''Juliet of the Spirits'' ( it, Giulietta degli spiriti) is a 1965
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
comedy-drama film directed by
Federico Fellini and starring
Giulietta Masina,
Sandra Milo
Sandra Milo (born Salvatrice Elena Greco; 11 March 1933 in Tunis) is an Italian actress, television personality, author, and musician. She won a Silver Ribbon best supporting actress award for each of her roles in Federico Fellini's '' 8½'' an ...
,
Mario Pisu,
Valentina Cortese, and
Valeska Gert Valeska or Valeška may refer to the following people:
Given name
*Valeska von Gallwitz (1833–1888), German writer
*Valeska Gert (1892–c. 1978), German dancer and cabaret artist
* Valeska Menezes (born 1976), Brazilian volleyball player
* Val ...
. The film is about the visions, memories, and mysticism that help a middle-aged woman find the strength to leave her
philandering husband.
The film uses "caricatural types and dream situations to represent a psychic landscape." It was Fellini's first feature-length color film, but followed his use of color in "The Temptation of Doctor Antonio" episode in the
portmanteau film ''
Boccaccio '70'' (1962).
The film was nominated for the
Golden Lion at the
26th Venice International Film Festival, and received
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
nominations for
Best Costume Design and
Best Set Decoration. It won the 1966
Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film coul ...
, and Giulietta Masina won a
David di Donatello for her performance.
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
loosely remade it with his 1990 film ''
Alice''.
Plot
Giulietta Boldrini, an upper-class housewife, attempts to deal with her mundane life and philandering, oppressive husband, Giorgio, by exploring the odd lifestyle of a glamorous neighbour, Suzy, and through dreams, visions and fantasies. As she taps into her desires (and her demons) she slowly gains greater self-awareness, leading to independence, although, according to Masina (Fellini's wife), the ending's meaning is debatable.
Cast
Production
''Juliet of the Spirits'' was shot on location in
Fregene
Fregenae ( el, ; it, Fregene), was a maritime town of ancient Etruria, situated between Alsium and the mouth of the Tiber. The modern Fregene is an Italian hamlet (''frazione'') of Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio. As of 2012 i ...
, and at
Safa-Palatino and
Cinecittà Studios
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...
in Rome.
Fellini's longtime musical collaborator
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
composed the soundtrack. Until his death in 1979, Rota wrote the music for every Fellini film except his directorial debut, ''
Variety Lights''. The music in ''Juliet of the Spirits'' contains circus themes, as in Fellini's ''
8½
' (Italian title: , ) is a 1963 surrealist comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano and Brunello Rondi) by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. The metafictional narrative centers on Guido Anselmi, played by M ...
'', and also uses organ, cocktail piano, guitar, saxophones, and voices without words to convey Juliet's shifts in feeling. The soundtrack was mentioned in a profile of actor
Steve Buscemi, which notes that "a Victrola sits in
uscemi'sdining room, with the theme music for 'Juliet of the Spirits' permanently on its turntable."
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 79% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film's rerelease has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
In ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'',
Stephen Holden wrote of a revival in 2001: "Fellini went deliriously and brilliantly bananas with the color to create a rollicking through-the-looking-glass series of tableaus evoking a woman's troubled psyche."
Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and included it in his 2001 list of "
The Great Movies
''The Great Movies'' is the name of several publications, both online and in print, from the film critic Roger Ebert. The object was, as Ebert put it, to "make a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema."
''The Great Movies'' was pu ...
".
Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' praised the film, writing, "Federico Fellini's 1965 ''Juliet of the Spirits'' remains a timeless, major work of a master, a portrait of a dutiful wife plunged into crisis that triggers her spiritual awakening. With Fellini's own wife, the great Giulietta Masina, as Juliet, and with his unique command of fantasy and spectacle in full force, ''Juliet of the Spirits'', Fellini's first film in color, is at once an eye-popping display of bravura and a work of compassionate insight."
The film was less well received in Italy.
Giovanni Grazzini of ''
Corriere della Sera
The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015.
First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...
'' wrote, "It is known that Fellini's imagination, in recent years, has been unrestrained by a taste conventionally called baroque: ornamental delirium, decorative bliss. Juliet's marital crisis is thus suffocated by the scenographic luxury, the clamor or the tenderness of the colors, the bizarre splendor of the costumes; although sometimes there is an authentic heartbeat of humanity."
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
*
*
*
''Juliet of the Spirits'' – Review: Roger Ebert (2001; Great Movie)''Juliet of the Spirits'' – Review: Bosley Crowther (1965; NYT)''Juliet of the Spirits''– an essay by John Baxter at
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{Authority control
1965 films
1960s fantasy comedy-drama films
1960s Italian-language films
Films directed by Federico Fellini
Films scored by Nino Rota
Films set in Rome
Films shot at Palatino Studios
French fantasy comedy-drama films
Italian fantasy comedy-drama films
1960s Italian films
1960s French films