Satyricon – Fellini – Satyricon (1969)

Directed by: Federico Fellini | 124 minutes | drama, fantasy | Actors: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone, Mario Romagnoli, Magali Noël, Capucine, Alain Cuny, Fanfulla, Danika La Loggia, Giuseppe Sanvitale, Genius, Lucia Bosé, Joseph Wheeler, Hylette Adolphe

Legendary director Federico Fellini made one of his most bizarre films in the late 1960s. Today, ‘Satyricon’ or, to be completely correct, ‘Fellini – Satyricon’ (more on that later) is generally not considered to be his best work. However, the Italian master has made so many excellent films in his impressive career that it hardly needs to be a shame. Nevertheless, the film can above all be called an interesting experiment, which cannot be called completely successful. Ever since its premiere in 1969, ‘Satyricon’ has divided critics and viewers. Some qualify the film as a masterpiece, others see nothing but emptiness and moral decay. It is certainly not a crowd favorite, especially because of the unusual structure and the often cabaret-like events, which balance between comedy and tragedy with a number of unsavory and gory scenes.

The film is based on the Roman satire ‘Satyricon’ by (presumably) Gaius Petronius Arbiter, who wrote it during the tyrannical reign of Emperor Nero (AD 54-68). (large) fragments of Petronius’ text have been preserved, but the surviving work is far from complete. Fellini has made no attempt to fill in any missing pieces, but approaches the whole as if it were a dream: the scenes are not or hardly connected to each other and the transitions are almost never logical or corresponding to the previous one. This makes the film intriguing conceptually, but in the execution it is primarily a film to approach analytically and admire (or reproach) from a distance.

The film revolves around Encolpio (Martin Potter) and Ascilto (Hiram Keller), who compete for love for the young slave Gitone (Max Born). If Gitone chooses Ascilto, we follow Encolpio on his further fortunes, from an earthquake to a bizarre banquet, from imprisonment to (fake) marriage. Due to the open homosexuality of the protagonists, the film caused quite a stir. When Fellini was asked why he had cast foreign actors for those roles, the director curtly replied that there are no gay men in Italy.

The lack of story, of a coherent story structure, was of course exactly Fellini’s intention and is therefore not in itself a shortcoming of a sloppy editing, a weak script or a drifting director. That conscious choice requires a different view from the viewer and a different attitude that we see an “average” film, which not everyone will be able to afford. Whether the film has achieved the effect that the director intended remains a matter of debate.

In ‘Satyricon’ Fellini plays with familiar themes: life and death, transience, the vagaries of fate, the role of poetry and art in a decadent world. Ancient Rome is therefore no more than a decor, because the film hardly takes place in the Rome that we know from stories and many other films. It looks like Rome, with familiar excesses, but Fellini goes a step further: the landscapes, the characters, the buildings, even the sky and the sun are more in a dream world than in our own past. Everyone seems to be listless and living their lives without much human feeling. People are casually sacrificed, sex is an almost mechanical act and only from gorging on food and watching cruelty do the characters seem to get some pleasure. No wonder, probably, that the film is not to everyone’s taste.

The film was released as ‘Fellini – Satyricon’, which at first glance seems like an egocentric statement, but turned out to be a necessary artifice. Another Italian director had already had the title fixed for his own version of Petronius’ book. The film studio of Fellini’s version even paid $1 million for the distribution rights, to ensure that ‘Fellini – Satyricon’ would be released first. The film was nominated for an Oscar (directed by Fellini) and a Golden Globe (best foreign film), but did not win those awards.