SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, Federico Fellini
Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Alain Delon,
Brigitte Bardot, Terence Stamp
A trilogy of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations by three very different European filmmakers. The first episode, Vadim's "Metzengerstein", has Jane Fonda modeling a "Barbarella"-style wardrobe and obsessing over a wild black horse. It's eye candy, silly and disposable. Call it the appetizer. The second segment, Malle's "William Wilson", stars Alain Delon as a sadistic medical-student-turned-soldier haunted and hounded by a doppelgänger who turns up at the most inopportune times (though not in time to prevent Delon from flogging Brigitte Bardot). It's the most coherent of the three stories, and probably the closest to Poe. Call it the soup. In the third piece, Fellini's "Toby Dammit", Terence Stamp plays an alcoholic movie star entranced by a spooky-looking girl in a white dress. It's, well, it's Fellini, a hallucination come to life. Call it the dessert, if a severed head is your idea of dessert. There is no main course.
