In 1965 the great director Federico Fellini had just completed two of his finest films in, “The Sweet Life” and, “8 & ½”. Both of those films showed that he was interested in showing the prosperous life of the rich and famous with the latter being an almost autobiographical depiction of himself.
In 1965 Fellini was still married to his muse, the sweet petite actress, Giulietta Masina, but were rumored to be having marital issues, with the great director dealing with infidelity and sexual identity matters at the time. It is interesting that it was at this time that he filmed, “Juliet of the Spirits, starring Masina, about a seemingly happily married and childless woman who discovers that her husband is having an affair.
The movie’s plot is very straight forward as Juliet (Masina), lives in an upper class home surrounded by servants, without seemingly a care in the world.
The movie opens on her wedding anniversary, which her husband forgot, and flows into an anniversary party that she arranged. Here, once again as he showed us in his previous two films, Fellini shows off the seemingly meaningless lifestyle of people who have too much time and money on their hands. Showing family and friends gloating with pride over the couples love, Juliet seems blissful in her happiness. That night her husband dreams about his mistress and calls out her name in his sleep. Juliet then remembers phone calls made to the house that are abruptly cut off once she answers. She is convinced, rightfully so, that he is having an affair and the rest of the film follows her tortured psyche and soul as she makes a fateful decision at the end.
Meanwhile there is the promiscuous single neighbor Suzy (played by Sandra Milo, who also played the director’s mistress in, 8 & ½,). Juliet has a short trimmed conservative haircut and consistently dresses with a very understated and almost shy, wardrobe. Suzy on the other hand flaunts her voluptuous body with colorful, revealing clothes.
Considering, “8 & ½”, was more or less autobiographical and featured a similarly dressed wife and mistress, made me wonder as to what kind of message Fellini was trying to tell, not only me, his audience, but also Masina, his wife, who plays the main character in this film. In the movie, I did not see any truly great love shown to Juliet by her husband, but instead a feeling that he and maybe even Fellini wished the staid inhibited Juliet/Masina was more like the outwardly sexually free Suzy/Milo. The way I saw it, instead of showing us the inner conflict and feelings of Juliet, we are instead shown, once again, the inner emotions and desires of Fellini himself.
This is Fellini’s first color film and it is as if he was born to film in color. His penchant for surrealistic interpretations of inner feelings fit perfectly with the colorful and bright images that seem almost to be timeless. This is one movie that is not dated in its appearance. Part of the reason for this is that most of the movie is filmed like a dream. From the initial party, the beach scene that looks like circus on vacation, to Suzy’s thrilling fun house of desire. In the beach scene, we find the first time Juliet notices Suzy, who is in the company of a procession of friends and sexual followers, dressed in a bright yellow outfit and being carried around like an Egyptian Queen on a mattress with a large colorful parasol. They enter the beach in the background like a circus parade with Juliet observing in the foreground, her face covering the screen with its forced observation.
From there Juliet gets invited to Suzy’s surrealistic home, which conveniently happens to be next door to her own house. This house is like an adult fantasy land filled with surrealistic images of sex and desire. There is a tree house that Suzy is elevated into and which also carries up many male admirers for her pleasure. Meanwhile Juliet, whether it is actually occurring or just in her dreams, gets sucked into the curiosity of her neighbor, where she makes a point of refusing every temptation offered.
This would be fine except throughout the movie Masina plays Juliet with a somber and sad expression. It almost as if Fellini is telling her to loosen up or go through life unhappy. Since it is his actual wife playing the character, the depth of the meaning to this movie is immense.
I will not spoil the ending except to tell you that the director and his leading actress had two completely different interpretations to its meaning. For that to be even possible, attests to the magnificence of this surrealistic masterpiece.
1001 Movies before you die 
Thanks for revisiting this great film (though I have always been skittish about recommending this movie to family and friends), whom I always thought would be flummoxed and confused by it. Ultimately, it’s a foray into the emotional landscape and emergence of a woman encumbered by low self-esteem, inhibitions, and wedding her identity to her husband (no pun) and her impossibly self-absorbed family and friends. I have always thought it was the female answer to Fellini’s “Otto e Mezzo.” Giulietta s on a journey, and we see her inch ever so slowly towards her eventual self-actualization – so each episode leads to that final scene, which always takes my breath away – no spoilers, of course. 🙂 One of my favorite sequences in the film is Giulietta’s reverie as a girl and her school play about the persecution of Christians in the late Roman Empire. It is both amusing and very insightful into the tools and events that informed the adult Giulietta – it’s such a memorable sequence, one of many. The film is long, but I have always been swept away by it, and Fellini’s beloved Muse, La Masina, shines in what was clearly intended to be a vehicle for her. A thoughtful, phantasmagoric, visually riveting film and I am thrilled that you watched it, liked it, and came away with your own fascinating take. It’s a rich film that lends itself to myriad thoughts and interpretations.
LikeLiked by 2 people