Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Juliet of the Spirits Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 9, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Essential Fellini.

It may not quite match the treatment Criterion afforded a certain iconic Swedish director with their frankly almost overwhelming Ingmar Bergman's Cinema release, but Essential Fellini should pretty easily serve as either an absolutely first rate introduction to or a nostalgic reacquaintance with one of Italy's most legendary filmmakers. Fourteen beloved if sometimes controversial Fellini films have been aggregated in this set, along with a bonus disc offering a special devoted to Marcello Mastroianni, and while Criterion only provided check discs for the purposes of this review, from the looks of things online, this is another beautifully packaged set from the label with a number of non-disc swag packaging bonuses.

What does the adjective colorful mean to you? It may actually have more than one meaning with regard to Federico Fellini and this particular outing, since few would probably quibble that Fellini was one of the more "colorful" characters and directors of his generation even when working in black and white, but also with a realization that Juliet of the Spirits kind of interestingly got quite a bit of press back in the day for being Fellini's first feature film shot in color, though trivia fans may know that Fellini had worked in that medium previously with his contribution to Boccaccio '70, which despite its title came out in 1962. If one were to take certain elements of 8½ to heart, and with a simultaneous acknowledgement that Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina portrays the titular Giulietta Boldrini, obviously offering a self reflexive angle, one might be tempted to assume this is at least semi-autobiographical, but that's probably not the right way to approach this deliberately fractured narrative.

Juliet of the Spirits has the same magical realist dreamlike quality that pervades much of 8½ in particular, and much like that earlier masterpiece, this film exists in a whirlwind of peripatetic camera movements and vignette driven episodes which seek to explore Giulietta's roiling psyche. The character is beset with a less than faithful husband named Giorgio (Mario Pisu), which probably exacerbates instabilities that are kind of ironically caused by just how stable, as in mundane and everday, Giulietta's life is. The film also serves as a kind of "distaff" 8½ focusing on Giulietta's interior world(s), which serves to blur an already nebulous line between ostensible "reality" and fantasy.

The film is typically "crowded" in a traditional Fellini-esque way, with a gaggle of supporting characters wafting in and out of various scenes, with blatantly theatrical interchanges populating many scenes between Giulietta and others. Sandra Milo in particular plays a "part" which, kind of like some "characters" in amorphous dream worlds, can shift identities. But these general plot outlines suffice only to give Fellini and Masina a palette on which to frolic, and this is often a kind of gorgeous crazy quilt of production design and an almost drug infused "narrative" which I think intentionally wants to ask more questions than it ever has any intentions of answering.

Juliet of the Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Juliet of the Spirits is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Criterion only sent check discs for purposes of this review, and so I'm not privy to any verbiage about the transfer that may be included in an insert booklet, but the actual film includes some introductory text which offers the following information:

Restoration of Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini, 1965) completed in 2015 by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale from the original 35mm picture and optical soundtrack negative made available by RTI-Mediaset. A few sections affected by severe decay were replaced with interpositive materials conserved by Cineteca Nazionale.

Color restoration supervision by Gianfranco Angelucci. All laboratory work was carried out at Rumblefish VFX, Milan.

This is a gorgeous looking transfer that nicely preserves the kind of surprisingly varied palette Fellini employs. While Juliet of the Spirits is rightly remembered for its amazing use of color, it's actually interesting to note, for example, how often Giulietta and even some of the other characters can wear neutral colors, while all around them everything from blossoms to furniture can be almost candy colored. The pastels in this transfer are especially evocative (the scene in the park circa the 25 minute mark is a nice example). Detail levels are generally excellent throughout and grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation.

Juliet of the Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Juliet of the Spirits features an LPCM Mono track that can reveal just a little crackle and a slightly bright higher end in music, but which otherwise is nicely balanced. While it may be more subliminal than the visual side of things, the sound design of this film is psychedelic in its own way, with weird, anachronistic flourishes and layering, and while obviously narrow, this mono track delivers dialogue cleanly and clearly, with good support for effects. Optional English subtitles are available.

Juliet of the Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Toby Dammit (HD; 43:31) is Federico Fellini's contribution to the 1968 omnibus project Spirits of the Dead, which was comprised of three shorts based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe (kind of incredibly, the other two parts were directed by Roger Vadim and Louis Malle). This stars Terence Stamp and is based on Poe's "Never Bet the Devil Your Head".


• Fellini: A Director's Notebook (HD; 51:48) is an hour long documentary for producer Peter Goldfarb and NBC in 1969. This is a 2019 restoration of the film by the Cineteca di Bologna. The Submenu for this feature also contains a link to Fellini Letter (HD), a series of text frames reproducing a 1968 letter from Fellini to Goldfarb.


• Reporter's Diary: "Zoom on Fellini" (HD; 33:16) is a tv episode showing Fellini at work on Juliet of the Spirits. Subtitled in English.


• Familiar Spirits (HD; 21:30) features Ian Dallas interviewing Fellini for a 1966 BBC series called New Release.


• Trailer (HD; 2:32)

Juliet of the Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While a Look Magazine article on Fellini actually provides some supplemental information included on Fellini Satyricon, another major United States weekly publication featured Fellini a couple of years before Look did. For some reason which is still completely unclear to me, I started collecting Saturday Evening Post magazines when I was a little boy, and ended up getting some very early issues from the late 19th and early 20th century, but also more contemporary editions, which included a January 1966 issue that had a cover story on Fellini and Juliet of the Spirits, which is probably the first time I had ever really heard the name Fellini or seen images from any of his films. That kind of admittedly weird childhood connection has always made this a special Fellini film for me personally, but even for those without a certain nostalgic tether, Fellini's wonderful if frequently bizarre showcase for his wife is incredibly colorful in more than one way. Technical merits are generally solid (video probably a bit more than audio), and the supplements on this disc in particular are really outstanding. Highly recommended.