Juliet of the Spirits

Fellini the Fantasist shifts into stylistic overdrive in the eye-popping Juliet of the Spirits, the maestro’s follow-up to 8½, and his first feature in colour. Often described as the feminine version of 8½, the film stars Giulietta Masina as titular Juliet, the well-off but lonely wife of neglectful husband Giorgio (Mario Pisu). Like Guido in 8½ , Juliet escapes from an unpleasant external reality —here, the discovery of her husband’s infidelity — by withdrawing into a rich interior world of memories, fears and dreams. Fellini’s hallucinatory feast-for-the-eyes abounds in ravishing colours and spectacular sets and costumes.  Juliet was derided by some as an over-the-top exercise in Vogue magazine chic; Pauline Kael opined that it "seems to be stuffed with leftover décor from MGM musicals."  "The cinema is the unique and perfect tool to explore with precision the inner landscapes of the human being," Fellini said of his intentions. "I’ve always wanted to do an extrasensorial tale, born entirely of the imagination. This is it." "The tumultuous succession of strange and beautiful images binds us in a spell as mysterious as that of a poem or a concerto (Pierre Leprohon). "It could lay justifiable claim to being Fellini’s best" (Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films). Colour, 35mm, in Italian with English subtitles. 129 mins.