Monday, May 11, 2009

Juliet of the Spirits



I'm so glad that I watched this film. I love Fellini and ever since I was first introduced to his films back in high school when I saw 8 1/2, Amarcord, Nights of Cabiria, and La Strada I was hooked. I don't know why I never saw this film sooner, but it really grabbed hold of me when I watched it last week. Everything from the music, to the acting, the colors and the fantastic dream sequences. It was beautiful, haunting, poetic, and full of life. After watching Woody Allen's Alice last week and reading about how that is his attempt to recreate Juliet of the Spirits, I decided to watch this. I never really buy into the whole notion of "recreating" films either. I still think that all directors are influenced by one another, some more than others, but in the end there is something to be said about borrowing ideas and styles to try different things. Anyway, this film is the story of a woman who is married to a very wealthy man and she is kind of aloof in the sense that she is dreaming her way through life. She does not want to be realistic about anything, but instead would rather fantasize about how she would like for things to be and she also likes to remember her past. All this changes when she starts to think her husband may be cheating on her and her friends open her up to "spirits" that begin to speak to her. Fellini is the master of dream sequences and creating elaborate circus like fantasies in his characters and this film is full of them. As his first film in color, the shots are beautiful and Juliet is such a wonderful character. By exploring the inner demons, childhood values, reflections of conversations with parents, religious ambiguity, and the deepest desires of her character, Fellini is able to show the audience so much more depth about her character. This film has probably climbed to the top of my Fellini list (for now) right there behind Amarcord and 8 1/2. And one of the main reasons I say that is because of the fantasy and metaphysical nature of this film. It is much more complex a film than something like La Strada which I cannot even really compare to this film because it is more of a straight story (still amazing).

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