used did not work in this film at all. If I could change one aspect of this film to bring it to perfection, it would be the score. What was Fellini thinking?I would like to say that this first Fellini experience has been magical. I am glad I have the opportunity to share it with everyone, and if you take anything from this review it should be two things. First, don't insult a film until you have viewed it in its entirety, you never know what gems may just need to be polished to glimmer. The saying, "Never judge a book by its cover" applies to films as well. Second, go back to the basics. As I watch more and more older films, I begin to wonder the originality and uniqueness of the directors today. Some of the top performers in their game are beginning to show signs that they have "borrowed" from other directors. Perhaps they are paying homage, but perhaps there is more. Instead of walking out of a theater and saying, "WOW! I wonder why the director put that shot in there" (cause I know all of you think this), perhaps sit back and think about who they are saying "thank you" to. You may discover, as I have, that the original creative mind, no matter the date, can still be a powerful force in cinema.Grade: ***** out of *****
4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- It's Masina's movie, through Fellini, or vice-versa, in this (almost) great film, 24 September 2006 Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
Juliet of the Spirits frolics through light and dark moments, gallops head-on through memories and present-day visions that may be dreams or just reality gone as askew as possible. And all the while, as many a critic has noted, Gianni Di Venazo's cinematography is a spot-on enchanter. It's got so much to look at, it almost threatens to trump the symbolism and other eye-catching things- chiefly Giulietta Masina herself- throughout the production. And it's got tinges of other Fellini films in its fabric, from the decadence of La Dolce Vita, to the struggles of the Id and the Super-ego battling it out in a big cinematic arena via 8 1/2, and finally to the endless charm of the Massina of both La Strada and Nights of Cabiria. If for no other reason to see the film it's for her, whom I would think this is perhaps Fellini's most ambitious, deranged, sweet and on-the-brink-of-"too much" love letter for her. Whether he is channeling himself through her, as a man who has fears of losing love or at least the connection of such to the women and love of his life, or if it's Massina perhaps leading him on through her own sensibilities, it's definitely the kind of film where you expect the unexpected.It does come close to going over the edge, as I mentioned, and the bombardments of the symbolism connected to both the memories (cheifly one where child-Juliet is up on some stake on a stage, and her Grandfather demands she be brought down, monks included) and what could be dreams as reality or just strange visions creeping up into her consciousness. There is no real specific story but merely a set-up; amid friends who inspire in Juliet a certain superstitions, Juliet keeps hearing her husband say the name of another woman in his sleep. This arouses her suspicions to the point of hiring a private detective to track him, and low and behold her suspicions confirmed. But rather than make a simple infidelity drama, Fellini is after something much more with the character, and thus thrusts her- sometimes randomly it seems- into a bonanza of people who are both real and imagined and brought back from years past. One of which is a neighbor (Sandra Milo) who is ultra-sexed up to the point of having not only a mirror above the bed, but a slide leading to a pool from the bedroom.And even through Fellini and Di Venanzo's deliriously long and un-yielding camera sweeps and compositions, and through the colossal production design in Cinecitta, and the costumes, and the bright, chirpy Nino Rota musical score, and the fact that sometimes the colors are so vibrant and eye-catching (particularly in the neighbor's apartment and in some flashbacks) that you wonder why color isn't used so well nowadays compared to this, it's still Masina's movie in a way. Seeing her face and eyes are often more telling of what a scene is about, or just with her reactions to characters, that it rises to the level that the rest of the production needs. She plays a character who has a certain look to that is very knowing, even as she's been in a marriage that she thought was totally legit and old-fashioned. It's almost like a coming-of-age story in a sense, or maybe more like a mid-life crisis story if you will, which makes it even more akin to the crisis of the spirit of 8 1/2. And in more than a few scenes, especially when it's needed, she makes it very watchable.If it's less than one of Fellini's very best, it might be (for me) because it's almost too wild and too much filled with decadence and flashbacks and manic visions through the subjective camera. It's almost a break to see Juliet's two nieces, who haven't been exposed to a hundredth of the things Juliet will by the end of the picture. Towards the end, in scenes I won't mention here but lead up to a certain moment when she opens a door, I almost wanted whatever was going to happen to get on with itself, as Fellini shows here that as perhaps a precursor for films later on in his work, to all but shoot the kitchen sink out of a cannon, loaded with guys in black robes and women in scandalous outfits. That being said, I still had a heck of a time watching all of this unfold, seeing the coming together of a mind with a soul and what love and being with someone- and more importantly with yourself- can change with experience and imagination. It's also one of those movies where the female star can usually give you a big smile.
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