Number 149 - AKA Holy crap I finally got this done - I don't think I've done an in-order release in months - as usual, this was facilitated by the spouse being out of town but I think it still took a restart and 3 viewings.
I've made no secret of the fact I'm hit or miss with Fellini although I find Giulietta Masina (his wife and longtime collaborator) enjoyable in any film. I guess this was Fellini's first color film, and the one after 8 1/2. There's a lot of stuff said and implied here that Fellini is acting out here. Some say he's projecting his own desires for a mistress and affair in here. In fact, I think it's the same mistress from 8 1/2 - same actress, that is.
It's an interesting story about a bored housewife who after a seance, begins having increasingly and bizarre spiritual visions. Near the end it starts to become a colorful horror story, with the director clearly relishing the new palate he can paint with - All I can really say is, it was somewhat entertaining but I felt overall plot and direction a bit vague. I think Ebert said that this is considered his last great film and the decline starts from here with the exception of Amacord. I confess I have yet to find any fault with this statement having seen at least 5 of his films now in the first 149. That's probably more than any other director up to this point except maybe Kurosawa.
Anyhow I hope to ramp things back up again - we have some interesting documentaries coming up, some french heist films, and I think I can probably start up again without the twitter account which I felt compelled to delete because of the douchebag that bought Twitter.
This is mostly for my own thoughts anyways.
RB
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