Spirits of the Dead is 1968 French film that's divided into three parts - esteemed directors Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini each direct a segment loosely based off of an Edgar Allen Poe story. In Vadim's third, called "Metzengerstein," Jane Fonda plays a debauched aristocrat (in an insane series of costumes) whose flirtation with a neighbor leads to horror...
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In Louis Malle's story, "William Wilson," the lovely Alain Delon -
- plays a total bastard whose quaint life of raping and torture becomes unraveled due to a mysterious double that has the audacity to keep interrupting his horrible deeds.
But it's Fellini's final third of the film that I really fell in love with. It tells the story of Toby Dammit, a hedonistic film star (played with frayed relish by a weirdly-never-sexier Terrence Stamp) whose alcoholism is getting the best... the worst... of him... visually it's one of the finest things I've ever seen come from Fellini, which is obviously saying a lot. The dream-like colors, the weird nightmarish descent that makes up the second half of it... it's arresting, to say the least.
Unfortunately I had some trouble with my copy of the film so I could only get screen-grabs from the first half - plus the quality is less than perfect - but I think these give you an idea of what weird and unsettling beauty the films holds...
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmwwOBJ6gI/AAAAAAAASiY/VLRuUWBRNQE/s400/tobydammit01.jpg)
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmwwcjotxI/AAAAAAAASig/r-NxZILBuHg/s400/tobydammit02.jpg)
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![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmxwtm05CI/AAAAAAAASjA/qge35qDMRWQ/s400/tobydammit04.jpg)
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmxv5bLoYI/AAAAAAAASi4/1Fe7BFSwl_w/s400/tobydammit03.6.jpg)
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmxwswPBBI/AAAAAAAASjI/bD_GwtjgiVA/s400/tobydammit05.jpg)
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmwwoTNPhI/AAAAAAAASiw/a0j32ppFxMo/s400/tobydammit03.5.jpg)
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmxxPwHWmI/AAAAAAAASjQ/1om8UKC-S00/s400/tobydammit06.jpg)
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/SRmxxky9nmI/AAAAAAAASjY/AQW3jBy3awo/s400/tobydammit07.jpg)
All of the images you see there are from at most about 20 minutes of film. Every shot is just magnificent, I swear. It's tough to find the film, but I highly recommend seeking it out if you can.
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3 comments:
READING MY MIND! I've been dying to see this forever.
It ran on TCM right around Halloween, rj, that was how I caught it. It sucks that Netflix doesn't have it. Do catch it when you can though, it's terrific.
This movie... my ma showed it to me when I was pretty small and Toby Dammit is was and always will be my favorite segment. Who knew that a little girl w/ a rubber ball could be so effectively creepy?
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