JULIET OF THE SPIRITS (GIULIETTA DEGLI SPIRITI)
Italy, 1965, 145 minutes, Colour.
Giulietta Masina, Maria Pisu, Sandra Milo, Jose de Villalonga, Silva Koscina.
Directed by Federico Fellini.
Juliet of the Spirits marked a climax and a certain liberation in Fellini's search for meaning and identity in the world, understanding past, present and future. Fellini probed society in La Dolce Vita (1960) and The Temptation of Dr Antonio (1962; this is the 1/2 of 8 1/2). He explored himself in 8 1/2, in a psychodrama that explored states of the mind visually. Here he introduces colour and the persona of his wife for a further exploration and liberation from inhibitions and alienation.
His next projects were of personal interest: a grotesque study of the ugliness of the present world, using Nero's world as model in Fellini Satiricon, perhaps another version of La Dolce Vita in a harshly, yet visually exciting, loathing of gross humanity. (Is Fellini still a puritan like Juliet and Satiricon a created story like those of Juliet in this film - and do they foreshadow Satiricon?) The other film was his documentary on a favourite subject, Clowns.
Giulietta Masina has an extraordinary screen presence and Fellini knows how to bring the best out of his wife: the unforgettable Gelsomina in La Strada and the prostitute of The Nights of Cabiria. She embodies the gentle, wealthy, Inhibited, middle-aged Juliet and leads us through this drama of the spirit so that our attention is never lost. A supporting cast, full of Fellini grotesques, contrasts with Juliet and offers a puzzling world, part reality and part dream. Content, style and technique are all compelling in this exploration by a master.
1. An American review called the film 'an eye-filling spectacle of the psyche'. How true is this?
2. Comment on Feline’s use of colour, spectacle, costume, imagination, fantasy, grotesque. The style of the musical score?
3. Giullietta Masina 's portrayal of Juliet; the fact that she is a sympathetic screen presence; Juliet as sympathetic, likeable and simple; attracting us to share her experiences with her? The contrast of Juliet with ail the other women in the film - her fashionable mother, her pregnant sister, her actress sister, her friends like Valentine and the sculptress who "sees God physically, corporeally, a hero of the perfect form whom I can desire and even take as a lover."? Suzy and her household.
4. The ordinary story line of marriage and infidelity and what Fellini makes of it? (Was Juliet happy in her marriage? Did she think she was? Would she have first suspected her husband? His bland reassurances and behaviour to her?)
5. What adjectives could be used to describe Juliet's character and personality?
6. Fellini has said the film is a "human commentary enriched by a seductive fantasy". He concedes that it can be interpreted in esoteric, occult and psychoanalytic ways, but says he prefers to see it as humane and imaginative. What does this mean? How much of the film is a projection of the author so that Juliet might really be representing Fellini himself? themes which suggest themselves: alienation and the search for identity, the nature of stability in life.
7. How much is this a film of the occult (whether outside a person or from within)? The séances, the fortune-tellers, the seers, Chiasma, the bisexual seer, the spirits - Iris and love for all, the spirits whispering to Juliet at the end? What relation do Juliet's imaginings, memories and fantasies have to this world of spirits? How much was self-indulgence on the part of Juliet, or were her imaginings more figments of fear? How much was psychodrama (as was actually done at the end) with Fellini himself, the creator of all the imaginings and fantasies, acting them out for himself? How did they all contribute to the solution of identity and freedom?
8. How much of the film is psychological, psychoanalytical - dreams, the past, childhood, death, God, traumatic experiences , repressions, the body, martyrdom and sex? What was the impact of the Satyricon-like fantasies on the beach, the memories of the Grandfather and the bareback rider, his flight and escape, the nuns, the martyrdom and the search for God behind the door? Were Susy and her house real or part of Juliet's fantasy - Susy's behaviour and style of living, her bedroom and the chute to the pool, Susy's treetop lair (she ascended like a witch in a cauldron), orgasm in the treetops, the party, the orgy, Juliet's refusal of seduction by the man in white? (How important was it that Sandra Milo played Suzy and the bareback rider?)
9. What function did the play-acting at the end in the garden have? "But what are you afraid of? How I answer? You're afraid of being alone, of being abandoned. You 're afraid your husband is going to leave you. And yet you want nothing more than to be left alone; you want your husband to go away. " How significant was the grandfather's liberating the little virgin-martyr (and the memory of Laura's liberation in death?)
9. Truth: why did Juliet hire the private detectives? What truth was there in the confrontation of Juliet and Gabriella? Why did Giorgio lie so much? Fellini has a camera trick of making us suspicious of reality. He shows part of an object in close-up and we wonder what it is or whether it is distorted and then he suddenly moves back with the camera and we see that it is something ordinary after all. "Please understand, Signora. I always ask clients to regard everything we show them with a certain detachment. Ours is an objective point of view, and therefore limited} reality at times may be quite different, more innocent" - the detective to Juliet. How true of the film is this? What role does Jose play in the searching out of truth?
10. Freedom and liberation. These are the solution of the film. Juliet lets Giorgio go, decides to stay alive and thus liberates herself from the spirits. Her grandfather has untied her but she has no need of him now. Insight-decision-liberation-freedom: is this the solution of the film? What is the significance of the location of the final sequence -Juliet walking in the sunlight amid the trees? What would now happen to Juliet?
