Fellini - Satyricon
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Movie Reviews of Fellini - Satyricon
Movie Review: It's About Time
Summary: 5 Stars
For extended criticism of the film itself see my review of the VHS below.The DVD of 'Satyricon' has been available overseas for some time, and I've been waiting impatiently for it to be released here in the US. The producers have done a good job with it. The picture is amazingly clear, and the colors are saturated, so that the sets are even more eerie than before. For a film with such highly designed sets, it's pleasant to be able to stop the film and get a good look at things that appear for only a fraction of a second at normal speed. I watched this on my computer, and I was pausing every few frames to get a good look.
An English soundtrack is provided. The lip-sync there is no worse than the Italian since the film was recorded in several languages. Supposedly the three main characters - Encolpio, Ascylto, and Gitone - were English hippies who Fellini picked up in Trafalgar square, and they spoke the dialogue in English. But I prefer the Italian; it justs sounds better. I wish they had provided Italian subtitles too. There's very little in the way of other extras. I would have liked some commentary, but I can't complain too much about this DVD.
Movie Review: Images, images, images....just absorb them, that's all you can really do, and that's all you're supposed to do...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of a handful of films where you just watch the images unfold before you. It is impossible to really make literal sense of the story, as that is not important here. The imagery is truly stunning, a 129 minute film of moving paintings. I had an argument with a teacher (who I admired) over this film when he asked me what is it about? And I said "nothing". He replied (missing my point entirely) "Tell me about it!". This film reminds me of Peter Greenaway's Prospero Books, Sergei Paradjanov's The Color of Pomegranates, and, to a lesser extent, Dario Argento's Inferno, where the films themselves are just one astonishing image after another. This is such a great film if you allow yourself to absorb it. That's really all you can do. For those who wonder why it's called "Fellini Satyricon" and not just Satyricon...the original novel, Satyricon, is in public domain. So anyone can make a film version of it. When Fellini announced this film, there were several knock offs before Fellini's film came out. That's why it's called Fellini Satyricon. It's not just a tribute to Fellini's ego. It's a fantastic parade for your eyes...Movie Review: The Art of Storytelling
Summary: 5 Stars
I could rave, as so many have, about Fellini's Satyricon, but the reason I write has to do with some background about the story itself. Satyricon is actually an ancient text, one of the oldest we have in the West. The author is Greek. (I have a copy of the original Satyricon in a box somewhere, or I would give you the author's name.) Satyricon - the original, not written by Fellini - is not complete. Time and abuse have erased a large portion of the document. Sometimes lines are interrupted. Sometimes chapters, scholars think, have been erased. This might make wild sense to those who have seen Fellini's Satyricon - as one reviewer points out, the story seems to jump from place to place, from the unexpected to the unexpected. I hope this may appease a few complaints about this classic piece of cinema - Fellini has simply illustrated a marvelous, earthy, classical text that reveals itself only in fragments.Movie Review: Dreams are Magic
Summary: 5 Stars
Federico Fellini released "Fellini Satyricon" in Italy in 1968. Two years later, just after "Woodstock", it hit the USA. And what a hit. Provocative and salacious in it's time, "Satyricon" retains a chaotic, psychedelic effusion that is masterful even today. "Satyricon" is the story of two students in ancient Rome, Encolpio and Ascilto. The argue over the boy Gitone. And they wander through decadent Roman banquets and parties, red smoke blinding their way; odd, starring non-actors littering the landscape. Early on, several bit-players sit to the side of the screen, immovable, looking back directly into the camera. Fellini is looking back into the eyes of the voyeur audience enjoying his masterpiece. And this is a masterpiece. Biographical(like all Fellini) and dream-based, "Satyricon" is the phantasmagoric epic tale of a past society that could never exist today. Or could it.Movie Review: Cinematic Bliss
Summary: 5 Stars
"Pure genius". A phrase that is used often but Fellini Satyricon is what you find in the dictionary when you look up that term. A two hour and something stream from the maestro's unconscious. I've seen this film more than 20 times and each time it leaves me with a sense of awe, not just at the movie, but at the world in general. This film would be among the 10 I would save if the world was to be destroyed. Outrageous. Timeless. Eternal. How I miss Federico Fellini. Can't wait till this DVD is released so I, too, can study it frame by frame. This DVD is created from a newly mastered print and is said to be superior to even the Criterion CAV laserdisc which I own (the only one I still own). Let's hope the Mystic Fire documentary "Ciao, Fellini" will soon be released on DVD. It documents the filming of Satyricon and blows the mind. Ciao.