Review of Spirits of the Dead (1968) by Davey M — 21 Oct 2012

As with all anthology films, this is a mixed bag. The first section, "Metzengerstein," directed by Roger Vadim, starts off promisingly as a beautifully shot macabre fairy tale featuring a well-cast Jane Fonda (Vadim's wife at the time) as a cold countess dressed in some supremely ridiculous outfits (and romantically obsessing over her cousin, here played by her brother, Peter). Unfortunately, just when it starts to get good and creepy, it stops, and when the story should build it instead takes a dull detour in favor of lots of shots of Fonda caressing a horse with some minstrelley music. Some very promising stuff here, but it's ultimately a letdown.

Then comes the Malle-directed segment, "William Wilson." It's an improvement on the first, and features a nice, circular narrative, some good performances from Alain Delon and Brigitte Bardot (they manage to make a ten-minute card playing sequence thoroughly engaging and suspenseful), and some more fine cinematography and production design. It's a worthy, well-produced effort, if not anything particularly special.

THEN.

THEN.

THEN.

OH MY WORD.

"TOBY DAMMIT.".

Fellini takes the most liberty with his source material, fusing the Poe story with his own surreal show-biz obsessions, turning it into a hellish, tragicomic, horrifying riff on "8 1/2." The result is maybe the most electrifying, formally formidable, explosive, kinetic film he ever made, with jaw-dropping color cinematography, a sly, hypnotic score by Nino Rota (which you'll probably recognize--he borrowed it a few years later for "The Godfather"), a breakthtaking, breakneck, dizzying, feverish forward momentum, a creepy little girl with a bouncing ball inspired by Mario Bava (that would go on to inspire Kubrick and Scorsese), and a mad, extraordinary, thrilling performance by Terence Stamp, whose extravagant fashion sense must have left an impression on the young David Bowie when it was released in 1968. It's one of the great pieces of cinematic expressionism, hilarious and chilling, strangely touching, and breathtakingly energetic. It's a masterpiece.

So, while the first two segments are decent to goodish, any movie that ends with "Toby Dammit" gets five stars in my book.