Review of Satyricon (1969) by Eric F — 08 Aug 2009

Upon the release of "Fellini's Satyricon", it was chastised for being pretentious and without meaning. A film with the guts of this one is sure to draw such extreme reactions - how else, for instance, can you respond to albino hermaphrodite gods, dismemberments, and bizarre nonlinear forays into worlds from the open seas to a labyrinth with a minotaur? Although the film is clearly not as conventionally accessible as a few of Fellini's masterpieces, like "Nights of Cabiria", "Satyricon" is a film of such unrelenting innovation that you cannot help but sit in awe. Needless to say, this is ancient Rome as you've never seen it before.

Providing a plot synopsis will not be of much use - the tone and structure of the film is indescribable on paper. But here is how it starts: the handsome, young Encolpio (Martin Potter) mourns the loss off his young boy lover, Gitone (Max Born), who is now with Ascilto (Hiram Keller). Encolpio learns that Ascilto sold Gitone to an actor named Vernacchio (Fanfulla). And so, Encolpio attends one of the actor's performances - it's a bizarre, lewd play with concludes with the hand of a peasant being chopped off. It must be noted that none of this looks like you must be imagining in your head - it's a world of completely unreal colors that make no sense in a conventional setting. Remember the dream sequence from Akira Kurosawa's "Kagemusha"? Imagine that sort of set design and color in the world of ancient Rome.

In pre-Christian Rome, the value of human life is nonexistent. The film features much senseless violence and savagery. Attractive young boys are traded as goods between men - it's a world where passion seems only to stem from homosexuality and violence.

The film is episodic, like most of Fellini's work, but the transitions between episodes are far from seamless. The film seems broken - we jump from place to place, entering worlds that seem to exist in different universes. By the time we reach the end, where Encolpio regains his sex drive from an evasive God in the form of a thick mother of the Earth, we can hardly gather how we came to this point. Fellini is our tour guide, and because of his masterful direction we are drawn along through the surreal fantasies without restraints.

Although I wouldn't say it's quite the film that "La Dolce Vita" or "Nights of Cabiria" is, "Satyricon" is nevertheless a masterwork that is unlike anything made before it or since.