FAQ

Ever smiling, Giulietta Boldrini (Giulietta Masina) appears to be happy with her beautiful house by the ocean and her emotionally-distant husband Giorgio (Mario Pisu), whom she loves implicitly...until Giulietta begins to suspect that Giorgio is in love with someone else. With the help of a private detective, her sexy and eccentric neighbor Suzy (Sandra Milo), her memories, plus various spirits and demons, Giulietta must learn to face her own independence.

Juliet of the Spirits is a surrealistic Italian movie based on a story by film director Federico Fellini and screenwriter Tulio Pinelli. Fellini and Pinelli worked their story into a screenplay along with fellow screenwriters Ennio Flaiano and Brunello Rondi. The movie won a Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1966.

After failing to speak with Gabriella face-to-face, Giulietta returns home to find Giorgio packing for his trip to Milan with Gabriella. Calmly, but without her usual smile, she makes him a snack. Giorgio senses something distant in Giulietta's demeanor and warns her that there has been some 'malicious gossip' about him seeing another woman. Eventually, he admits that he has a 'profound relationship' and requests space until he can figure things out. He kisses Giulietta before he leaves, but she does not respond. After some strained goodbyes, Giorgio leaves. Giulietta closes a window, sits down, and cries while the spirits call to her to join them. She seems to consider doing that, just has her friend Laura killed herself after a failed love. She tries to curl up in bed with a book, but the spirit of her mother appears. She asks for help, but her mother says only to stay there and obey her. 'You don't scare me anymore,' Giulietta replies and walks into another vision in which she releases herself as the child martyr on the burning pyre. As the spirits begin to fade away, Giulietta goes out into the yard where she sees the spirit of her grandfather about to fly away in his airplane. She asks him to take her with him, but he reminds her that she is alive and doesn't need him any more. In the final scene, Giulietta walks out the front gate, takes a deep breath, smiles broadly, hears her 'real' friends call to her, and keeps on walking.

Italian film writer and director Federico Fellini [1920-1993] made numerous movies during his career. A few of his more well-known movies include La dolce vita (1960) (1960), in which a young man tries to choose between becoming a playboy or a serious journalist, 8½ (1963) (1963), considered to be an autobiographical film, and Fellini Satyricon (1969) (1969), based on the book Satyricon by Gaius Petronius [c. 27-66 AD], a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero.