SPIRITS
OF THE DEAD (1967)Directors: Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini
Home Vision Cinema
SPIRITS
OF THE DEAD (1967)Cocinor (Paris) and P.E.A. (Rome) Co-Production, 1967. Released in the United States by American-International Pictures in 1968 as SPIRITS OF THE DEAD. Duration: 121 minutes. French language with English subtitles.
Home Vision Entertainment has just released to DVD one of the finest trilogy of terror features of all time. Known in France, its country of origin as HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES ("Tales of the Extraordinary") and in Italy as TRE PASSI NEL DELIRIO ("Three Steps into Madness") it was directed by the superhuman auteurs of cinema Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini.
The confusing circumstances behind HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES are almost worthy of a film itself. Imagine going to see Fellini and pitching an idea of filming Edgar Allan Poe as a trilogy paying tribute to his skill as a short story writer by making three of his tales into one film. The legend is that Fellini was told the other two directors would be Bergman and Welles. Fellini accepted immediately. By the time the project was completed, Louis Malle took the place of Bergman and Roger Vadim was brought on board as he promised the historic pairing of Jane and Peter Fonda. This guaranteed an American distributor just as Brigitte Bardot would guarantee the European sales.
Hard as it is to believe, Fellini had no box office draw in his native Italy or any guarantee of sales except for the United States and France.
Fellini's segment was to have starred Peter O'Toole and the actor kept the director on the hook until days before filming. Terence Stamp came at the very last minute mainly because he was already in Rome working on Passolini's TEOREMA.
Fellini was never told about Vadim and when asked by the press he would always say it was Bergman, pretending the Vadim segment didn't exist.
METZENGERSTEIN
Director: Roger Vadim. Screenplay: Roger Vadim, Pascal Cousin, Clement Biddlewood.
Story by Edgar Allen POE ("Metzengerstein"). Camera: Claude Renoir.
Music: Jean Prodromides. Fashions: Jacques Fonteray. Duration: 38 minutes.
Cast: Jane Fonda (Countess Frederique), Peter Fonda (Baron Wilhelm of Berlifitzing), James Robert Justice (Advisor to Countess), Francoise Prevost (Friend of Countess), Serge Marquand (Hugues).
The visual brilliance and style of Roger Vadim is in full display here. The tale commences in medieval France with Countess Frederique (a great portrayal by Jane Fonda) as a spoiled, willful princess having fits of temper in the halls of her castle by the sea. Having inherited a fortune from her family, her arrogance becomes outrageous. Her subjects are her playthings and her corrupt and vile ways, her ruthless cruelty are indeed worthy of a female Caligula. At a lavish banquet/orgy her friends lie about her palace enjoying decadent earthly pleasures. She then rides off along the seacoast to try and forget her loneliness and arrives on the grounds of her poor relation, the Baron Wilhelm of Berlifitzing (Peter Fonda). She secretly covets her cousin Wilhelm, a handsome young man with blue eyes and thick chestnut hair. Indeed she is as captivated with him as he is repelled by her contemptability. While they ride their horses through beautiful forests, along lakes and into ravines she is barely able to contain her lust for him. His stable of two horses is his joy but this is short-lived as it goes up in flames. However, not two but three noble animals ride out to safety. Frederique is informed that Baron Wilhelm perished in the fire and the Countess is saddened, deeply wounded by the news. However the third horse (which no one can identify) holds a fascination for Frederique. The spirit of Wilhelm now transferred to the unknown horse, she rides the animal along the seacoast at every opportunity. She continues to ride the horse for eternity as her punishment.
The cinematography of Claude Renoir is sumptuous and magical as the French locales used in the shooting. The lilting flute melodies of Jean Prodromides add medieval luster and feel to the story. Together with the fashion palette this is certainly the most visually compelling story of the three tales.
In the book The Films of Jane Fonda by George Haddad-Garcia quotes the actress, "It was not our intention to 'titillate' this way, and in Europe, at least, no one took it like that. Not that I'm against incest, but our style is more direct. When the time comes for incest we will do it head on and leave the titillating for others. Give us credit, at least, for honesty."
