Fellini Satyricon (Widescreen): Amazon.ca: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone, Mario Romagnoli, Magali No�l, Capucine, Alain Cuny, Fanfulla, Danika La Loggia, Giuseppe Sanvitale, Genius, Giuseppe Rotunno, Federico Fellini, Ruggero Mastroianni, Alberto Grimaldi, Bernardino Zapponi, Brunello Rondi, Petronius: DVD

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Product Description

Amazon.com essential video

Trippy is as trippy does, even when you're talking about a movie set in ancient Rome. This 1969 Fellini opus was among the most visually arresting entries in a year when the psychedelic experience was trying to claw its way into every movie coming down the pike. But Fellini, in telling a negligible story about two young men tasting the various pleasures of Nero's hedonistic and priapic reign, aimed for images that jarred as well as seduced. He found humor in freakishness, contrasting beauty and ugliness while effortlessly passing judgment on the emptiness of a life devoted to sensation and personal freedom. More of a fever dream than a linear story, Fellini Satyricon crystallized the director's reputation as a visionary--but may have trapped him into spending the rest of his career (with the exception of Amarcord) trying to top himself in reaching new levels of outrageousness. --Marshall Fine

Video Details

Encolpius is a Roman student who begins by arguing with his friend Ascyltus over the affections of androgynous youth Giton. Ascyltus wins, whereupon Encolpius embarks upon an odyssey, partaking in a drunken orgy and being kidnapped by a bisexual sea captain and his concubine. Encolpius eventually rejoins Ascyltus to visit a suicidal Roman couple, join in a plot to kidnap a "sacred" hermaphrodite, and much more. Loosely based on the book "Satyricon" by Gaius Petronius, the "Arbiter of Elegance" in the court of Nero, Federico Fellini wrote and directed this tongue-in-cheek hymn to the "glories" of pagan times via a bizarre journey through the decadence and debauchery of Nero's Rome.

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Customer Reviews

36 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (36 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Greatest Movies, Feb 1 2004

By

Rex Halliday (Auckland 1001 New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fellini Satyricon (Widescreen) (DVD)

Occasionally a movie comes along in which a simplistic, mono-dimensional meaning isn't laid out in such a way that even the laziest minds just couldn't miss it. I remember as a teenager seeing this movie for the first time, and being astounded that all that people seemed to see were shocking depictions of Roman decadence. I had sat through the movie amazed at its extraordinary cinematography, and overwhelmed by a moral story of epic proportions. Like most great art, the meaning of Satyricon is multi-layered, and reflects against itself enough to hold a richness of ambiguity that unfolds more for me each time I see it. I was also incredulous to read reviews accusing the movie of being formless. On the contrary, Fellini had created a beautifully structured work out Petronius' rather episodic tales.
Satyricon is a powerful portrayal of a young man's quest to rediscover the potency he has lost in a corrupt world (our world being no less corrupt than that of Fellini's Rome), both sexually and aesthetically. The events and characters in the movie resonate deeply with mythic archetypes, all playing a part in Encolpio's quest.
If you want a key for delving into the structural and metaphysical meaning of this movie, consider the two legacies of Eumolpus: the first he offers to Encolpius as they lie in the fallow fields after being evicted from Trimalchio's Feast, just as the dawning sun begins to lighten the sky. The second he leaves at the end of the movie to those who will consume his body. The first is the wealth of poetry, of the heavens, the earth, the air, of life itself. The second is worldly wealth and its corruptions. How beautiful is the moment when Encolpius joins the ecstatic, dancing, laughing servants of Eumolpus to sail away from the bizarre funeral feast to the true legacy of the great artist. So with us: what are we able to take from the legacy of Satyricon - does Fellini offer us merely a superficial indulgence in the perversity of Roman decadence .... or rather, are we able to comprehend his true gift, a profound vision of the potency of life itself?

