SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (HISTOIRES
EXTRAORDINAIRES)
Written by Tim Lucas
Midnight Movie Monographs
Published by Electric Dreamhouse/236 Pages
‘To me, Spirits of the
Dead is not only that occasion of homecoming— the occasion of art returning to
its birthplace in a necessarily evolved form—but an advancement of the Poe film
comparable to the Beatles’ summit of artistic expression with Sergeant Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band. The music from that album, first released in June
1967, was influencing the arts across the board at the time Histoires
Extraordinaires was in production—as can be seen in the “Rocking Horse People”
of “Metzengerstein,” the “Within You Without You” of “William Wilson,” and in
“Toby Dammit,” who “blew his mind out in a car.”’ – Tim Lucas
I
first read about SPIRITS OF THE DEAD – the 1968 Italian/French anthology film
based on three short stories by Edgar Allan Poe - in the pages of Michael J.
Weldon’s The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of
Film (Ballantine, 1983). It was one of literally dozens upon dozens of
titles which I eagerly jotted down into a notebook as Weldon’s amazing tome
opened my eyes to a range of cinema I had never known existed before (and if I
did, had never paid much attention to until reading the author’s unique spin on
it). I have to admit that, as a teenaged boy who hotly anticipated every
late-night Saturday TV screening of BARBARELLA (1968), my main impetus for initially
wanting to see SPIRITS OF THE DEAD was the thought of watching more
late-sixties-era Jane Fonda parading around in skimpy, fetishistic outfits.
When
I finally did get to see SPIRITS OF THE DEAD almost 15 years later (thanks to a
grainy bootleg VHS sourced from an Australian grey-market company called Psycho
Voodoo Video), my film appreciation had thankfully developed and matured
substantially, and even with the tape’s dubious quality (third generation dub
at least), the film seduced me and overwhelmed me from the get-go. That doesn’t
mean that Jane Fonda didn’t look as stunning as I had imagined, but she was
just one part of the film’s phantasmagorical collision of visuals, sounds and
ideas which penetrated my senses like an unstoppable surrealistic hurricane.
For
those who are unfamiliar with SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (or HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES,
as it was known in France), the three Poe stories adapted for the movie (in
order of appearance) were: "Metzengerstein"
(directed by Roger Vadim with Jane and Peter Fonda), “William Wilson” (directed
by Louis Malle with Alain Delon) and “Never Bet the Devil Your Head” (filmed as
“Toby Dammit”, directed by Federico Fellini with Terence Stamp). While the
first two segments are works of frequent visual beauty and compelling abstract
themes (the opening sequence of Malle’s segment in particular never fails to
induce overwhelming anxiety in me), they are pretty much curtain raisers to
Fellini’s “Toby Dammit”. A portrait of an alcoholic Shakespearean actor (Stamp)
slowly losing his mind (and ultimately his head) in one of the most terrifying
yet hauntingly beautiful descents into madness ever depicted on film, “Toby
Dammit” was initially considered almost two good to be included as part of the
trilogy. There was some discussion around Fellini adapting another Poe story
and releasing that and “Toby Dammit” as its own anthology film, but as tempting
as that idea is it never eventuated and “Toby Dammit” was included as the final
story in SPIRITS OF THE DEAD as planned.
Written
by Tim Lucas and published by Electric Dreamhouse as part of their excellent
Midnight Movie Monographs series, Spirits
of the Dead (Histoires Extraordinaires) is an engrossing read which serves
as both an in-depth history of its production, critical reception and complex
release history, as well as providing a virtual shot-by-shot analysis of the
film. As someone who has long studied and championed European genre cinema
(through the pages of his seminal Video
Watchdog magazine and more recently via his audio commentary work), Lucas
is certainly the one qualified to take on SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, and I personally
have always enjoyed his writing style so it’s comforting to see him return to
the page with a substantial written piece, now that Video Watchdog is sadly defunct.
Sensibly,
after an entertaining and nostalgic recollection of his own introduction to
SPIRITS OF THE DEAD at the Plaza Theatre in Norwood, Ohio in 1970, Lucas approaches
each of the three segments as their own individual films, which of course is
what they actually are. And just to ensure you are getting a complete overview
of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, and to help understand a lot of the points being made
by Lucas’ text, Spirits of the Dead
(Histoires Extraordinaires) even reprints the three Poe stories which
inspired the film. I personally love production info above analysis, so my favourite
parts of the book are those which deal with the history of the film, both as a
whole and its individual parts – from a germ of an idea in the mind of French
producer Raymond Eger and the recruiting of the talent (Orson Welles was
originally tapped to direct an adaptation of “The Masque of the Red Death”) to
its somewhat underwhelming premiere at Cannes and subsequent editing for its 1969
US release by AIP (American International Pictures). It was AIP who changed its
title to SPIRITS OF THE DEAD for the American market, where it had the
distinction of being the first horror film to be slapped with the R rating in
that country. Also included is an overview of previous filmic and TV
adaptations of Poe stories (including, of course, the classic run of Poe films
made at AIP by Roger Corman), and a chronology of some of the more notable home
video and disc releases (the one to beat currently being the 2010 Blu-ray
released by Arrow Academy).
Though
substantially smaller (in both word count and sheer size) than Lucas’ last book
devoted to European genre cinema – his mammoth 2007 book on Italian filmmaker Mario
Bava, All the Colors of the Dark – the
Midnight Movie Monographs series are the perfect size for an in-depth
examination of an individual film, providing enough room for details while
trimming off any unnecessary fat. They are shaping up into a nice library of
books which share the same format but highlight a diverse range of writing
styles from various fine authors, and encompass a good range of cult cinema that
includes both well-known films along with some more slightly obscure or
unexpected titles. Future announced entries in the series include such films as
From Beyond the Grave (1974), Eyes Without a Face (1960), Hammer’s
masterful Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969),
De Palma’s The Fury (1978), the
beautifully hypnotic Let’s Scare Jessica to
Death (1971), Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979)
and Herk Harvey’s surrealist classic Carnival
of Souls (1962), the latter two authored by noted comic book artist and
film writer Stephen R. Bissette.
Because
I had not seen it in quite a while, I gave SPIRITS OF THE DEAD a rewatch before
plunging into the book. Immediately upon finishing the text I watched the film
again, appreciating many of its textures in a new and re-invigorated way. To
me, that marks the sign of a good book that has done its job well. Illustrated throughout
with B&W photos, Spirits of the Dead
(Histoires Extraordinaires) is due for publication (in hardcover) around
the end of July, with a cover price of UK 20 pounds. For more information keep
track of the publisher’s website at: ELECTRIC DREAMHOUSE
Review by and Copyright 2018 John Harrison