Haddad-Garcia also quotes John Simon, then of the New York Times with the following salvo, "There may be worse filmmakers than Vadim, but no one can surpass him in spiritual rottenness. His is a megalomaniacal interior decorator's world inhabited by campy marionettes. His orgiasts have sawdust in their heads, veins and glands, and Vadim, for all his sexual shadowboxing, cannot even rise to that nadir of eroticism, dishonest titillation."
WILLIAM WILSON
Director: Louis Malle. Screenplay: Louis Malle, Clement Biddlewood and Daniel
Boulanger. Story by Edgar Allan Poe ("William Wilson.") Camera: Tonino
Delli Colli. Music: Diego Masson. Duration: 36 minutes.
Cast: William Wilson (Alain Delon), Brigitte Bardot (Giuseppina), Marco Stefanelli (Wilson as Child), Renzo Palmer (Priest), Daniele Vargas (Professor).
The segment begins with a handsome young officer, William Wilson (Alain Delon), running through narrow streets as the image of a similarly dressed man falls to his death from atop a bell tower. Wilson flees into the sanctuary of a church and demands the priest hear his confession. He admits to having murdered another person and begins to recount his bizarre tale that the viewer sees presented in flashback.
Beginning in military school as a little boy, his penchant for sadism begins to blossom. He commits numerous acts of cruelty upon his fellow students. Even punishment for his acts doesn't stop his commission of evil deeds. Very much like the youths of Schloendorf's YOUNG TOERLESS (1966), the child is a virtual Nazi-in-the-making. He even attempts to strangle a classmate in his dormitory but is caught in the act and stopped by his mirror image, his doppelganger.
Years later cadet Wilson is inside a lecture hall observing the dissection of a human being for an anatomy class. He laughs aloud as the first incision is about to be made. The professor reprimands Wilson and continues. Later that evening outside the academy, Wilson and his fellow cadets corner an attractive blond girl, teasing and taunting her. They humiliate her. Later on, in the same lecture hall, Wilson has tied her body down to a table in front of the other cadets to practice a lecture of his own. The cadets validate his cruelty with their interest in the proceedings as he frightens her with a sharp scalpel. Once more his doppelganger appears and stops him in his tracks but Wilson murders the girl anyway.
A few years later at a masquerade ball he appears in a gray officer's uniform trimmed in gold. There is much drinking and merriment going on. He stumbles upon the ravishingly beautiful brunette Giuseppina (Brigitte Bardot) playing cards with his superiors and peers in a salon adjoining the ballroom. Her arrogance and hauteur is equal to Wilson's and her first words are scorn and dismissiveness to the young officer. They challenge each other by playing cards and it appears that Wilson cannot be beaten. He then depletes her income at the table and with nothing more to wager, she reluctantly submits to his sadism by allowing him to whip her. At this point Wilson's double appears again and demonstrates how Wilson has been cheating throughout the game. He is immediately disgraced, stripped of his rank and ordered to leave the city at once.
Wilson then discovers that his double left his jeweled pocket watch on the card table. He examines it and then pulls his own pocket watch out only to discover they are identical. This discovery drives him over the edge and he runs after the lifelong source of his torment. Wilson challenges his double to a duel. The other William Wilson does not put up much resistance and is mortally wounded during the duel.
All this is being recounted to the priest who suggests he pray and seek absolution. Wilson decides he has had enough and tells the priest to go to hell. He then runs to the bell tower and falls to his death realizing too late that in killing his double he only succeeded in killing himself.
In Malle on Malle, edited by Philip French, the director noted, "I had a terrible time with Alain Delon, one of the most difficult actors I ever worked with -- probably THE most difficult actor I ever worked with." But he continues, "Well, he's always had this reputation. Delon, like a number of male actors, especially a number of American male stars, basically resents being directed. Very soon after that he became his own producer and started bossing everybody around. Also, I had great doubts about Delon's sincerity and talent. So we started having arguments and it became very difficult. I was irritable; I was basically very uncomfortable."
Made and shot in Bergamo in northern Italy because the production had to be filmed on Italian locations, the piece is lovingly photographed by Tonino Delli Colli who employs fluid camera movements and is superbly edited. Set design is lush and rich as are the costumes.
