FELLINI SATIRICON

Italy, 1969, 128 minutes, Colour.
Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Salvo Randone, Alain Cuny, Capucine, Magali Noel.
Directed by Federico Fellini.

During the 1950s, screenwriter and sometime actor (The Miracle) Federico Fellini directed a number of films which indicated that he would be in the pantheon of great directors, La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, winning Academy Awards. In 1959 he released a masterpiece, La Dolce Vita and, in the early 1960s, 8 ½. He followed this with Juliet of the Spirits.

Fellini had a background in circus and was intrigued by the grotesque aspects of circus and carnival. While these elements were in his early films, they come to the fore in his adaptation of the work of the Roman writer, Petronius, The Satiricon, adding his own name to the title of his film. The film traces the picaresque story of two young Romans, caught up in the corruption of the era, in the world of theatre, on the galleys, in the strange world of aristocrats and depravity – along with some scenes, grim in their focus on suicide, of decent and elegant Romans.

Martin Potter, who was to have a career in his native UK, and American Hiram Keller were the two young men. Included in the cast were a number of famous Italian actors as well as the French Alain Cuny and model-turned-actress, Capucine.

The film is visually striking, with its enclosed world of the theatre, of life on the galley, in the different travels through the desert, mountains and other terrain by the two young men, along with indications of the fresco art of this period of Rome’s history.

Satiricon had quite an impact in its time, somewhat shocking for mainstream audiences at the end of the 1960s, but more interesting in later decades with audiences able to deal with themes and visuals as well as the ambiguous moral perspective.

1. The film in its time, controversy, masterpiece, in the corpus of Fellini’s work?

2. Fellini, his career, his autobiographical films, his love of circus, performance, grotesques? His perspectives on sexuality?

3. The choice of Petronius and his Satiricon, the Roman Empire, decline, decadence? His perspective on the Roman past, its relationship to the contemporary world, contemporary Italy?

4. The colour photography, the dramatic use of colour for interiors, exteriors? Costumes and decor? Make up? Special effects, grotesques? Editing and pace? The style of the musical score?

5. The work of Petronius, surviving in fragments, Fellini and his using this as a basis for the screenplay, a selection of fragments?

6. The focus on Encolpio, as the hero or anti-hero of the film? Asciolto and his presence? Gitone? Encolpio seeing him with Asciolto?

7. The opening, Encolpio and the frescoes, graffiti? His voice over, Roman student, giving up his studies, the friendship with Asciolto and then a clash, his passion for Gitnone? Seeking him?

8. Asciolto, his voiceover, creeping, his story of the sexual encounters, the actor, selling Gitone, his fighting with Encolpio?

9. The transition to the theatre, performance, the actor, the insect, breaking wind, the grotesque audience, the woman, the man taken and the cutting off of his hand? The stagecraft? The young Caesar present?

10. Encolpio, confronting Vernacchio, wanting Gitone, the actor wanting to sell him, the various offers for buying him? The entourage, the threats to burn the theatre? The transition to the amphitheatre, the entrails, the different types of make-up? Sexual behaviour, provocative, nudity? Encolpio wandering through the grotesque subterranean world, the long walk through the brothel and the various niches?

11. Encolpio, Asciolto, the rivalries? The division of all their property, but Gitone choosing Asciolto? The quake, the collapse of the building, everybody fleeing?

12. The gallery, Eumolpo, talk of Ganymede, Narcissus, Apollo, the poet talking about contemporary art, about the paintings, about the materialism of art?

13. The telling of the story, the rival poet, the transition to action outside, the cattle?

14. The vista of the red sky, candles, the crowd jumping up and down, the enormous banquet, the huge entourage? The extravagance, the food, the threat to execute the cook, exercise of mercy? The range of slaves, waiting on the people? The guests and their greed and gluttony?

15. The performance of Greek while they were eating? The unveiling of the mosaic of the host? The bitterness of Eumolpo? The host clashing with his wife, the accusation that his poetic lines were from Lucretius? Ousting Eumolpo?

16. Trimalcho, the guests, going to the mausoleum, Trimalcho anticipating his death, the grave, the mime of mourning, the greed of people wanting his wealth?

17. The story of the widow of Ephesus, her grieving, her husband, the soldier on guard, the sexual encounter, the thieves taking the body, the wife suggesting that her husband’s body be substituted to save the soldier?

18. Eumolpo, thinking he was dying, with Encolpio, bequeathing beauty and poetry to him?

19. The group arrested, on the boat, the aristocratic woman? The set of the galley, oars, the prisoners below? Gitone told there with Asciolto? Encolpio by himself? Lichas and the prisoners? Taking Encolpio’s tunic, wrestling with him, the ceremony and the marriage, the commitment? The seasons on the boat,
the enormous sea creature? The armed ships? The young Caesar killing himself, the capture of the ship?

20. The pageantry of the new Caesar arriving?

21. The domestic sequence, the master freeing the slaves, all the slaves, adults and children leaving, his tenderness towards them? His wife in attendance? The suicide? Asciolto and Encolpio arriving, seeing the wealth, the masks, the slave girl present, playing with her, in the bath, the bed, the food,
her singing, the troops burning the corpses?

22. In the desert, the nymphomaniac, taking her to the hermaphrodite, the range of clients, the thief and the two helping him steal the hermaphrodite, travelling through the desert, no water, the hermaphrodite parched, dying? The thief fighting the two, Asciolto killing him?

23. The story of the killing of the Minotaur, the battle, the mazes, the Minotaur sparing Encolpio, unmasking? The feast of mirth, the mocking of a stranger? Giving Encolpio to Ariadne, his impotence?

24. eumolpo arriving again, wealth and luxury?

25. The story of Oenothea, the fire, the cure for Encolpio, but Asciolto found dead?

26. The poet, his will, asking that his friends devour him and only then have his wealth? One hour of nausea for a life of wealth? The rationalising of the cannibalism?

27. Encolpio going travelling, the stories of his travel, and his turning into the fresco, the range of frescoes summarising the film?