Spirits of the Dead is an intense, surreal, sexy, stylish, fever dream of a film. Based on three short stories by Edgar Allen Poe, it’s an anthology film as three different casts and directors take on the three tales. Released in Europe in 1968 and the USA in 1969, the film is a who’s who of swinging 60’s cinema. The film stars Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot, and Terence Stamp. The directors were Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini.
Whether you like the film or not, you’ll be dazzled by the exquisite costumes and sets, and the very pretty people you get to watch. Here are my thoughts about the three stories.
Metzengerstein, starring Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda, directed by Roger Vadim. This story was filmed just after the terrific campy space movie Barbarella, also starring Jane Fonda and directed by Roger Vadim, her husband at the time. Side note: Vadim was married to Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda. In between those marriages, Vadim had a relationship with Catherine Deneuve. I don’t know if I’m more impressed that Roger Vadim was with these three amazing women, or if I’m more annoyed at him for not making the relationships work out.
This segment was the slowest of the three. But Fonda’s wardrobe is amazing, full of gorgeous and sexy costumes. If you get bored, you can just start counting her costume changes.
Fonda’s character is a young countess who pursues a life of indulgent pleasure. Fonda’s brother Peter plays her cousin—their families have been feuding for centuries, but she feels an inexorable pull towards him. Having Peter Fonda play this role was a great choice, as it lends the story the requisite oddness/creepy factor.
The story loses steam halfway through, and the ending isn’t a surprise, although there’s still lovely scenery to enjoy.
William Wilson, starring Alain Delon and Brigitte Bardot, directed by Louis Malle. It’s Alain Delon and Brigitte Bardot, and they both look super hot. What more do you need to know?
The story concerns a man named William Wilson who encounters another man who is also named William Wilson. This other Wilson haunts him throughout his life, as their lives run on parallel tracks. This continues the theme of doubles or doppelgangers in Delon’s movies, which is a major theme in Purple Noon, La Piscine, and Mr. Klein. (Side note: Maurice Ronet, who played characters who mirrored or doubled Delon’s characters in Purple Noon and La Piscine, provided the French narration for the Fonda/Vadim segment.)
The kinky sadomasochism that was an undertone in the first story is brought to the forefront in this story. Delon’s character is extremely sadistic—he would have been a formidable match for Fonda’s countess. It’s always effective when directors used Delon’s good looks to play a character who is morally corruptible. (See also: Purple Noon, Le Samourai.)
The highlight of this segment is seeing two icons of French cinema, Alain Delon and Brigitte Bardot, on screen at the same time. Delon and Bardot never made a full movie together, which is a shame, but they also appeared together in 1961’s anthology film Famous Love Affairs. Bardot and Delon were good friends, and their chemistry together in Spirits of the Dead is electric. They don’t need words; they just need smoldering glances across the table as their characters play cards. What card game are they playing? I don’t even know. It doesn’t matter.
Bardot’s part is difficult to play, as there’s really not much for her to work with. What you need in that scene is a female who can match Delon’s charisma and star power. You need that scene to be a battle of equals, between two giants, and Bardot delivers. Even with an unfortunate black wig.
I don’t know if William Wilson was my favorite segment of the movie, but I really liked the creepy, unsettling aspect of the story, and Delon’s excellent performance.
Toby Dammit, starring Terence Stamp, directed by Federico Fellini. Terence Stamp was one of the coolest guys ever. He shared a flat with Michael Caine, before they both rose to stardom. He dated Julie Christie and supermodel Jean Shrimpton. His brother Chris Stamp managed The Who. He was living at an ashram in India when the call came to play General Zod in Superman. Terence Stamp simply had style.
I can’t quite get over the fact that the name of Stamp’s character is Toby Dammit. This is also the name of the character in the Poe story this segment is based on. I want to put a comma in there, to make it a sentence: “Toby, dammit!”
Toby is an actor, and as the segment begins, he’s flying into Rome to make a spaghetti Western. Part of his payment for the movie is a new Ferrari. Call it surreal, call it expressionistic, but it’s not a surprise that Fellini’s segment would take place in a kind of heightened reality, where even the Rome airport seems to be merely a film set.
I interpreted Toby Dammit to be a satirical commentary on celebrity, specifically modern film celebrity. Everyone wants something from Toby; everyone acts as though everything he says is vitally important. While in reality, he’s an alcoholic actor who is terrifyingly close to a nervous breakdown. Maybe Fellini is saying “Film actors are normal people, we should treat them like normal people.”
Fellini shows us the parts of film celebrity that are ancillary to the work itself. We don’t see Toby on the set of his new movie, instead we see Toby on a TV talk show, and at an awards show. These are the obligations of the modern film celebrity. In addition to performing on the film set, Toby also has to perform in front of the camera at these events as well.
Stamp, nattily attired in jaunty black scarf and purple velvet pants, nails the part, even with his black hair dyed blonde, and he captures the duality of Toby: he always looks as though he’s either about to drive off into the night with a supermodel on each arm, or pass out at his table from too much Johnnie Walker red label.
At the awards show, the producers beseech Toby to offer a short speech, “Something from Shakespeare. But short.” He offers the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy from Macbeth. It ends with the famous line about life: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Toby stops, never finishing the last two words of the speech, as he talks about his own personal problems before crawling back to his seat.
Because Toby cannot accept love when it is offered to him by the woman who whispers in his ear at the awards show, he instead chooses the path of self-destruction. When Toby obtains his gorgeous Ferrari after the awards show, we know he’s on the road to oblivion. The Ferrari, by the way, was custom built for the film. Originally a 1963 racing Ferrari 330 chassis, the body was modified, but modeled after the 1964 Ferrari 275 P. Fitting with the vibe of the whole movie, the car is both sexy and alluring, but also sinister and dangerous.
Spirits of the Dead is a movie that really needs to be seen to be experienced. Love it or hate it, it’s a visual treat of 1960’s European cinema.
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