Directed By Federio Fellini
Giulietta: I don't care about the clemency you offer me but the salvation of my soul.
This movie is really sort of the female counter part to 8 1/2 (director Federio Fellini's preceeding film).
It has the same sort of dream/memory/fantasy narrative, and the same sprawling dialogue and humor.
Juliet Of The Spirits, instead of focusing on the male director overwhelmed with his fading grasp on the world around him, imagines what the life of the directors wife might be like, during the psychedelic and sexual revolution.
The story is of a meek housewife, whose life is shaken up when a wild single women moves in next door, throwing opulent parties and decadent orgies.
Juliet is not convinced, and barely touches her toes in the warm sensual waters, her neighbor and young entourage exude.
Fellini makes great use of the technicolor, in this his first film in color; its actually color overkill for the hell of it.
It's like watching a fashion show taking place inside a kaleidoscope.
Giulietta: "Mysticism is something that very few truly understand and can control, hence the name!"
There really are some amazing visuals and all the dialogue is interesting.
Though I guess its not so much a female 8 1/2 as it is a caricature of a marriage during the sexual revolution , were to feel sorry for dopey Giulietta who can't lighten up and just go with it.
So more accurately this is Fellini in drag; excusing his own anxieties surrounding completion and commitment symbolized so poignantly by 8 1/2's half constructed film set, by transferring them into the arena of sexual politics.
The most concrete symbol of this films attitude and ethos is the neighbors house has a bedroom with a water slide to a pool below; a fast-pass between the sheets to a hidden id-layer of pleasure, just below eye's view. 
That old chestnut, "why tie yourself down to one person, when there's plenty of fish in the sea", etc. 
Fellini's fish are glowing jellyfish, electric eels, neon octopus, rainbow sharks, and phosphorescent choral, in a peacock sea. 
Just for the record, some scientists predict seafood will no longer exist as result of over-fishing in 2048. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110200913.html
Great performances and memory dialog; the sexual revolution as a circus.
Giorgio: "Jose owns one of the biggest bull farms. 
Sometimes at night this madman puts on his own bullfight". 
Giulietta:" What courage! 
Isn't it dangerous? "
Giorgio's friend: "No, signora, it's poetry.
Poetry is never dangerous.
My best friends are toreadors.
They compose music, write verse, and abhor blood. "
No comments:
Post a Comment