Fellini - Satyricon
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Movie Reviews of Fellini - Satyricon
Movie Review: The Satire of Satires
Summary: 4 Stars
Fellini's Satyricon is a loosely based adaptation of Petronius' work of the same title; a classical author who lived a life of hedonism during Nero's reign.
As with the book, the film follows the debauched lives of Encolpius and Ascyltus, two rhetoricians fighting over their amorous desires for Giton, a slave boy who manipulates his masters through pleasure. As with the original work, the film is disjointed and fragmentary. The film is unique for its surreal and provocative imagery.
With a blend of classical and futuristic imagery, Fellini successfully reduces the distinctions between societal values of our post-industrial culture and that of pagan Rome. Fellini also follows Petronius' work by including the chapter of Trimalchio's feast; presenting a pun-laden caricature of a decadent society obsessed with pursuing wealth and pleasure at the expense of everything else. Watching this scene or reading this part in the book, one begins to see how little human nature has changed despite the passage of almost 2000 years. Fellini also seems to want to break the myth of the clean, sober, and orderly Roman empire portrayed by Hollywood in preceding years. Fellini shows no restraint (as with Petronius) in displaying the vulgar and obscene without flinching; this however, is not done in a gratuitous manner and shows his brilliance as a film director.
To those who aren't familiar with Fellini or this film in particular, I would either read the Satyricon itself or rent the film before you actually buy it: it may not be your taste. The only idiotic part to this movie is the narrative in the previews claiming, 'Rome, before Christ; after Fellini!' The idiocy of the statement being that Jesus Christ had already been crucified at least 20 years before the setting of this film under the reign of Tiberius.
Movie Review: Stunning, Deep & Mysterious
Summary: 4 Stars
I woke up this morning with a burning desire to remember the end of Fellini Satyricon. Someone is mortally wounded, the blonde guy? And lies there dying, watching his best friend go off with the boy they both desired, Gitone, and some dancing leaping black guy.... I think.
I've seen it probably 9 times, it always was a favorite when I was a teen and older, but I haven't seen it for years. But it was so visually entrancing, and so truly pre-Christian -- that is, made from that standpoint, which movies seldom are or can be!
I just remember the wonderul images, a boat rising in the mist, the strange tenement bldg they (Ascylto and Encolpio) live in, the sea monster, the bacchanale, the hermaphrodite's cavern, the Minotaur..... endless, splendid, dreamlike images on and on....
[I wonder why it is Italians are such master of the visual in this manner; I think of Visconti, Antonioni, even Scorsese and the American-Italians -- maybe it's that Renaissance artist legacy?]
From my buddy: Like you, I saw it a few times, decades ago. The images are so strong and mysterious. Images that render volumes of emotions that are so deep, echoing a memory that is never realized. Modern day, Scorsese manages it. Zefferelli too.
That is true film-making. Even the older films from De Sica capture images that are unforgettable. Wells has done it.
But what you're talking about, is, I suppose, secular in nature. Icons derived from the human experience that has meaning from within the human soul. Not from an outward omnipresence of theology. Satyricon is almost existential, as a presentation of true human nature. Done with frame-paintings. And framed in such a way that is evocative. Amazing dream art!
Movie Review: A standard for surrealalism, if a bit creepy.
Summary: 4 Stars
Quite astounding when it first came out, your values may have changed a bit since you first saw this film way back when. Definitely a benchmark for cinema, regardless of your revisionist take on Fellini's "values".
I have couple of technical issues with the DVD (I bought it in 2001):
1) A lip-synch error pervades the entire disc - the dialog lags the actors mouths by a consistent and noticeable fraction of a second.
2) A pivotal scene in the film, the death of the hermaphrodite in the white hot desert canyon, is intentionally over-exposed in the film to appear almost completely washed out on screen. The DVD production house has "corrected" this exposure, which now looks muddy and lacks its original magic and meaning.
Amazon replaced my first copy - same deal. Too bad either Fellini wasn't well enough to oversee these types of technical details, or else the people designated to do this for him couldn't be bothered to do their job. Or maybe it's been fixed by now. Caveat emptor.
Movie Review: stunning visual poem on Nero's Rome
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a powerful evocation of pagan Rome under an emperor of questionable sanity. We are witnesses of gutter characters, poets, and nouveau rich as Nero is deposed. Viewed in this way, the cacophony of bizarre characters, pagan style and custom, and simple chaos is very fun - it is meant to stimulate emotion rather than set out a coherent story. What emerges in a sensual and frightening portrait that is poetic and visceral.
As a classics major, this is a great treat. I read a lot of historical analysis, but little about how it felt to live then. You can get that here.
REcommended. A lot of people run into trouble with this film as they are seeking a traditional narrative, which it isn't. There are different films that tell coherent stories, such as HBO's Rome.
Movie Review: Shhhhh, dont wake me up from that dream...
Summary: 4 Stars
hmmm, Try to imagine if Dali was a very good director and his paintings just turn alive ... Try to imagine if Da Vinci portaits just turned into real live faces ... Try to imagine that somebody try to say it ALL and i mean it ALL ;about ancient Rome in an amazing dreamy , visually crazy way. simply ; i am sure i had bought Fellini's best dream " movie ";Satyricon. The worst thing about this dvd is the absence of any extras, the film really worth to have any documentaries or commentaries i really dream that i could have this one from critreons by the way ; can any body tell me what the word satyricon means<i didnt find it on any italian dictionaries> ?