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Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone, Mario Romagnoli ... see more see more... , Magali Noël , Capucine , Alain Cuny , Lucia Bosé , Joseph Wheeler , Hylette Adolphe , Tanya Lopert , George Eastman , Elisa Mainardi , Luigi Battaglia , Fanfulla , Danika La Loggia , Donyale Luna , Lorenzo Piani , Giuseppe Sanvitale , Richard Simmons , Gordon Mitchell , Luigi Visconti , Wolfgang Hillinger

Federico Fellini makes his most decadent, undisciplined work in this free adaptation of Petronius' famous farcical chronicle of ancient Roman life. The film opens with Encolpio (Martin Potter) vying w... read more read more...ith his friend Ascilto (Hiram Keller) for the affections of a young effeminate lad named Gitone (Max Born). When the youth chooses his rival or him, Encolpio begins a journey that has him encountering Romans of every stripe and color. He drops in on an orgy thrown by Trimalchio (Mario Romagnoli), a wealth-loving ex-slave who has spurned his wife in favor of a pleasures of a young boy; he toils on a slave galley, fighting off the advances of Lichas (Alain Cuny) -- the ship's burly wall-eyed captain; he steals an albino hermaphrodite demi-god who is reputed to be able to tell the future; and fails to summon the enthusiasm to make love to a whore-priestess. Along the way, we witness a parade of prostitutes in ancient Rome's pleasure quarters; watch performance by Vernacchio (Fanfulla), an actor whose on-stage specialties include farting and public amputation; and the wonton devouring of a human corpse for financial gain. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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R, 2 hr. 9 min.

Directed by: Federico Fellini

Release Date: August 3, 1969

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DVD Release Date: April 10, 2001

Stats: 465 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (465)

  • 366weirdmovies
    April 11, 2012
    366weirdmovies
    Fellini's fragmented "free adaptation' of Petronius' epic poem (much of which is lost) jumps around depicting adventures in the Roman world, from a decadent orgy/feast to the theft of a hermaphrodite demigod(dess), with a minotaur in between. Almost impossible to follow but alway... read mores gorgeous to look at, it's a major indulgence from a major director; when extraordinary talent indulges itself, the results are usually worthwhile.
  • SirPant
    February 14, 2011
    SirPant
    Satyricon is a feast of colour, surrealism and debauchery. It doesn't have the heart that 8 1/2 has or the tenderness of La Strada, both joint favourite Fellini films for me, but it is probably his greatest achievement as far as production goes. The whole thing is astonishing, aw... read moreesome and utterly brilliant. The term masterpiece is often overused but not so here. The dialogue is wickedly funny.

    Note - Some of the reviews here on flixster and on imbd are hilarious

    'I know this movie is foreign and a Fellini so I'm supposed to like it' & 'I've torn between giving this five stars for the quality of the production and none for the perversion of it all...Themes of homoseual behaviour throughout..'

    Hurry up Aaron Seltzer, your fans are getting restless!
  • djdemersseman
    August 9, 2010
    djdemersseman
    Fellini innovated in his time, but it just feels tame and underwhelming by today's standards. On the other hand, I rather enjoyed the dialogue.
  • matertenebraum
    March 24, 2010
    matertenebraum
    The cinema of the silent and Fascist eras in Italy was characterised by epic movies with mostly mythology-inspired themes. Mussolini, who came into power in 1922, the founder of Cinecittà, did not underestimate the importance of cinema as a means of communicating with the masses.... read more Fellini notoriously called Giulietta Masina's titular character in Notti di Cabiria after the 1913 movie "Cabiria" by Giovanni Pastrone, a grand production with a visual flair not so dissimilar to Satyricon. Literally hundreds of characters parade in front of the camera in this visual orgy of a movie, evoking the memory of lost "Kolossals", or gargantuan budget productions.

    Fellini's movie was only loosely inspired by its literary source, Petronius's Satyricon. The nominal "plot" follows two young Roman men, the blonde Encolpio and the brunette Ascilto, introduced as rivals in love for the coquettish, androgynous slave-boy Gitone. When the latter chooses to be with Ascilto, the spurned lover Encolpio becomes involved in a series of adventures, all narrated with a familiar (to Fellini lovers), non-linear narrative structure with temporal inconsistencies and dreamlike, sudden changes of setting and mood. Encolpio attends the decadent banquet of a former slave, Trimalcione, now filthy rich. Eumolpo, an impoverished poet whom Encolpio meets on the way there, despises the wealthy man, all the more so for being rich and for having the nerve to also call himself a poet. The faint-hearted may at this point find much to object to ? the lasciviousness with which the banquet guests eat, drink and act lustful with one another is anything but subtle. The Trimalcione sequences felt to me like a satirical commentary on the rise of the nouveau riche in 1960s Italy. A highlight of the banquet scene is the story that the host narrates. It tells of a young widow, an oasis of cinematic calm in among the strident cacophony of the rest of the movie.

