Day 73/77 - Fellini's Satyricon (1969)

Six years after 8-1/2, Federico Fellini produced one of his strangest films, Fellini's Satyricon.  Losely based on the work by Petronius from the time of the Caesars, the whole experience feels like watching the sexual revolution filtered through visions from a trip in a Roman museum.

Encolpio at the Roman Baths.

The film is intentionally disjointed and fragmented, the same as Petronius work. Says the back cover of the printed script:

Freely adapted from Petronius Arbiter’s Roman classic of the cruel and degenerate age of the Caesars, FELLINI’S SATYRICON is a vast fresco of the pleasures and vices of the world, a disturbing and unflinching portrait of amoral youth and sated elders—and a mirror of mankind that is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

The film, peopled with hundreds of Felliniesque characters, the old, the bizarre, cripples and circus freaks, exist in a world interpreted from the ruined frescos of Rome’s past. Secondary characters are constantly staring and confronting the viewer, much like those from the surviving frescos of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

[Spoilers] We start the film in the urban world of Rome and gradually move further and further into mountainous and forbidding wildernesses. In our trip, we follow the adventures of a young student Encolpio (blonde Martin Potter) and his friend Ascilto (brunette Hiram Keller) who have been fighting over a young lover Gitone (Max Born). Encolpio rescues Gitone from an actor, but when given the choice Gitone leaves Encolpio for Ascilto. 

Devastated, Encolpio visits an art gallery where poet Eumolpus (Salvo Randone) takes him to the baths and then a feast given by Trimalcione (Mario Romagnoli).  Here we watch gluttony, flirtations, boasting, a performance of Homer, and wild dancing. When Eumolpo declares that Trimalcione’s poetry is stolen from another poet, he is sent off to the oven. Trimalcione takes his guests to see his mausoleum where he lies in his sarcoughus to be mourned and his guests ask for gifts. 

A male prostitute tells the story of the widow of Epheus whose refuses to leave her husband’s tomb. A Roman guard of a hanged man comes and comforts her. He convinces her it is better to remain alive. When he discovers the hanged man has been stolen by her family, he threatens suicide, but she tells him to take her husband and hang him instead, since “it is better to hang a dead husband than lose a living lover."

From the feast, Encolpio ends up with his friend Eumolpo. They sleep and when they awake, Encolpio is in chains, having been captured along with Ascilto and Gitone to be playthings for Caesar. Lica (Alain Cuny) , the one-eyed owner of the ship wrestles a man to the death. When he wrestles Encolpio, he falls in love with him, claims Encolpio as his, and the two are married, with Trifena (Capucine) officiating and Lica as the blushing bride. When Caesar is killed by his soldiers, three war ships attack Lica’s vessel and he is beheaded.

Next comes the most touching scene of the movie in the Villa of the Suicides. Called only the Suicide (Joseph Wheeler), the owner of the villa sets his slaves free, sends his children off and tells his wife he wishes she would chose to live. He slits his wrists as they drink wine together. After his death, she kill herself. Encolpio and Ascilto happen on the villa and discover an Oriental slave hiding. The three of them play and joyously make love, reinforcing the theme that it is better to be alive and enjoying living than to die.

The two friends end up at the Temple of the Hemaphrodite, where Fellini develops his commentary on  religion. The two along with another man kill the Hermaphrodite’s protectors and steal the demi-god. Without water the demi-god dies.

In an walled arena in Southern Italy,  Encolpio fights a Minotaur. When he throws himself on the mercy of the Minotaur saying he is “only a student,” the Minotaur grants him his life. It turns out the whole thing was the beginning of a Festival of Mirth. Encolpio is to make love to Ariadne, but finds he cannot perform. Eumolpo reappears, wealthy now, and  takes him to an African town and the Garden of Delights where the women celebrate the Lupercalia. Even this fails to help Encolpio. A dwarf directs Encolpio to see Oenothea, a witch, which he does and succeeds. 

[End Spoilers] Unfortunately Ascilto has been attacked and wounded. As they start to leave, he dies. Encolpio joins Eumolpo’s ship, but he has died also. His will states that to inherit his wealth, his heirs have to eat his body. 

Encolpio leaves with the sailors. As he turns and laughs, the frame freezes and dissolves into a Pompeiian fresco with all the main characters of the story on fragments of walls by the sea-side.

The film, running 2 hours 9 minutes is R-rated for good reason, but when I finished it, the experience is memorable, unique, and ultimately satisfying.

Fellini's Satyricon (1969) ***** (Netlfix streaming, with subtitles)