I’m a huge fan of Federico Fellini‘s films, films that have essentially become part of the the fabric of cinema history. This largely refers to La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, La Strada, The Nights of Cabiria and Amarcord. Of course, I’ve also seen and enjoyed I Vitelloni and Juliet of the Spirits while also not particularly loving The White Sheik or Ginger & Fred. I mention this only as a note that I will pretty much devour whatever Fellini feature is placed in front of me, and as much as I was ready to delve into this new Criterion release of his 1969 feature Fellini Satyricon, I can’t say the trip was an enjoyable one.
Admittedly, Criterion always manages to deliver something intriguing with their releases and this new Blu-ray edition of Fellini Satyricon is no different, but not for the film itself, more for the supplemental material that makes you start to think the film is better than it actually is.
I’m not familiar with Petronius‘s Roman satire of which this film was based (loosely by Criterion’s description) and perhaps that’s why I had such a hard time finishing it, almost painfully difficult. I love Fellini’s whimsical, circus-like storytelling nature, but this movie, on first watch, appeared to be nothing more than just that. I’m not discounting the fact I could probably watch it a third and fourth time and learn to find a greater appreciation, but I’m not interested or inclined to do so.
[amz asin=”B00PULRDJU” size=”small”]The story, for the uninitiated, primarily follows the exploits of two young men, the scholar Encolpius (Martin Potter) and his friend Ascyltus (Hiram Keller) as they bounce around an increasingly odd landscape that feels like something out of a Alejandro Jodoworsky film. Though, from what I’ve seen of Jodoworsky (which is admittedly limited), he has far more control and purpose when it comes to excess than Fellini exhibits here.
Kudos to the Criterion folks for their restoration of the film, however, as it looks beautiful. The restoration was supervised by director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno who also provides a new interview segment as one of the disc’s pieces of supplemental material, which begins what is truly a wonderful collection of features.
I may not have enjoyed the film much, but Criterion has done Fellini justice with a batch of features that includes the aforementioned interview with Rotunno and an excellent interview with photographer Mary Ellen Mark who was given free reign on set during production, freedom she says that seems to be lost now due to the rise of the Internet and the paranoia surrounding such coverage. Along with three archival interviews with Fellini, there’s also a discussion examining Petronius’ work in conjunction with Fellini’s film, featuring classicists Luca Canali (who served as a consultant on the film) and Joanna Paul.
“Ciao, Federico!” is a vintage featurette from Gideon Bachmann going behind-the-scenes of the production, which I would have much rather watched twice over than the film once. Here we see Fellini in action up to the point where he’s yelling at actors, “Up your ass! How can you be so stupid?” only to have to apologize seconds later for getting so riled up. His frustration at times is as fascinating to watch as his calm nature directing a ménage à trois, advising the actors to touch her, move there, lay back, etc. Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate are even seen visiting the set.
Finally, there’s a unique audio “commentary”, if you can call it that, where an adaptation of Eileen Lanouette Hughes‘s memoir “On the Set of Fellini Satyricon: A Behind-the-Scenes Diary” is read in time with the film. It offers an interest peek behind the scenes including how the film changed throughout production, the casting, interactions between the cast and crew and much more. It’s far from “typical”, but in the case of this film perhaps that’s appropriate.
In his interview piece Rotunno says Fellini once told him his two most “fully realized” films were Satyricon and Casanova. Rotunno assumes this to mean the two films he was happiest with and wouldn’t want to change. I have not seen Casanova, but I can only read this to mean Fellini finds far more meaning in the vagaries of the film, which Canali even refers to as “hard to follow”, than I do. Suffice to say, fans of Fellini Satyricon will love this new release and fans of Fellini will find the supplemental material fascinating no matter their opinion of the overall movie. Whether that’s reason enough for you to purchase it, I will to you to figure out.
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