Malle continues, "I wanted to cast Florinda Bolkan, who was very beautiful, very enigmatic and hadn't then worked in films. But she was unknown and the producers did not want her. After we'd started shooting they came to me and said, 'What about Bardot?' I'd heard that Bardot was away somewhere on a cruise and was so convinced that she wouldn't be available that I said, 'Sure, why not?' However, she'd had a row with her boyfriend and come back to Paris, and she said, 'Oh, I'd love to work again with Louis and Alain Delon.' So I was stuck. I tried to do what I could -- putting her in a dark wig and so on. But it was terrible casting, unforgivable. But somehow, the casting of Delon worked -- because the anger he had against me served the character -- and I made sure I kept him angry all the way through!"
TOBY DAMMIT
Director: Federico Fellini. Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi.
Story: Edgar Allen POE ("Never Bet the Devil Your Head"). Camera:
Giuseppe Rotunno. Music: Nino Rota. Duration: 37 minutes.
Cast: Terence Stamp (Toby Dammit), Salvo Randone (Father Spagna), Antonia Pietrosi (Actress), Polidor (Old Actor), Anne Tonietti (TV Commentator), Fabrizio Angeli (First Director), Ernesto Colli (Second Director), Aleardo Ward (First Interviewer), Paul Cooper (Second Interviewer), Marina Yaru (Little Girl/The Devil), Marisa Traversi, Rick Boyd, Mimmo Poli, Brigitte.
When originally approached to do the above project (based upon Poe's tale "Never Bet the Devil Your Head") the immortal Federico was fully prepared to suggest another director, namely Mario Bava. Fellini delivers in 37 minutes the psychedelic delirium of a hopelessly alcoholic/addict actor portrayed by Terence Stamp in an over-the-top, multi-layered performance of a lifetime. Commencing with Stamp's arrival at Da Vinci Airport in Rome, melodiously infused with a never-ending parade of nuns, strange faces and Arabs bowing to Mecca during his arrival, to the interview of said actor on Italian television to its tormented conclusion in which Dammit demands (and receives) a Ferrari in return for his appearance. In a shattering, wild conclusion the actor plunges to his death over a great chasm as he races the Ferrari through a wire barricade that severs his head from his body.
Stamp's professional accomplishments are beyond criticism as one of the great living legends of our time sacrificing himself to the muse of art in this work, the showcase of an actor crippled by his own self-absorbed, delusional, monolithic ego. This is Magister Fellini working his unique magic and personal cinematic alchemy and rates as one of his finest efforts ever. This segment is pure LSD and the ultimate and final word on damnation, self-destruction and the artist. The motif of the devil as a little girl with the bouncing ball, a direct homage to Bava's child in OPERAZIONE: PAURA (KILL BABY, KILL) is breathlessly unforgettable. Nino Rota's light, playful score reminiscent of a carnival will haunt and dazzle every viewer. A work of art that will stand as testimony to Fellini forever!
TOBY DAMMIT has withstood the test of time to become, next to LA DOLCE VITA and 8 1/2 as Fellini's greatest achievement. Film buffs have long argued over the merits of the other two segments. The Louis Malle piece is historic for the pairing of Delon and Bardot and critics have always been kind to it. However, Roger Vadim's opening segment has never received any praise and stood with films like CANDY and BARBARELLA as little more than an exercise in excess and an example of psychedelic decadence.
Hearing the two sequences in French makes those parts the best they would ever sound and appear. However, Terence Stamp should be voiced in his own Cockney accent. If only this version carried the voice track in English it would be perfect. This presentation, letterboxed at 1:78.1 with anamorphic enhancement, has far superior color, definition and clarity to the former Water Bearer version (released by Image on DVD), but the later's vocal track is better employed. Perhaps someday this film will be presented once again in an improved version.
The rather pedestrian, violet-tinted cover art is compensated by the attractive French poster art, included on the inlay booklet (which also includes an essay by Nathan Rabin). Fans of the film that miss the American-International dubbed version (which also includes a prologue by Vincent Price) will want to hold on to their Walter Bearer disc, but Home Vision's version is clearly the better presentation of the film. (Christopher Dietrich)