★ 7 / 10
If you ever saw or read “Quo Vadis”
CinemaSerf
If you ever saw or read “Quo Vadis” then you will be familiar with the character of Gaius Petronius. He was one of the emperor Nero’s closest advisors and the…
If you ever saw or read “Quo Vadis” then you will be familiar with the character of Gaius Petronius. He was one of the emperor Nero’s closest advisors and the credited author of this fantastic story of mythological excess. In this suitably outrageous Neroic drama, two close friends - “Ascito” (Hiram Keller) and “Encolpio” (Martin Potter) get into a strop about their ownership of their toy-boy “Gitone” (Max Born). Unable to reconcile, they determine to go their separate ways. The young lad chooses to go with the former man and so distraught, the latter considers suicide - but luckily an earthquake intervenes. The aftermath of the chaos sees the men separated and now we follow some of their escapades as they lurch from one debauched scenario to another equally sexually charged environment, with loads of erotic dancing, debauchery and hedonism. In due course, the three are reunited and embark on a wheeze to borrow a demigod from a sacred temple. Now that’s not a good move as he’s only a “demi” so promptly dies and that earns poor old Encolpio the enmity of the gods. Given the context of the whole film, his punishment is especially cruel but with his friend beside him, he hopes that perhaps they can travel to a far away land where there might be a glimmer that things could look up again! Some of the adventures do resemble more familiar fables. Theseus and the Minotaur, for example, but for the most part this is Fellini at his most enjoyably self-indulgent showing beautiful people (and some less so, too) luxuriating in just about every vice known to mankind. That said, there isn’t a surfeit of nudity, violence nor actual depravity on display here. Much of that is teasingly left to our own imagination as it’s tawdry seaminess really doesn’t go anywhere fast. As it progresses, it illustrates quite effectively just what it took to become the stuff of myth and legend in cultures where prowess was measured with little regard to intellect or decency. It’s essentially a romp through Roman history but as well as jealousy and lust it does show us signs of the value of love and loyalty, so there is a tiny element of redemption on offer - but look not for values here, just enjoy the colourful artistry of men (mostly) in the throes of gratuitous dissoluteness.
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★ 8 / 10
Ahem...
Soysoy
"Satyricon" is among the weirdest and most colorful, larger-than-life movies I've ever seen, along with Erasurehead, Erendira, Santa sangre, Naked lunch... If…
"Satyricon" is among the weirdest and most colorful, larger-than-life movies I've ever seen, along with Erasurehead, Erendira, Santa sangre, Naked lunch... If you don't like these, don't even try "Satyricon".On one hand, its many flaws are rather upsetting. The out-of-sync lipping (bad post-sync), the fact that the movie neither really tells a story nor evocates sensible moral or philosophical concepts... so one may say it's actually a dull movie. The violence in this movie doesn't seem to make real sense, neither does the homosexuality, neither does the "romanian decadence" portrait.On the other hand, the scenography, the sets, the costumes and makup are among the most dazzling ones you'll ever see in cinema, and the cinematography... well... maybe the BEST one you'll ever see. I can't think of any another movie able to compete with "Satyricon"'s mindblowing cinematography. Each scene is a terrific picture, with several visual layers, extraordinary lights and focuses, a lot of invention, of visual flair, and the overall technical mastery is stunning.The result is something mesmerizing for some, totally disgusting for others. I have to say I'm more on the mesmerized side, because I was mainly focused on the visual/meditative aspects of the movie, not on the narrative ones.If you're really into cinema, I mean as an artistic media more than as entertainment, you MUST see "Satyricon", as it's to my sense the most *visually* outstanding movie ever made. Be prepared for some disappointment about the movie as a whole, though...
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74%
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6.8/10
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