Spirits
of the Dead (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, Federico Fellini) 1967
Spirits
of the Dead, a
handsomely mounted 1967 film that features three segments from three European
giants (Vadim, Malle, and Fellini) all based on Edgar Allen Poe short stories.
The third segment, Fellini’s Toby Dammit, is so incredibly different and dense
when compared to the other two that you almost forget you’ve watched an
anthology by the time the film ends. His work here is as good as he’s ever
been visually, and the world that he creates perfectly represents the inner
turmoil of the self-destructive actor Toby Dammit (Terrance Stamp). The director
presents his typical circus or parade; whichever you want to call it, and this
time it shows the world of the celebrity in modern day Rome. It’s obviously
been liberally adapted from the original Poe story, and it’s only nominally a
horror tale (Toby is stalked by a Björk-ish devil figure), but the film
transcends any generic or authorial labels: it’s purely Fellini’s, and at a
little over forty minutes long it doesn’t burn out the audience in the way
that his longer pageants tend to.
The
other two segments are certainly solid, even if they might not top Fellini’s
work with sheer panache. Vadim’s piece is the better of the remainder, and it
features Jane and Peter Fonda as feuding cousins. This is the most overtly
supernatural segment of the trio, and even it feels somewhat subdued when
compared to modern ghost stories. Jane Fonda is excellent in her role, and she
brings a combination of refinement and haughtiness to the part that vitalizes
the character. Like all of the film, this bit of the film is well shot, but
Vadim’s captured some gorgeous outdoor scenery, whereas the others take place
mostly indoors. The tale itself is spooky enough, and the running time feels
sufficient. The only real negative mark here is that the film resorts to a
slightly jarring voiceover narration here to fill in background details.
Malle’s segment is likable enough, but it feels somewhat slighter than the
other two. Its gambling scene evokes Kubrick’s Barry
Lyndon (just as the driving sequences in the Fellini segment recall A
Clockwork Orange), even if Spirits
was made several years earlier, and there is genuine tension aroused at the card
table. Throughout the film, there is a relatively low gore quotient, and the
acting is uniformly solid. As far
as psychological horror goes, the films work well, and that they realize Poe’s
stories were mainly internalized distortions of the world works to their
advantage, even as they approach the material in vastly different ways.
***1/2
12-04-01
Jeremy
Heilman
