Histoires extraordinaires / Spirits of the Dead (1968)

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Histoires extraordinaires / Spirits of the Dead (1968)

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Histoires extraordinaires / Spirits of the Dead (1968)

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Roger Vadim's "Metzengerstein" is incredibly beautiful. It was shot around great-looking, crumbling oceanfront castles and is remarkably photographed, costumed and scored, it's just a shame the core plotting is so weak. The evil Baroness Frederique (Jane Fonda, the directors wife at the time) is an insatiable tyrant who presides over orgies and sadistic, dehumanizing games. When she destroys a pure soul, her distant cousin Wilhelm (Peter Fonda), horses and fire play a key role in her demise.

"William Wilson," by Louis Malle, is an entertaining reworking of the old doppelganger theme starring Alain Delon as a pure lout AND his better half, a exact copy who drives him crazy by putting a halt to his evil impulses. Odd story structure here and Brigitte Bardot (in a black wig) is good support during a fateful card game. And then comes the really good stuff.

"Toby Dammit" (released separately as "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"), a brilliant and sometimes chilling piece of enigmatic film-making from Federico Fellini. Terence Stamp is a marvel of facial expressions as boozy, obnoxious British movie star Toby Dammit, who falls apart at the seems upon arriving in Italy to start production on a Western reworking of the story of Christ. Instead he becomes imprisoned in his own personal hell. In every possible technical department, this segment is a triumph and the creepy finale (borrowing a key image from Mario Bava's KILL, BABY, KILL!) has lost absolutely none of its impact.

The score by Nino Rota and cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno deserve special recognition, as well.

IMDB Reviewer

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The Taormina Film Fest is proud to present Federico Fellini's Toby Dammit with the film's brilliant colors restored to their original chromatic values by Giuseppe Rotunno, one of Italy's greatest cinematographers and restorers, who began his long artistic association with Fellini on this film. This brand-new print-from the collection of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, courtesy of Alberto Grimaldi Productions-was struck especially for the upcoming Taormina Film Fest and is being presented at the Tribeca Film Festival in a special preview screening by Ornella Muti and Sergio Toffetti, director of the CinetecaNazionale in Rome. The invaluable contribution of the Ornella Muti Network to this project marks the first time an Italian actor has invested in the preservation of a classic Italian film.

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The creative conjunction of Fellini and Edgar Allan Poe had been in the works for some time before Toby Dammit, part of a three-episode film released in the United States as Spirits of the Dead in 1968. While the segments by Louis Malle and Roger Vadim are minor works, Fellini's is a brilliant miniature, recapping many themes of La Dolce Vita in a darker key. Relying on a summary of Poe's short story Never Bet the Devil Your Head, Fellini chose to keep only the original ending. The hero becomes an alcoholic British actor (Terence Stamp) who flies to Rome to shoot a movie. He becomes embroiled in what is possibly the greatest send-up ever of movie award ceremonies and ends the evening with the keys to a brand new Ferrari in his hands. In ghostly makeup, the handsomely surreal Stamp gives one of the signature performances of his career.

Tribeca Film Festival

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

MovieMartyr.com

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This film in stunning. It is a throw back to the silent era and then goes beyond Alien, Blade Runner, Seconds and …..
The characters' anguish, the directors' effects and the all around talent combined with the varying tales excels. "Toby Dammit" is the real keeper, the other 2 stories set the awesome, tragic stage that is life and death. Toby finishes it off.
It's all here: God, the devil, age, time, morality and everything they have in common…. Whether we like it or not.
Judge for yourself, but I see Fellini, Scott, Romero, Lucas, Barker and Ford in here. And yes, a touch of Elvis Presley, Lux Interior, Lon Chaney, Jayne Mansfield and John Waters to boot!

Amazon.com

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Special Features:
- French trailer
- Gallery
- Booklet (in German only)