Giulietta degli spiriti

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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