Fellini’s first film in colour sees Giulietta Masina once again take centre stage as the middle-class housewife who suspects that her husband is cheating on her. Her feelings of neglect are exacerbated by his thoughtlessness on the eve of their wedding anniversary, when rather than celebrating with the quiet, romantic dinner she had planned, he arrives home with a group of friends. One of the group leads the gathering in a séance, and it is in the course of this that Giulietta first speaks with the spirits who appear to her throughout the remainder of the film, offering advice and encouragement, not all of which is useful or helpful to her, leading to an ambiguous ending upon which not even the director and his star agreed.  

Screening as part of the Federico Fellini retrospective, April 4th to 30th.