The Toby Dammit segment - Spirits of The Dead

[Bosoms]

Stamp in excelsus. Fellini at his best.

https://youtu.be/iR8XEohz52s

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Fantastic, isn't it? It's the first time I really 'got' Fellini as well.

[another Mr. Lizard]

Screened a clip from this on a 'punk rock movies' evening class I taught in Derby earlier this year - the interview scene, which would have fitted right in a decade later. Stamp did a live Q&A recently and a friend put out a call on Facebook for questions - apparently my question about this particular scene was asked, but not being present I have no idea what Terry said in response.

Fellini confessed to having stolen the ball-bouncing child/devil idea from Mario Bava's masterpiece 'Kill, Baby, Kill', released a few months earlier.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

I also think that Fellini was channeling some Jacques Tati's Playtime influence. It's not just that the opening takes place at an airport, Fellini also uses obvious cardboard cutouts to represent some extras.

Peter O'Toole was supposed to star in this, then he got cold feet when he read the script, but Stamp is perfect in the part. It was also a very important film for Fellini, as it was the first since his heart attack/breakdown that occurred while he tried to direct Il Viaggo di G. Mastorna and after the artistic failure of Juliet of the Spirits. In the meantime, Fellini had broken up with his usual cowriters (Flaiano and Pinelli) and had started working with Bernardino Zapponi, who's responsible for his more fragmentary films (Satiricon, Roma, Casanova). He had something to prove.

[Noodle Lizard]

It's fucking awesome, and contains possibly my favourite depiction of The Devil ever.  I still get chills when I see it in my head.

Also Terrence Stamp's best work, I think.  You have to be careful which version you watch, though.  The Arrow Blu-Ray release is good - just do yourselves a favour and ignore the first two segments as they are utter toilet.