2.27.2009

Toby Dammit (1968)

One of three entries in the Poe-adaptation anthology Spirits of the Dead, Federico Fellini's Toby Dammit is a phantasmagorical mindfuck that never allows the viewer to feel fully sober. Terence Stamp is incredible and gives a tour-de-force performance. The other two entries (by Roger Vadim and Louis Malle) on the disc are fairly standard Gothic melodramas/horrors, but Fellini's reinvention of the form is unbelievable, and the only one that NEEDS to be seen. Well, then, see it:

3 comments:

La Sporgenza said...

Quite agree Coleslaw. The best of the three by far. I'm not sure if you've seen it but the Stamp interview in Fellini doc I'm a Born Liar has Stamp recounting an exchange with Fellini about his character's motivation. The passage has been yanked on YouTube but the transcript is below.

Terence Stamp remembers that when he asked for a bit of directorial instruction, Fellini glared at him at first as if witnessing something unnatural - a puppet who dared to question its puppeteer. Then, off the top of his head, he offered Stamp a lulu of an “actor’s motivation” for Toby, telling him:

“Last-a night you play Macbeth. Then you go to a party. Big-a party. Whiskey. Hashish. Cocaine. A whore-gy! And at this-a whore-gy, you fuck some woman while some black-a man fuck you. Then you are on your way to the airport and someone put big tab LSD under your tongue. Now you're here!”

the coelacanth said...

hahaha yes, i have not seen the doc, but you told me that before. classic!

Dropkick said...

LOOOOOVVVVEEEEDDD it.
come now Kanth, let's share a burrito and talk about it.