Summary:
A series of bizarre events surround a young man’s journey through the hedonistic landscape of first century Rome.
My Thoughts:
Though I have only seen a portion of Fellini’s oeuvre (so far), he is already one of my favorite directors. I think “La Dolce Vita” is among the best movies ever made, “8 ½” is a masterpiece, and “Amarcord” and “La Strada” were both unforgettable emotional journeys in their own ways. I knew that with our Cinema World Tour Italy Series coming up, I would want to tackle another Fellini film, and so I thought I would try what has frequently been referred too as Fellini’s most controversial film: “Fellini Satyricon”.
I won’t lie, “Satyricon” was not my favorite Fellini film; in fact, out of all of the films I’ve seen by the Italian director, this one is probably my least favorite. This film is brilliant as far as direction goes; the production design is beautifully elaborate; some of the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous; and many of the characters are so bizarre that I’m sure I’ll have no problem remembering them for years to come. The traits above propel “Fellini Satyricon” far above average films; it’s easily a 4/5 Star film, but I found that it lacked some of the heart and life of Fellini’s other films. It lacked the spectacle and energy that “La Dolce Vita” gave us, it lacked the nostalgia of “Armarcord”, and it lacked the heart of “La Strada”, but somehow I still found myself captivated by what was happening onscreen, and the reason for that is Fellini himself.
Fellini tells stories in the flamboyant way only Fellini can- with so much life bursting at every corner of every frame that it would take a dozen rewatches to see half of what Fellini has hidden in each setting and location. Every scene is so carefully orchestrated and designed that it’s almost impossible not to be spellbound by what goes on before you. Even if I didn’t care for the story in “Satyricon” as much as I did in some of Fellini’s other movies, the effort that the director brought to crafting this film was just as impressive as it was with some of his greater films. I can spot a good film even when the subject doesn’t quite appeal to me, and this film is certainly good.
“Each moment presented may be your last, so fill it up until you vomit.”
The plot of Satyricon is rather difficult to convey. Our main storyline centers around a young man named Encolpio (Martin Potter, “Nicholas and Alexandra”) and his younger boyfriend Gitone (Max Born) whom has been stolen away from Encolpio by the devious Ascilto (Hiram Keller, “Strogoff”) and then sold to the actor Vernacchio (Fanfulla, “Son of the RedCosair”). Encolpio rescues Gitone from Vernacchio, but Gitone rejects Encolpio, driving Encolpio to suicidal thoughts, but before he can kill himself, an earthquake stops him, and Encolpio takes it as a sign. He embarks on an odyssey across first century Rome, desperate to find some sort of meaning for his life.
So, first and foremost: the great parts of this film, and there are many great parts. As I’ve already mentioned, the production design is absolutely astounding. There are so many fantastic sets that are all shown off in some incredibly dynamic and kinetic shots. To try to describe some of the settings, some of the costuming, is absolutely impossible; you simply have to see them in order to believe them. The production design goes far beyond the sets: the extras that populate these sets are the ones that make these locations feel like they’re crawling with life. Fellini was absolutely a master of deep staging, and this film displays those talents in an amazing fashion. What makes the film even more impressive is the sheer amount of life and extras that Fellini stuffs into those frames. In nigh every scene there are dozen of extras, some of them crammed so tightly into the frame you wonder how Fellini was possibly able to choreograph so many extras into such a finely crafted dance. Every extra seems to have something to do, some sort of part to play; its as if Fellini is panning his camera across a finely coordinated hive of bees.
All of the films I’ve seen of Fellini’s tend to be a little light on plot and heavy on character, and this film is no different. Though we start our film off with Encolpio-Ascilto-Gitone love triangle story that is not at all the only thing that this film tackles. Fellini shows us strange side stories, random vignettes, and just general ways of life from many characters that don’t even receive names. I feel like this is one of the joys of Fellini: his films are just so rich with vivid details and life that the plot itself can’t even contain it all, and the life he wants to show just spills over into subplots. That spilling over seems to speak to one of the themes that Fellini likes to address most of all: human wants and desires, and the excess that the human condition can lead us to crave.
In “La Dolce Vita” and “8 ½” it was the hedonistic pleasures of 1960s Rome that Fellini attacked, and in this film, it’s the hedonistic pleasures of first century Rome that he attacks. In both films, Fellini looks at the ways of life led by relatively average people (in “La Dolce Vita” we follow Marcello Rubini, played by Marcello Mastroianni (“Divorce Italian Style”), an up-and-coming paparazzo; and in “Satyricon” we’re following a down-on-his luck university student), and the ways the lives of average people can be corrupted by the pleasures of modern day life, should they give into the temptations. Excess seems to always be a theme of Fellini; whether it is the excess of sex, wine, drugs or whatever else you want, Fellini’s films almost always seem to work as a cautionary tale against leaning into the excess that is so readily available in life.
While I loved Fellini’s themes, his directing, and his cinematography, this story just didn’t quite do it for me, but again, that didn’t ruin the film for me. There were a few scenes where I checked my watch, wondering how long I’d been subjected to a particular vignette; the pacing was a bit slow compared to some of his “greats”. Additionally, I never felt nearly as connected to Encolpio in this film as I did to Marcello Mastroianni’s characters in both “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2”. Simultaneously, the emotional connection I felt to Giulietta Masina (“Juliet and the Spirits”) in “La Strada” was never matched by any connection I felt to these characters either. In the end, this is a very good film, but it fails to make the emotional connections that would elevate this film to the level of great.
Verdict:
Even thought this has been my least favorite Fellini film of the ones I’ve seen, I have to admit that it is still a very good movie. There is so much to love about Fellini’s films: whether it be his amazing cinematography and production design, his unique use of extras, or his incredible way of weaving characters’ stories together. Fellini was a genius, and this film, while it might not have hit me as hard as some of his other films, was still a marvelous addition to his oeuvre. I absolutely recommend “Fellini Satyricon”, though if you’re rather new to Fellini, I urge you not to start here: Fellini has so many undisputed masterpieces, it would be a shame to start with a film that is, overall, good not great.
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