SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968) is more than just the best Edgar Allan Poe adaptation
Its a gateway drug to European New Wave cinema, which never forgets to idolise the great American writer, while having some weird relevance to motorcycle and car enthusiasts.
A week after I saw this 50 year old movie I was still buzzing. I'm not a hater of the other Poe movie adaptations.. but this forgotten European omnibus movie, by three genre resistant New Wave 1960s directors, covering only one of the well known Poe stories (William Wilson) still, for me, blows all the other Poe adaptations away.
Ostensibly an adaptation of the short story collection
Tales of Mystery and Imagination, it only gets to three of the tales and two of those are quite obscure. Doubtless they are away the major works are amply covered by Vincent Price and co. As Corman's Poe films were barely over an hour long, and these three segments are 40mins + each the are perhaps better regarded as a trilogy or even a mini-series rather then segmented parts of a whole.
They are;
(plots)
Roger Vadim's METZENGERSTEN : A Haunting, Erotic, Poe-etic precursor to Easy Rider
A sadistic European countess finds her cousin in a neighbouring dukedom is a moralistic man who melts her delusions of what life really is. When a jealous courtier arranges his death in a stable fire she adopts one of the surviving horses and develops an unhealthy obsession with it.
Metzengersten is completely Fondarific. This is the only movie in which brother and sister counter culture icons Jane and Peter Fonda appear together and they are both mesmerising for different reasons. Jane is completely convincing as an Elizabeth Bathory aristocratic sadist, Peter nails it as her enigmatic, moralist cousin.
It is slightly jarring initially seeing two iconic American actors in what is is apparently a very European set and told story, until you are forced to remember this is at heart an American tale told by an American writer. The presence of the Fonda's reminds us we are seeing Europe through the 19thC Bostonian's twisted prism.
It looks incredible. Vadim's stylish eroticism is on full show as as the leading actress is his wife of the time and it is comforting to know she is (presumably) happy with what she is asked to do. (Warning - some of this is soft core porn.) I've never seen Jane play the villain before and she is horribly convincing. Her eventual pangs of conscience are more affecting than Delon's similar evolution in the second installment.
Jane Fonda also shows off some pretty impressive horse wrangling skills in this movie. This is ironic.
While on the set for Spirits of the Dead, Peter Fonda and writer Terry Southern started working on a script would would eventually become
EASY RIDER.. and seen in that light the doomed ending to that classic movie does have more than a touch of Poe. That fact that obsessive riding, of horses and motorcycles, is a major plot point in both Metzengersten and Easy Rider seems more than coincidence.
Four years before Fonda's co-star in Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson, starred in the 1963 adaptation of another Poe film, The Raven. Two years later in 1970 a chopper riding Poe, with Lost Lenore and a Raven riding pillion, would feature in
Roger Corman's Gas-s-s-s.
Louie Malle's WILLIAM WILSON : Brunette Bardot's card sharp pricks the conscience of Delon's Doppleganger
In one of Poe's most famous tales, William Wilson (Alain Delon) is an immoral villain who cheats and abuses his way through life, but is haunted at every step by a person who appears to be an identical version of himself, who exposes every filthy murderous deed.
If Louis Malle's William Wilson is the least of the installments in the movie at least he has one of the most obsessive and haunting Poe stories, and he makes probably the best adaption of it.
The tiny cameo of Bridget Bardot gets big billing but she does make quite an impression. The card game is a centerpiece of the plot.
Federico Fellini's TOBY DAMMIT : Terence Stamp takes Withnail To Hell
A 1960's actor escaping from swinging London attends an awards ceremony in Rome's film city of Cinecitta. Terence Stamp's Toby Dammit is a man who has lost all respect or enthusiasm for the gift of life. Someone is waiting to relieve him of his burden.
By now, half way through this substantial movie, you are due for a light rest from period shenanigans and literary heavyweight adaption, and the prospect of another 45 mins might seem too much. And that's when you are hit right in the eyes by
Federico Fellini's absolutely dazzling, climatic segment.
Seeming to be barely any kind of Poe adaptation until the final shocking twist, this is a mesmerising riff on Rome in the swinging sixties, with a genuinely wasted looking Terence Stamp playing a role which would today be best described as
Withnail Goes to Hell.
Visually this is mindblowing and if you are as ignorant of the work of
Federico Fellini as I am you may feel a little ashamed at note paying more attention before. Vadim is obviously a great artist of scene and mood and Malle gets a lot from his actors but the only visual experience can compare to this final segment on an imaginative level is the best of Terry Gilliam or Wes Anderson.
This swinging, psychedelic bombardment has a real purpose - by the end you have completely forgotten it has any links to Poe, making the final reminder all the more effective.
It opens with an obviously LSD affected English actor (Stamp) trying to process his arrival at an Italian airport.
The only hint here of a Poe theme is that Stamp might have some kind of death wish. An addled Stamp then has to deal with an increasingly bizarre Italian movie awards ceremony which to be fair would shake anyone's grip on reality. (I'm sure the director is delivering a lot of well aimed digs at his own movie industry here)
And then the end arrives, and you recall this is a Poe adaption with one of the most genuinely shocking twists I've seen in some time.
Final notes
Terence Stamp shows off some pretty impressive car wrangling skills in this movie.
I can only assume hefty danger insurance was in place for Stamp and Fonda as they both push their respective horses and car as far as it will safely go. An alternative take on Spirits of The Dead is that Jane Fonda and Stamp took these largely unhindered by Hollywood safety regs movie roles just to make their stunt doubles in Hollywood up their game. (Delon in his story, doesn't have this level of danger but does have to deal with Bardot).
Based on the end you would think Ferrari drivers would worship this movie like VANISHING POINT or BULLIT. Perhaps Ferrari drivers just aren't the all knowing cognoscenti of fashion and style that out bling obsessed culture makes them out to be. The
Golden Ferrari (SPOILER IN LINK) is beautiful and it is driven like a demon in this movie, one more reason to watch it.
For those who care Metzengersten is entirely in English, William Wilson segment is in French, and though most of Toby Dammit is in English some is Italian and some maybe.... extraterrestrial.
