The film is either a celebration of depravity or a warning against Godlessness, though no one knows which and Fellini doesn't bother to make the distinction himself.
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:17
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: In SATYRICON, Italian New Wave director Federico Fellini depicts the hedonistic, amoral, pre-Christian world of ancient Rome. Using the unfinished classical writings of Petronius as his guide,... In SATYRICON, Italian New Wave director Federico Fellini depicts the hedonistic, amoral, pre-Christian world of ancient Rome. Using the unfinished classical writings of Petronius as his guide, Fellini invents a dreamlike culture full of strange, distant characters and odd, grotesque events. Though the film lacks a definitive plot or narrative structure, its constants are Gitone (Max Born) and Encolpius (Martin Potter), whose unsavory encounters with sex, the theater, and religion are the film's focal point. Presenting a loosely structured episodic tale of decadence and depravity in ancient Rome, SATYRICON follows the adventures of two students as they negotiate their way through a variety of mishaps, dangers, and sexual encounters. What results is a bizarre journey through ancient Rome. This story is a perfect example of Fellini's accomplished skill in bringing fantasy to the screen. [More]
Starring: Martin Potter, Max Born, Hiram Keller, Capucine
Starring: Martin Potter, Max Born, Hiram Keller, Capucine, Gordon Mitchell, Salvo Randone, Magali Noel, Alain Cuny, Il Moro, Fanfulla, Joseph Wheeler, Luigi Montefiori, Lucia Bose
Director: Federico Fellini
Director: Federico Fellini
Screenwriter: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi
Composer: Nino Rota
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Reviews for Fellini Satyricon
It is a surreal epic that, I confidently believe, will outlive all its interpretations.
It is so much more ambitious and audacious than most of what we see today that simply as a reckless gesture, it shames these timid times. Films like this are a reminder of how machine-made and limited recent product has become.
True, the various strands are never bound together, but with material this sumptuous it really doesn't matter.
Felliini's ancient Roman tale with a modern message is as cynical and bleak as its images are startling and original.
A shallow, hypocritical film, without a glimmer of genuine creativity.
Fellini received a well deserved Oscar nomination for this bizarre, wildly flamboyant but plotless spectacle, inspired by the firt century author Petronius, flaunting glorious production values.
Those who don't weaken and bolt for the door experience a one-of-a-kind visual adventure they are unlikely to forget.
Federico Fellini presents an incredible fresco-like vision of Rome's social structure 2,000 years ago in which survival and pleasure were man's sole motivating forces.
The odd thing is that the excess seems visual and mythical rather than really sexual.
Fellini's characteristic delirium is in fact anchored in a precise, psychological schema: under the matrix of bisexuality, he explores the complexes of castration, impotence, paranoia and libidinal release.
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