Or is it so?Because if the first sketch (it's a movie made of three of them)is poesque,then my dog can speak English.Roger Vadim,one of the most overrated French directors,casts the Fonda family (Jane,his then-wife and Peter) as cousins(sic).It's the Middle Ages,folks,and Dame Jane is making it rough all over.Needless to say,from the short story "Metzengerstein",nothing is preserved except a beautiful horse .Only Claude Renoir's splendid color cinematography redeems this one a little.Louis Malle rarely treads on fantasy films ,the exceptions being "black moon" and his sketch here "William Wilson".Poë's short story was very austere,some kind of stream of consciousness.Hence the necessity to add spice to the screenplay:so we have a dissection-scene-with-nudity,and,to top it all ,Brigitte Bardot herself,in a role that was not intended for her in the first place,but for Italian model Florinda Bolkan.The results are so-so,Alain Delon is not poesque at all,and Malle's style cannot generate a doomed atmosphere .Fellini wins hands down.Instead of adapting his style to Poë,he adapted Poë to HIS style,finding astonishing equivalents,with an end of the world feeling,and a smiling and scary little girl playing with a ball.Terence Stamp("Tobby Dammit") easily outclasses the rest of the cast of the three sketches put together.
Review of Spirits of the Dead
