The Classics
Giulietta Masina in
Federico Fellini’s

JULIET OF THE SPIRITS

Giulietta Masina, star of La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, gives a tour-de-force performance in Federico Fellini’s phantasmagorical film about a middle-aged woman confronting her life when her husband leaves her for another woman. For his first color film, which won the Golden Globe Award and the New York Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Film of 1965, Fellini pulled out all the stops. The screen is splashed with rich color tones as figures dressed in luxurious costumes walk through Fellini’s dazzling sets. The stunning images are masterfully utilized to develop the story of a woman’s struggle to confront her past life and her place in the world. In traditional terms Giulietta is a “success” — her prominent husband is rich, she has a beautiful home and children plus servants to attend to her every want and need. Forced to move outside of this protective environment, she is shocked into recognizing the extent of her deeply repressed sexuality. Strange and wonderful characters enter into her life. The medium Bhishma, the spirit of Iris, tells her “Your spirit must burn and smoke on the altar of your loving body” and Giulietta’s free-spirited neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), Fellini’s sensual symbol of sensuality, instructs her in matters of eroticism. Amidst dreams and fantasies, Fellini unmasks Giulietta’s past and present. (Italy, 1965, 137 min., color, In Italian with English subtitles • Director: Federico Fellini • Music: Nino Rota • Cast: Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Valentina Cortese, Valeska Gert, Milena Vukotic, Sylvia Koscina)