    In a narrative passage which is reminiscent of the rhythm of dreams (typical of late Fellini, betraying his Jungian tendencies), Encolpio ends up captured by the pirate Lica, who takes him on board his ship. This is where the young buck meets Ascilto and Gitone again, also captives of the tyrant. At this point I was especially impressed with the extraordinary talent of Donati as a set designer. The ship wasn't built to look like a recognisable ship at all, but was rather like a symbol of one. Needless to say that no matter how abstract it was, you knew it was a ship, as its "ship-like essence" was all there! When Encolpio is beaten in a duel with Lica, he is forced to marry the pirate in a ceremony celebrated on the deck. But Lica is decapitated by some political rivals when a new Emperor takes over. "Everything changes so that it can all stay the same" is a cynical saying you still often hear in Italy. It refers to the fact that one greedy ruler will succeed another in a ruthless battle for power and privilege. That's when you realise Satyricon is a brilliant satire of modern society as well.

    Encolpio and Ascilto then wander into the aristocratic home of a husband and wife who've just freed their slaves and committed suicide through bleeding themselves to death (a symbol of the death of aristocracy while the nouveau riche are getting fat?). After a threesome with a slave-girl who was left behind in the dead couple's empty home, the two young men attend a sort of sanctuary where an old man exploits the alleged healing powers of a very sick-looking, ethereal hermaphrodite child. Worshippers, lepers, cripples and sick people of all descriptions flock to ask for favours off the allegedly divine hermaphrodite. If this isn't a dark, ruthless parody of the Catholic practice of worshipping saints' relics, I don't know what is!

    Subsequently captured by some soldiers, Encolpio is defeated by the Minotaur in his mythological labyrinth. The young man's life is spared when he literally talks the Minotaur out of slaying him, in a scene which is both post-modern and subtly comical. But a new humiliation is in store for Encolpio, which has him set off looking for the sorceress Enotea. Her story is told in flashback. Yet again, the prudish and faint of heart will not find the scenes of a cursed woman literally "giving birth" to fire through her vagina as their cup of tea! Though admittedly unsavoury, I also find such elements to be archetypically symbolic, and ultimately fascinating.

    After visiting Enotea, Encolpio witnesses the killing of his friend Ascilto. Desperately upset, Encolpio decides to set sail for Africa on a merchant ship owned by the once-poor and bitter old poet Eumolpo, now as filthy rich and decadent as Trimalcione, whom he had once criticised for his parvenu vulgarity. When the old poet dies, he leaves a testament stating that whoever will eat his corpse will have a share of his wealth - basically, inheritance by cannibalism! Encolpio refuses the deal, while a group of greedy Roman dignitaries are shown chewing on what must obviously be the dead poet's tough old flesh, looking like so many fat cows chewing on their cuds. If a satire of a stagnant and greedy society was ever more potent and cutting than this, I would really like to hear about it!

    Fellini himself defined this movie as being "Science fiction of the past". The movie's complete and intentional artifice, its occasionally obscure symbolism and gallery of grotesque portraits and strident soundtrack may not be everyone's thing. What is especially unsettling about Satyricon is that the viewer is led into a realm in which you have no idea what boundaries might be crossed. That's exactly why this is a perfect portrayal of an epoch of complete moral decadence - it drags the viewer into the exact same realm of uncertainty that the characters experience.
  • webalina
    May 8, 2008
    webalina
    I've torn between giving this five stars for the quality of the production and none for the perversion of it all. Set in Nero's Rome, it's more of a two-hour plus dream sequence than a film with any kind of story. Fellini fills this film with every type of surreal image and kind... read more of debauchery he could get away with in 1969 -- pedophilia and buggery, S&M and cannibalism, to name a few. And of course it has all the colorful freakish folks Fellini is famous for. Not for the faint of heart or morally pure. But if you're looking for something a little out of the ordinary, this might be the film for you. Themes of homoseual behavior throughout, and some graphically violent images, but no worse than most of the horror films released in the last 20 years.
  • binky013
    March 20, 2007
    binky013
    Lots of great words have been applied to this one, including bizarre, grotesque, hedonistic, outrageous. These are all good words, and for sure the Rome depicted here gives much credence to the idea that lead-based paints and food and drink vessels made of lead possibly do signi... read moreficantly contribute to a breakdown of mental capacity.

