Review of Satyricon (1969) by Larry J — 18 Jun 2010

It's time for you to treat yourself to eye candy for days! For our kiddies out there who never got to enjoy an era when Hercules films were commonplace, you simply have to avail yourself to the fantastic visual feast known as "Fellini Satyricon.".

Fellini wasn't being egotistical when he put his name in front of the title for this film. (like others we know: Steven King, Clive Barker, National Lampoon) He did this to distinguish his work from another Satyricon -- a 1968 Italian work directed by Gian Luigi Polidoro. Don't bother with Polidoro's production which is universally considered a "poor adaptation of a great book" and "more modest than Fellini's is". This is the first time that Fellini based a feature film on a borrowed source. This may be the reason why, although as fragmented in continuity as the literary work, it achieves a classic dimension that is new for Fellini. He was nominated for best director at the 1969 Academy Awards, but lost to "Patton" director Franklin J. Schaffner. "Fellini Satyricon" was also nominated for a Golden Globe and was a New York Times Critics pick.

During the time of Nero (37-68 AD), two student friends, Encolpio (who is played by the epitome of a blonde twink, Martin Potter) and Ascilto (the dark haired hunk Hiram Keller) argue about ownership of a boy named Gitone. (Max Born, who has an amazing resemblance to a young Joan Collins in drag) They are roommates at the Insula Felicles. Ascilto decides to leave. The teens divide their belongings and split. Gitone, allowed to choose who he goes with, chooses Ascilto. Heartbroken, an earthquake saves Encolpio from suicide, but the Insula Felicles is leveled. We will follow Encolpio and Ascilto through a series of rooms in a vast Roman brothel known as Lupanare.

Fellini based his work on the only fragments of the story "Satyricon" by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, the "Arbiter of Elegance" which have survived. These fragments weren't found until the Seventeenth century. Fellini readily admits that the films is a "free adaptation" which frees him from any type of logic, but despite what you might initially think, there is a core plot which revolves around the adventures of Encolpio, Ascilto and Gitone. Some historians consider Satryicon one of the first novels (if not THE first) ever written in Western Literature. Fellini likes to compare the journey as a space adventure except we are traveling to the past.

Fellini and his cinematographers captured much beauty and oddity in the film, EACH FRAME can be considered an artistic masterpiece. I'm sure the true film fancier will not only watch the film several times, but will utilize the full capabilities of their DVD players to freeze frame and enlarge segments many times.

You will visit baths, apartments, museums, villas, tombs, deserted mansions, and ships. You will see beheadings, disembowelments, suicides, and death by fire, lance and sun. Obviously, the movie is as far away from being mainstream as any film I have ever seen -- except for some early experimental films. "Fellini Satyricon" is a film which almost says: little in time has changed. You will hear the same gripes about the decline of civilization compared to the glory of the past, as people often complain today. You will see plays within plays and have a realistic chopping off a hand replaced with a solid gold one. The parties for the rich bring to mind the decadence found in the party scene of the film, "Eyes Wide Shut" or the famous triptych painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" (painted 1503-1504) by Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516). You will also see a widow allowing her dead husband's body to be substituted for one stolen because a handsome sentry wasn't paying attention. The widow justifies this act by saying, "better to hang a dead husband than lose a living lover."!

The film becomes a continual tragedy for poor Encolpio who loses his boy toy, is captured, kidnapped, taken prisoner, and witnesses the death of his best friend. He has to fight the Minotaur, goes impotent and steals a demi-god hermaphrodite, who dies due to exposure to the sun and heat. The film ends mid sentence with Encolpio deciding to board a ship. We get a final shot of the three principle characters painted in fresco.

I found all aspects of "Fellini Satyricon" superior in every way. I enjoyed the acting. The costumes, the set decoration and the photography all seem detached from reality for the advancement of the excellence of the film. All scholars do not necessarily agree whether it is a moral essay or simply a catalogue of sexual achievements, most of them perverse -- but most would still advise you to see this outstanding film.

The DVD provides a sparkling, lush, diamond-sharp transfer with a choice of English or Italian soundtracks and English, French, Spanish subtitles.

A word about the dubbing: The English version is much better than the Italian version, for a number of reasons. 1) Fellini dubbed all his actors anyway because he used international casts. There is no such thing as a Fellini movie where the actors are actually speaking their lines in real time. For the most part, different actors were used for the dubbing. 2) The Italian actors used in the Italian dub are horribly miscast. There is just no way that those voices could come out of those people. The English actors are better. (If you watch their lips, you'll notice that Hiram Keller and Martin Potter are both speaking their parts in English). 3) You'll want to watch, not read, this film. 4) A good amount of the sound that comes out of the characters' mouths is either Latin or Italian. What the characters are actually saying isn't all that important.

There are, sadly, no extra features on this DVD. A commentary by surviving cast members would have been great. Nevertheless, this is a DVD that anyone who loves movies should want to own. "Fellini Satyricon" has my highest recommendation!!!

Whatever its failings, it is an astonishing film, and one that would have tremendous influence on a host of directors who followed Fellini -- such as Pasolini, Tinto Brass and Bob Guccione who arrived at the notorious "Caligula" without reference to "Fellini Satyricon". Such efforts to expand on the film are merely more explicit and less interesting than the original. It is a powerful, remarkably beautiful, and completely unexpected film that must be seen at least once by any one with a serious interest in world cinema, and to those I recommend it without hesitation.

It is so beautifully composed and imagined that you would do yourself a disservice if, for any reason, you allowed yourself to miss it.