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5.0 out of 5 stars roasted pigs in space!, Jan 25 2004

By

Lao Che (Central New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fellini Satyricon (Widescreen) (DVD)

FELLINI SATYRICON - the first film I experienced directed by Federico Fellini. I was with two or three other people in a small theater, and remember sitting through the movie with my jaw gaping like a little kid watching cartoons; I was on the edge of my seat. I walked out and spent an hour or so trying to figure out what the hell it was I just saw? Favorite scenes: Vernacchio, marriage at sea, minotaur. I later read that Fellini had always wanted to make a science fiction picture, and SATYRICON was the closest he would come to that goal.

Petronious Arbiter was a Roman scholar and poet who mixed with the courtesans of the emperor Nero. The remains of his writings are his observations of the world he lived; ultimately, he was "asked" by Nero to end his own life for various insults to the emperor. A strange, distant world is painted in the fractured remains of the Satyricon. Fellini used the text as a jumping off point to attempt to imagine a world completely alien to our own (images, sound, everything). Fueling this tour-de-force of invention is the period of the film's creation - the late sixties. If not directly quoted in its scenes, the spirit and free form of the late sixties definitely influenced Fellini and company.

BARBARELLA comes to mind as a comparison, in terms of color pallet, bizarre situations and a comic book quality - psychedelia at its finest. Fellini's interpretation of the Satyricon seems to capture that weird pulse of chaos and the "climate" of revolution; stripping away a mere "classic literature travelogue" approach - and presenting a libidinal sideshow of monsters, perverts, politicians, artists, and other variations of the human condition. The movie works like a dream, just presenting this river of existence that we follow through the misadventures of the main characters: Encolpio, Ascilto and Gitone. It's certainly a wonderful work of art and invention, among the best the cinema has provided thus far. Since its release, major filmmakers have dipped into this film for inspiration - Terry Gilliam, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, etc.

In the end, Encolpio's desperate way of life leaves nothing behind, except an expressionless face carved in stone amongst other faces. Life is short and fleeting. What will people two thousand years from now think of the way we live today? Trying to imagine a possible inkling of an idea to follow that question was all I could think about after walking out of FELLINI SATYRICON.

So, I'm not sure what you'd call this movie - science fiction? A comedy? CALIGULA on acid? I read [maybe in Playboy] that Fellini was asked to direct CALIGULA, and refused to take the job. Funny, that. Certainly SATYRICON is an entertainment of some kind? Whatever it is - definitely RENT it first.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Freak Show, done by the Master, Aug 6 2003

By

Schuyler V. Johnson (Lake Worth, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fellini Satyricon (Widescreen) (DVD)

Fellini has a unique gift for visuals, and uses the human oddities the way a great master painter uses his paints; lavishly and always to great effect. When the movie was being cast, there were long, long lines of the most unusual and the most freakish people in Italy; this made for a fascinating spectacle and was in itself, a show. No one has Fellini's eye, and this is most evident in Satyricon, IMHO his best movie. The most striking and unusual image presented is the albino hermaphrodite; the fact that Fellini was even able to find this extreme human oddity is a feat in itself, and presents a truly unique and unforgettable image on the big screen. You literally cannot take you eyes off the screen for one second; you cannot afford to miss anything, all is pertinent, all is fascinating and all is integral to the "show" Fellini wanted to present and succeeds brilliantly. No circus, no sideshow in history can hold a candle to the ultimate showman and visual storyteller. Don't try to analyze; don't try to "read" into anything, just sit back and enjoy and allow the images to take you on an unforgettable journey. P.T. Barnum would be green with envy...or applaud wildly, or both. His images remain in your mind's eye for years afterwards, and that is the mark of the true artist and visionary.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Two half-naked roman dudes fight over a half-naked male brat.
Fellini brings light on space instead of space on light.
He brings mysticism to the movie not the movie to mysticism. Read more

Published on Mar 15 2006 by bernie

1.0 out of 5 stars This movie is terrible
This was the first and the last Fellini movie I will ever purchase. The movie is totally incoherant. I do not see what is so compelling about this movie. It was a waste of my time.

Published on April 10 2004