    Okay, I'd like to throw this out to you, just because I haven't read much about this angle. Fellini is an Italian who's Italy born and bred, right? He chooses to "document" a period in his country's past, presenting it in a rather bizarre way. Actually, the word "insane" comes to mind -- he documents it in an insane way. Is Fellini in any way saying that his Italy -- the one he finds himself living in -- is a kind of product, partially at least, of the Italy portrayed in Satyricon? Historical roots, you know. I would certainly not dare to call this film a moving tribute to Fellini's motherland, of course, because it does seem to be not a little uncomplimentary of Nero's Italy. Unflattering or insulting or even damning? I don't know. Just some speculation. The whole running discussion of Roman and Greek poetry is tied into the history mix in an interesting way. Here's a thought provoking quote from the film to add to this idea of traditions revered and jeered:

    "I like to listen to Greek when I eat."

    Uh, would that be because the Greeks are such a refined entertainment that their beautiful poetry befits the occasion? Come on. Look at the mealtime scenes in this movie. What do you think?

    I'll tell you another thing which makes me wonder about this angle. When he shot I Vitelloni, Fellini seems to have avoided doing any location shooting on his home ground, Rimini, when portraying Rimini. He would choose sites elsewhere. This is the Rimini from which he apparently had to get away in order to make his life amount to anything. To stay there would have condemned him, perhaps, to the life of the vitelloni. So he feels this way about Rimini and he escapes to the "big city," to Rome. Only to find dissatisfaction with Rome? Who knows. Oh well, just more speculation from me.

    All of a sudden, I'm flashing on Spaghetti Westerns. Remember The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, right? "The beautiful" seems to be missing from the title, don't you think? I have an alternate title for Satyricon. How about The Bad and the Ugly? No good to be found, and certainly nothing beautiful.
  • panta2
    February 2, 2009
    panta2
    [size=5][color=red][b]SATYRICON (1969)[/b][/color][/size]
    [b][size=5][color=#ff0000][/color][/size][/b]
    [b][size=5][color=#ff0000][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/fellini_satyricon/"][img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/coverv/41/172841.jpg[/img][/url][/color][... read more/size][/b]
    [b][size=5][color=#ff0000][/color][/size][/b]

    [b][color=#ff0000]I pored toga ?to sam jedan od obo?avatelja Felinija, moram sam sebi priznati da je ovo bilo i moje najveæe razoèarenje. Film koji je tako razbacan da i pored svih virtuoznih poteza re?iserke palete spada u osrednje ili ni?eg kvaliteta... [/color][/b]
    [b][color=#ff0000][/color][/b]
    [b][color=#ff0000]Znam da je ovo deo novog talasa italijanskog filma, ali toliki propusti i nedostatak čak i ?elje da se sve sastavi u jednu umetničku celinu mi jednostavno ne dozvoljavaju da , kao istoričar umetnosti i kritičar, ovako sakupljenim pričama dam prelaznu ocenu![/color][/b]
    [b][color=#ff0000][/color][/b]
    [b][color=#ff0000]Ne bih vi?e ni vremena gubio na ovo delo, pogledajte ga samo kao deo istorije, ali ne i umetnosti! Dobija 5 od moguæih 10, ?to je mislim èak i previ?e![/color][/b]
    [b][color=#ff0000][/color][/b]
    [color=red][b]Uloge: [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/martin_potter/"][color=red]Martin Potter[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/gordon_mitchell/"][color=red]Gordon Mitchell[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/magali_noel/"][color=red]Magali Noel[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/alain_cuny/"][color=red]Alain Cuny[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/il_moro/"][color=red]Il Moro[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/fanfulla/"][color=red]Fanfulla[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/joseph_wheeler/"][color=red]Joseph Wheeler[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/george_eastman/"][color=red]Luigi Montefiori[/color][/url][color=red][b], [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/lucia_bose/"][color=red]Lucia Bose[/color][/url]
    [color=red][b]Scenario i re?ija: [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/federico_fellini/"][color=red]Federico Fellini[/color][/url]
    [color=red][b]Kompozitor: [/b][/color][url="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nino_rota/"][color=red]Nino Rota[/color][/url]
  • ragglefraggle09
    May 6, 2012
    ragglefraggle09
    Watching "Satyricon" and the characters that inhabit it is like watching a pig roll in its own filth. Fellini here is clearly indulging in a practice of excess, pushing the boundaries of the amounts of taboo and obscene behaviors he can capture on frame. Not only that, but the lo... read moreok of the movie itself is either extravagant decadence or akin to a trollop.

