Giulietta: Roman

by Federico Fellini

Desde las alturas de un mongolfier, Giulietta, la protagonista de esta novela, pregunta a su abuelo si algún día volverán a tierra, a casa. El abuelo le contesta: «Siempre se vuelve, pero el mundo es tan grande, está tan lleno de cosas que ver... que hacer... ¿Verdad, tesoro?» Y estas últimas palabras las dirige a su amante, una chanteuse, que por toda respuesta estalla en una carcajada feliz y comienza a entonar una melodía contagiosa...

A sus setenta años, y convertido ya en un mito viviente, Fellini también parece pensar que el mundo está lleno de cosas que ver, que hacer, y en plena madurez creadora debuta como novelista con un texto en el que retoma —«siempre se vuelve»— los fantasmas y obsesiones que han nutrido sus magistrales películas.

Giulietta narra las tribulaciones de una mujer apocada e introvertida que un mal día descubre la infidelidad de su marido. Asediada por su propia conciencia, Giulietta mezcla los miedos del pasado y las inquietudes del presente en una sucesión de visiones en las que realidad y fantasía confunden sus fronteras y abren las puertas a una portentosa galería de personajes. Una médium, un padrastro, un fascista, un abuelo vividor, un iracundo eremita, un criado chino, un mago, el Duce, Casanova, gatos y espíritus, hombres enamorados, mujeres desdeñosas, bellísimas, jinetes invasores: todo un inolvidable tropel de criaturas inconfundiblemente fellinianas desfilan aquí, hechas con la consistencia de los recuerdos, de los sueños, de los deseos.

Giulietta trae el recuerdo de uno de los filmes más queridos de Fellini, Giullieta degli spiriti, expresamente ideado para ser protagonizado por Giulietta Massina, su mujer. Pero nada hace pensar aquí en un guión novelado. Fellini ha construido en esta ocasión un magnífico relato psicológico, lleno de ironía y de fantasía desenfrenada, pero lleno también de sensibilidad y delicadeza, en el que se ha valido de su genio como cineasta para fabricar imágenes poderosísimas que sirven con asombrosa eficacia a un espléndido mecanismo literario.

«El de Giulietta es un mundo mágico en la medida de algunas personalísimas deformaciones mías en las que el humorismo juega siempre un papel de primera importancia.» (Federico Fellini)

Genres: Novels

123 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound, which lists his 1963 film ​8 1⁄2 as the 10th-greatest film.

Reviews

[Mafalda Oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lembro-me de ter lido esta história há 10 anos e de me ter deixado uma sensação de conforto. Reentrei na história de Giulietta e descobri o lado fantástico e imaginário, um tanto dilacerador, do espiritismo.
Tal como a fé, pode-se levar tudo como uma grande metáfora, mas a escrita cativante agarra o leitor, quase como um espectador (não fosse Fellini um grande cineasta), e faz querer ver onde nos leva o caminho chuvoso… Bem, se calhar estamos perante um infinito labirinto.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t you just love when books remind you of people? This one reminded me of a very dear friend of mine.

Giulietta is both the book’s title and the main character’s name. She is married. Her husband? Well, he is having an affair. She knows this. She is deeply aware of this, yet she tries to ignore it. That is, until she starts seeing things. That is when she hires a private detective that takes the photos of images that had already been playing in her mind for a long time. Doubts are suddenly her only truth. There is nothing else but questions. Was it her fault? It had to be her fault. She wasn’t pretty enough. She wasn’t sexy enough. She was too quiet, too peaceful, too everything… yet not enough. Each of her doubts start visiting her as ghosts. Some scare her away, some lull her in… She is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She is lost. One would think that that is a bad thing, but hey, isn’t getting lost the first step to actually finding yourself? That is right. I believe this novel is truly about a woman fighting her own demons, realizing that she is a human being and that she deserves to be loved and adored by who she is. Her first lover? It shouldn’t have been her husband, it should have been herself. Only when you start learning to appreciate who you are, only when you start learning to live with yourself, alone, only then are you ready to share a life with someone else.

Giulietta found herself. I saw her shoulders relaxing, her face expression softening… I could feel her smile as she looked at her own reflection in the mirror and, for the first time, realized that she wasn’t ugly. She opened her eyes.

Do I read too much into books? Well, perhaps I do. But then again, it’s not like I can ignore them as they speak to me, right?

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tinha este livro na minha estante há mais de 25 anos. Lamentavelmente só o li agora. É delicioso! 😊

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Furchtbar, dabei ist Fellini so ein großartiger Regisseur

[Enrique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breve y esperpèntica. Esta novelita no es un gran ejercicio narrativo, sino una magnífica muestra del onirismo de Fellini. Me ha gustado.

[Myriam · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I wanted to like this book, I could not make sense out of it.