Fellini - Satyricon
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Movie Reviews of Fellini - Satyricon
Movie Review: Brilliant? Maybe to esoteric?
Summary: 4 Stars
I don't know... It was beautifully filmed. The crescendo reached in perverse and inhumane or essentially human behaviour was interesting to follow. The thing that sticks out for me is the laughter in this movie, haunting and scary to me in retrospect. Very difficult for me to grasp, but liked it for the images and the power of the filmMovie Review: Fellini Satyricon has not lost its power.
Summary: 4 Stars
I first saw this dreamlike film in the late 60's. Now, in the 21st Century, over 4 decades later it has lost none of its power. Raucus, weird, funny, sad, it's all there. See it.Movie Review: Good
Summary: 3 Stars
The best way to understand director Federico Fellini's audacious 1968 film Satyricon (also known as Fellini Satyricon, because 1967 saw the release of Satyricon by fellow Italian filmmaker Gian Luigi Polidoro) is within the context of its year of release. That pivotal year saw the release of such indelible film classics as The Graduate, Planet of the Apes, Night Of The Living Dead, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Satyricon is very much in league with all of those films. It is even more sexually daring than The Graduate (especially homosexually), as politically subversive as Planet Of The Apes, as relentless as Night Of The Living Dead, and as far out as 2001: A Space Odyssey. I would also add that it is as symbolic as that landmark of television from the U.K., The Prisoner. But, is it a great film? I'd say no, although it is a very intriguing film, and not nearly as bad a film as its worst critics claim. That said, it is not the cinematic masterpiece its boosters claim, even if it had undoubted influence on such later films as Bob Guccione's sadomasochistic Caligula.
It has an odd, but strong, pull though. Despite its lack of narrative, or very thin narrative, there is doubtless a pull that its images weaves, or a spell, and in this way it resembles a film by Michelangelo Antonioni- say Blowup or The Passenger, even if it achieves that resemblance by going to the other end of the austerity meter. It is very close to being that ideal of the cinema auteur- pure cinema. But that still does not make up for its manifest deficiencies in narrative nor character development. The films defenders pawn off this fact by claiming that Fellini and his co-writers, Bernardino Zapponi and Brunello Fellini, were merely echoing the structure of the First Century picaresque tale written by the ancient Roman, Gaius Petronius Arbiter, about life under the Caesars during Nero's reign. While it is true that The Satyricon by Petronius is picaresque- largely due to the fragmentary nature of the surviving episodes, it is a bit more than what the film is, at least in terms of traditional literary styling. But Fellini's film's sumptuous visual extravaganza- among the most memorable in the history of film, more than compensates for the narrative lapses, and more closely resembles High Modernist poetry. In fact, the closest parallel to this film would be Ezra Pound's ode to London, England, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley.... Satyricon is a film that is nightmarish, but more so for its disjunctive plot than for its images, although many of them are truly disturbing and harrowing. It is not an easy work, but that fact alone makes it neither terrible nor grand. It is the depth of Fellini's occasional Surrealism (that often overused and misdefined term) and the power of his satire, which save this film from being an epic failure, or a camp disaster along the lines of Elizabeth Taylor's similar vehicle, Cleopatra, or a pretentious work of bilge along the lines of a Jean Cocteau film. In fact, Satyricon is everything that a hack like Cocteau could never do, but which a master of film like Fellini could do, even when not at the top of his game. It is not his best film, nor even a great film, but it is a singular and personal triumph, and one of the most indelible films in the history of the medium; one whose power and imagery will nag at you long after you wish it would evaporate, and one which, inexplicably, has had virtually no influence in its art form. Not a single great filmmaker of the last four decades has picked up the mantle that Fellini tossed down.
In a sense, if one were to imagine the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, after Dave Bowman enters the black monolith around Jupiter, and add a bit of satire and sexuality to it, then extend that fifteen or so minutes by two more hours, one would have Satyricon. Thus, if one was lost by the ending of the great Kubrick film, forget about trying to `get' this film, for its pure cinema, visual poesy, and Keatsian Negative Capability are well beyond the realm of a film viewer not weaned from the Lowest Common Denominator tripe of a Steven Spielberg nor George Lucas, nor the faux Joycean logorrhea of many wannabe `edgy' independent filmmakers of recent vintage. Federico Fellini was that great rarity in art- a great rarity, even when his rarity trumped his greatness.
Movie Review: Empty, loud, and shallow illustration to an ancient book
Summary: 3 Stars
"Satyricon" studies ancient Rome of the first century, and is virtually plot less; images drive the movie, not the story and characters, and the movie is essentially a montage of unrelated scenes. Cinematography and art direction are wonderful and the film is truly the feast for eyes. Its beauty comes from El Fayum portraits, wall paintings (frescos) and mosaics from Rome and Pompeii. The problem with Satyricon is that IMO Fellini himself did not like it very much. He seems to be a remote observer in that gorgeous but empty, soulless, decadence world of Nero's Rome. The shocking and appalling scenes of violence and sex leave me indifferent after a while. Two main characters that connect unrelated events are so insignificant, dull, and futile that they only take a screen time from the magnificent images which are the main attractions of "Satyricon". Even those images cannot safe Satyricon from being just a glorious illustration to an ancient book.
"Satyricon" feels empty, loud, and shallow. I rather read Petronius's book or watch the immortal, impressive, and full of character El Fayum portraits.
I prefer more "Fellini's Roma" - as beautiful as "Satyricon", it is much more enjoyable, has a subtle message and a lot of heart. The magnificent Eternal City is deservingly the main character of the very personal film for its creator, Maestro Fellini.
Movie Review: This is probably Fellini's most visually engaging film, and is without a doubt one of the masterpieces of film art...
Summary: 3 Stars
Fellini engages us through a tapestry of decadence during the Roman Empire with such stunning juxtapositions of exceptional images from a collapsing society that one cannot help but be reminded of our own times and its disconcert morality...
The film is freely adapted from Petronius' book, which is the exploits of two young Romans, Ascilto and Encolpio, as they venture throughout the empire, indulging in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships... In the course of this proliferation of sensuality, Ascilto becomes impotent and madly goes for a cure which ends in tragedy for Encolpio...
The movie's treatment of the sexual decadence is remarkably powerful without being explicit... In fact, in light of the mental images it presents, it actually puts on view very little on screen... But there is a great quantity of mysterious whores, hedonists, gluttons, and gross indulgence in carnal pleasure... In the midst of this chaos, however, there is a beautifully light reprieve as the young Romans come across a forsaken villa... A very charming slave girl has remained behind, and she playfully troubles the two men into an erotic game...
Apart from that, the sex is portrayed as bizarre, tempting, suggestive of hidden secrets, violating the rules of morality, and going beyond the limit...