    Why the movie is even worth watching after such a description lies in ironic artistic qualities, which there, surprisingly, still are, due mostly to Fellini's magic touch.

    The look of the movie itself, though very sludgy and muddy, is still beautiful in its own right. Fellini just does something with the array of wardrobes and colors that makes the characters and sets look like a full painter's palette, one that is midway in creating a masterpiece. Not only that, but many of the sets and background themselves resemble bucolic paintings. Visually, the anachronistic world is bursting with energy and innovation to keep you watching.

    The movie itself is pretty much an exercise in excess. The extremely disjointed, nearly incomprehensible, barely episodic narrative makes the barest bones of a plot difficult to identify. However, through this Fellini is able to showcase everything he wants about the world in "Satyricon." It's an uncompromising world of hedonism, sins, and amorality. Yet, it is also a world rich with snippets of mythology, cultism, and, arguably, culture. By watching the events on screen one is desensitizing themselves to the actions going on and accepting an invitation to an entirely novel world Fellini has created, a feat that is not easy per se. Even the beginning and final shots imply that we are looking back into history, but into the parts that have been lost in time. Being based on the Petronius poem, "Satyricon" shows Fellini, albeit possibly disgusting and indulgent, exercising his full artistic, creative abilities to the nth degree by using film to spawn a world of his own. Even if it makes you raise a brow.

    It doesn't seem that there many other meaningful traits to be found. If this film is even about anything, though it seems to be inane, it could be about the rise and dissipation of power, represented in this film as luxurious pleasures. But, let's be honest, it's mostly just provocation and stimulation of our senses inside a film that could, arbitrarily, very well be about something. The degree to which you enjoy this film is the degree to which you either appreciate its bravura audacity and aesthetic beauty or the degree to which you are repulsed by the overwhelming obscene and crude content.
  • DrStrangeblog
    June 26, 2009
    DrStrangeblog
    TCM's Robert Osborne introduced this by saying, "There has never been a film like it before, or since." I suppose that's true - 'Satyricon' is less interested in telling a story than setting up lavish, twisted scenes of debauchery and gluttony. The budget must've been huge for ... read morethe time, some stunning compositions, sets, costumes, and cast of thousands...well, hundreds anyway. Fellini makes some biting points about art vs. commerce and the downfall of culture within a self-destructive society of consumption and excess. However he's more interested in staging his surrealistic set-pieces, so the social commentary gets a little lost within his 2:15 overindulgence. The "incomplete" ending, just like in Petronius' writings and broken mosaics on palace walls, is brilliant though. An eyeful of a curio which is probably worth watching once for those intrigued.
  • HuskersNC949597
    May 6, 2010
    HuskersNC949597
    No doubt colorful in a literal sense, the costumes, sets and so on are elaborate and well done. And of course the source material is incomplete and fragmented so for the film adaptation to be that way as well is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm just still not sure what Fellini'... read mores message was: "There is only the infinite passion of life"? Or "An allegorical satire of our present-day world"? Maybe they're not mutually exclusive, but for the record I'd rather not return to the excesses of the Roman empire, even if they are exaggerated here.

View All Fellini - Satyricon (The Degenerates) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
September 13, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

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. Full Review

Dave Kehr
September 13, 2008
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

A shallow, hypocritical film, without a glimmer of genuine creativity. Full Review

Louis B. Parks
July 21, 2005
Louis B. Parks, Houston Chronicle

Those who don't weaken and bolt for the door experience a one-of-a-kind visual adventure they are unlikely to forget. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

It is a surreal epic that, I confidently believe, will outlive all its interpretations. Full Review

Roger Ebert
August 1, 2001
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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... Full Review

Jon Fortgang
September 13, 2008
Jon Fortgang, Film4

True, the various strands are never bound together, but with material this sumptuous it really doesn't matter. Full Review

August 29, 2006
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The odd thing is that the excess seems visual and mythical rather than really sexual. Full Review

June 24, 2006
Time Out

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 re... Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 4, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

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. Full Review

S. James Wegg
October 11, 2004
S. James Wegg, JWR

Hedonistic buffet

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