Directed by Federico Fellini • 1968 • Italy
Starring Terence Stamp
Loosely adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s story “Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” Federico Fellini’s contribution to the omnibus film SPIRITS OF THE DEAD is one of the filmmaker’s most extravagantly stylized cinematic dreamscapes—a psychedelic profusion of artificial backdrops, feverish colors, and waxwork-like weirdos. Terence Stamp telegraphs ever-mounting mania as an alcoholic Shakespearean actor who arrives in Rome to make a “Catholic western,” only to find himself beset by surreal visions that build toward a careening late-night ride on a highway to hell.
Up Next in Cannes ’68: Cinema in Revolt
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Kuroneko
Directed by Kaneto Shindo • 1968 • Japan
Starring Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kei SatoIn this poetic and atmospheric horror fable, set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is sent to dispat...