There's that moment when you're very exhausted before sleep, maybe you're intoxicated or just overworked and underloved. Vivid images surface in the mind's eye. That's Juliet of the Spirits. Fellini touches the senses with both hands -- playing with light and color, things appear unexpectedly, and right when you expect them, they vanish. Everything moves quickly, with opulence.The eponymous Juliet lives a comfortable financial life, but that's about all that's comfortable. Her mom is a certified ice queen and her dad is a nut. Women around her are always losing weight at the behest of "directors", she has a blonde neighbor who oozes sex and all Juliet wants is to get the glow back in her eyes. Her husband, though good-natured enough, is busy and distracted, and worse, he says the name of another woman while sleeping -- the haunting syllables, "Gabriella".Then, Bishma, a clairvoyant, rolls into town. Juliet is summoned to Bishma alone with the question of her husband's fidelity. I had high hopes for the Bishma, but they turned out to be kind of a sub-par prophet, telling Juliet that she needs to please her husband better and suggesting a pair of black fishnets. Juliet holds her own until she loses it and starts having visions of pulse-quickening women in ceiling swings and atop horses. She does get a heartening omen upon her final exit from Bishma's pad: "a good and beautiful change will come tonight".Turns out Bishma is not the false prophet one might have thought. A handsome stranger shows up in Juliet's garden and prepares an elixir -- sangria -- which the Bishma name dropped in their final word. Juliet finds a cat with a bow around it's neck. She adopts some artistic, spiritual and sexual advisors who make her ride bikes through the rain. Her visions grow ever more powerful. She experiences things; she gets liberated.Juliet of the Spirits is a circus. You're in for tons of delightfully frilly headgear, impertinent canoodling, quoting of Lorca, private investigators, catholic-guilt-driven apparitions and magic telescopes. Very nice on the eyes.

This is in fact the first Fellini feature film that I've watched. Basically i was expecting a weird and psychological film, and it delivered exactly what i was expecting plus an excellent soundtrack and great cinematography. It's a work of a genius in my opinion. It has a very slow start, but it is very important, because it shows how 'boring' and sad the life of the protagonist is and how her life works. She is a repressed woman, who never had any liberties on hislife because of the rigid authoritarian education that their parents raised her into. And the story really starts when she started to become suspicious of her husband, that probably is in an extramarital affair. And the story just became weirder and weirder at each scene. But then is also when you start to really get the meaning of all the crazy hallucinations.What i found fantastic was the way the hallucinations are presented in the film. The editing is purposely made in a way that we can't distinguish what is fantasy and what is really happening in the life of Julliete. Just after a while you really get what is happening. A different approach than in the other films of that subject, which made clear to the viewer what is real and what is pure fantasy created by the character. The cinematography and art direction are phenomenal. The beauty and the horror in the images are at same time fascinating and repulsive. Unbelievable. A work of a master, i must say. Because it's exactly what the protagonist think about the images as well. At the same time she wanted to live in the luxury, sinful way, but she as well learned that this kind of life it's wrong and despicable. The soundtrack by the great Nino Rota just adds to it, of course. Definitely a work of art! 9.6/10

The much underestimated and overshadowed by other masterpieces by Federico Fellini,"Juliet and the Spirits" is , nevertheless, another landmark in the brilliant career of Fellini himself and his wonderful wife, staunch supporter and source of inspiration, Julietta Masina. She plays a role of an ideal wife: devoted to home , caring and loving companion,loyal ( to the extreme)spouse,etc.But the point is, she always feels inferior to those , who surround her,be it her beautiful, but iceberg-cold mother,her glamorous sisters,or just people with whom she rubs shoulders.More than that, everyone tries to "help" her with advice to enjoy life to the fullest, to try something new and exciting, etc. And she tries her best to change herself, to be on par with her companions, and she does not realize that she is ten times better than all of them.Their lives are empty and fake ( even the way they hug and kiss each other when parting is the best example), and she is , though naive and simple,quite real. At last she leaves that world of hypocrisy, liberating her true self, shedding the bonds of illusory marriage and fake friendships.

I have a lot of admiration for Federico Fellini and his films. His style is not for everybody, people will find it fascinating complete with beautiful visuals, a personal and nostalgic sense of storytelling and characters that are not what they seem on first glance, but others may find him/them self-indulgent or dull. While I can understand the latter viewpoint, I belong in the those who find him/them fascinating camp.Juliet of the Spirits is not my favourite Fellini film. My pick for best is between La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, though I also give Nights of Cabiria a big shout out for being the film that resonated with me the most emotionally. Amarcord and La Strada are also splendid. In fact of the nine films seen so far(including this, Casanova, Roma and Satyricon) even my least favourite so far, Satyricon which I found his weirdest film and a little disjointed, have many points of merit.A perfect film? Not quite for me. I did feel that a few scenes did feel less focused than others in terms of tone and that a couple dragged. Then again, like with all Fellinis, I think a couple of re-watches might do the trick.But Juliet of the Spirits has many things to admire about it. While not all the scenes worked entirely for me, I found the mix of dreams, Jungian psychology, spiritualism and astrology very interesting, if perhaps not as spellbinding to watch as 8 1/2, and much more even and less jumpy in structure than Satyricon. The characters I was at least engaged with, I didn't quite identify the whole step of the way with the titular character completely like with Nights of Cabiria and La Strada, but again unlike Casanova I didn't find her a detached character either.Visually, Juliet of the Spirits is stunning. The use of vibrant colours, beautiful settings and colourful costumes are as ever a feast for the eyes. Fellini's direction is overall superb, the films I cited as my favourites in the first paragraph, as well as Roma, had more of a personal and nostalgic value, but the sense of craftsmanship and care that goes in every film of his I've seen really shines through here. Nino Rota's score is bright, characterful and not too obtrusive.Giulietta Masina is a big part of why Juliet of the Spirits works very well on the whole. Her ever expressive face makes for a both spirited and moving performance. The supporting cast support her well. All in all, an interesting and very good film if falling short just of greatness. 8/10 Bethany Cox