Rent Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Freedom in Feathers - Juliet of the Spirits review by griggs

Married to a man she barely knows and haunted by a childhood spent being taught to be good, Juliet drifts through her days until a séance, a suspicious husband and the spectacularly louche neighbour Suzy start pulling the wallpaper off her life. Fellini’s first colour feature is built like someone handed a subconscious an unlimited costume budget: memories, fantasies, religious shame and erotic panic bleed into one another until “did that actually happen?” becomes a question I kept asking — before realising it was the wrong one.

Almost none of it is about what happens. It’s about what Juliet feels is happening, which turns out to be a lifetime of being quietly erased by marriage, religion and everyone who taught her obedience was a virtue. Suzy isn’t the answer. She’s another fantasy trap: freedom in feathers.

Gorgeous, maddening, and about twenty minutes too in love with itself, Juliet of the Spirits still lands. Not one to half-watch. Pay attention or surrender early.

Fellini's "Surrealism" at its Best - Juliet of the Spirits review by CP Customer

My favourite Fellini film, in which his "surrealism" is at its most explicit. Don't worry about the plot (thin at best, and its so-called Jungian resolution hardly matters). Instead concentrate on the images (that, at first, accuse and terrorize Juliet) - it doesn't matter if she reaches emotional emancipation, the journey being better than the destination.