FELLINI SATYRICON [1969 / 2015] [The Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release]
Federico Fellini engages us through a tapestry of decadence during the Roman Empire!
Federico Fellini’s career achieved new levels of eccentricity and brilliance with this remarkable, controversial, extremely loose adaptation of Petronius’s classical Roman satire, written during the reign of Nero. An episodic barrage of sexual licentiousness, godless violence, and eye-catching grotesquery, ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ follows the exploits of two pansexual young men, the handsome scholar Encolpius [Martin Potter] and his vulgar, insatiably lusty friend Ascyltus [Hiram Keller], as they move through a landscape of free-form pagan excess. Creating apparent chaos with exquisite control, and Federico Fellini constructs a weird old world that feels like science fiction.
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FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1969 Venice Film Festival: Win [Pasinetti Award]: Best Italian Film for Federico Fellini. 1970 Golden Globes: Nomination: Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film [Italy]. 1970 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Win: Best Supporting Actor (Migliore Attore Non Protagonista) for Fanfulla. Win: Best Cinematography, Color (Migliore Fotografia a Colori) for Giuseppe Rotunno. Win: Best Costume Design (Migliori Costumi) for Danilo Donati. Win: Best Production Design (Migliore Scenografia) for Danilo Donati and Luigi Scaccianoce. Nomination: Best Director (Regista del Miglior Film) for Federico Fellini. Nomination: Best Supporting Actress (Migliore Attrice Non Protagonista) forLucia Bosé. Nomination: Best Score (Migliore Musica) for Nino Rota. 1970 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Nomination: Best Director for Federico Fellini. 1971 Academy Awards®: Nomination: Best Director for Federico Fellini. 1971 Laurel Awards: Nomination: Best Foreign Film.
FILM FACT No.2: Co-screenwriter Bernardino Zapponi noted that Federico Fellini used a deliberately jerky form of dubbing that caused the dialogue to appear out of sync with the actors' lips. This was in keeping with his original intention of creating a profound sense of estrangement throughout the film.
Cast: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone, Il Moro, Magali Noël, Capucine, Alain Cuny, Fanfulla, Danica la Loggia, Lucia Bosé, Joseph Wheeler, Tanya Lopert, Hylette Adolphe, Gordon Mitchell, George Eastman (born Luigi Montefiori) (Minotaur), Marcello di Folco, Elisa Mainardi, Donyale Luna, Carlo Giordana, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua (uncredited), Pasquale Baldassarre (uncredited), Gigi Ballista (uncredited), Luigi Battaglia (uncredited), Marcello Bonini Olas (uncredited), Samson Burke (uncredited), Dakar (uncredited), Maria De Sisti (uncredited), Mario Del Vago (uncredited), Francesco Di Giacomo (uncredited), Sandro Dori (uncredited), Jessica Dublin (uncredited), Tania Duckworth (uncredited), Elio Gigante (uncredited), Veriano Ginesi (uncredited), Wolfgang Hillinger (uncredited), Mara Krupp (uncredited), Gabriel Lagay (uncredited), Franco Leo (uncredited), Irina Maleeva (uncredited), Karl Menzel (uncredited), Elizabetta Moscatelli (uncredited), Suleiman Ali Nashnush (uncredited), Osiride Pevarello (uncredited), Lorenzo Piani (uncredited), Antonia Pietrosi (uncredited), Amerigo Santarelli (uncredited), Rita Savagnone (uncredited), Sibilla Sedat (uncredited), Richard Simmons (uncredited), Alvaro Vitali (uncredited), Vittorio Vittori (uncredited), Luigi Zerbinati (uncredited) and Renato Zero (uncredited)
Director: Federico Fellini
Producer: Alberto Grimaldi
Screenplay: Bernardino Zapponi (adaptation), Brunello Rondi (additional screenplay), Federico Fellini (adaptation) and Petronius (book)
Composers: Andrew Rudin, Ilhan Mimaroglu, Nino Rota and Tod Dockstader
Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno, A.I.C., A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Color by DeLuxe)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Audio: Italian [Latin]: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Italian: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
English: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 129 minutes
Region: Region A/1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists / The Criterion Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: With the film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON,’ it gave Federico Fellini a big boost to his career and achieved a new levels of eccentricity and brilliance at the same time with this remarkable, controversial, extremely loose adaptation of Gaius Petronius Arbiter a classical Roman Authors satirical novel , and was written during the reign of the Emperor Nero [37 AD – 68 AD], who was the last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius and became Claudius's heir and successor. Like Claudius, Nero became emperor with the consent of the Praetorian Guard. With this film you get to view episodic barrage of sexual licentiousness, godless violence, and totally eye-catching grotesque imagery in the awesome film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ directed by Federico Fellini where his career achieved new levels of eccentricity and brilliance with this remarkable and very controversial film.
The ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ film is very loosely inspired by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, who was the first century Latin satirist, and was a Roman courtier during the reign of the Emperor Nero and Gaius Petronius Arbiter is generally believed to be the author of the “Satyricon” and is a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Emperor Nero dynasty era, which relates to the characteristic of the Roman Emperor Nero, especially in being totally cruel, tyrannical, and at the same time totally licentious. The film charts the episodic story in following the exploits of a young Roman man named Encolpius [Martin Potter] as he attempts to traverse a strange ancient world in order to reunite with his frivolous lover, Gitone [Max Born] and throughout their journey, they are occasionally joined by his contentious ally, Ascyltus [Hiram Keller], and together the duo embark on a series of dangerous, erotic, surreal, violent, and farcical adventures.
With Encolpius travels, he endures various traumas and also encounters a bizarre series of odd and grotesque characters and is eventually reunited with Ascyltus and they subsequently kidnap a hermaphrodite demigod together. In short, this plan does not end well for both of them and the remainder of the film involves Encolpius trying to find a cure for his impotency that is inflicted upon him as punishment for allowing the hermaphrodite demigod to die. Throughout these strange events the film draws parallels between the socio-cultural and political climate of the late 1960s and that of the Roman Empire during the tyrannical reign of the Emperor Nero.
With ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ film, is given great emphasises to the period in the 1960s influence is indeed quite strong and right from the start viewers are invited along for a feverish LSD trip of extra ordinary experiences. The sets and the costume design that is courtesy of Danilo Donati and Luigi Scaccianoce evoke the source text of the book “Satyricon,” but the disorienting editing and lack of much narrative coherence, are more in tune with the 1960’s state of mind at the time the film was produced. Visually, the film is consistent with breath-taking cinematography throughout via the genius of Giuseppe Rotunno.
With Federico Fellini’s distinct warped view of Ancient Rome via the film ‘SATYRICON,’ bears little resemblance to the real world and instead director Federico Fellini creates a strikingly surreal impression of reality, giving us a look at insatiable life of a darkly parallel universe of Federico Fellini’s making, and especially of a post-apocalyptic Rome littered with bold over the top decadence and overt sexuality that you might imagine if you could of visited the real Rome of that period in time. You also get to experience strange goings on, moody atmosphere, and very bizarre production designs that clash with bold colours against drab hues, and at the same time you bask in many other strange scenes under a fiery orange sky, all amongst a constant cacophony of ravenous moans and cackles of laughter, that all amounts to a mixture of carefully framed wide shots and potent close-ups present a sumptuous aesthetic ever so slightly off-balance feel to the film, and is charged by a crazy onslaught to the senses, but at the same time is very deliberately crafted towards mania exuberance.
Federico Fellini insisted on employing non-professional actors purely for their unique on-screen appearances, so to get you view many expressive faces and bodies become a frequent focal point for the camera lens, revealing a carnival of innocent beauty and grotesque unbridled desires. As the film progresses you get lots of standout sequences that provide totally visually rapturous imagery, including a particularly notable series of tracking shot images that are very memorable, especially as you move through seemingly never-ending images of brothels, giving us short glimpses of opens doors that you are curious to know what is happening in a particular room and especially of what carnal sexual escapades are being performed.
Those who are familiar with Federico Fellini’s most famous works, such as ‘La Dolce Vita’ [1960], ‘La Strada’ [1954], and ‘8 ½’ [1963], may not be totally prepared for what you get to view in ‘FELLINI SATYRICON.’ There is lots of many defining characteristics attribute to the director Federico Fellini in his ability to blend fantasy and totally extravagant imagery with the elements of neorealism that marked out in his early films, which Professor John Springer has famously referred to as Federico Fellini’s magic-neo-realism. Indeed, there are inklings of fantastic and surrealist tendencies in some of Federico Fellini other films in particular, and the film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ seems to be much more concerned with an element of magic than with any pretence of realism.
Throughout ‘FELLINI SATYRICON,’ the viewer is made to take note of the different levels that director Federico Fellini and his fellow filmmakers appears to be an acknowledgement that this film is not meant to be taken too seriously, but rather to be enjoyed for the visual excess imagery that it provides in great abundance. All in all I find ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ to be a totally fascinating and really gorgeous visual experience, especially thanks to The Criterion Collection's amazing Blu-ray transfer. What is also amazing is the really over the top colourful make-up and well-designed costumes, and on top of all that, you have the juxtaposition of the drab grey locations with bright and exuberant designed sets, and there was obviously a lot here that later directors drew on tons of inspiration from the director Federico Fellini’s whose ultimate view of his vision of Ancient Rome and he does it with this film and I have loved this film ever since I viewed it in a specialist London cinema that loves to show these types of films and it was a totally gorgeous visual feast for the eyes and now seeing it for the first time on this Blu-ray disc release, it was well worth the wait.
FELLINI SATYRICON MUSIC TRACK LIST
THE DRUMS FOR THE NIEGPADOUDA (From Anthology of Music of Black Africa) (Arranged by Bernard C. Salomon)
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Blu-ray Image Quality – The Criterion Collection brings us a stunning 1080p images presentation of ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ and is enhanced with a wonderful 2.35:1 aspect ratio and of course you get view the English subtitles. This stands out as one of the most essential clean-ups of 2015. Gone are the faded colours, blurred edges, and lack of depth, with all of these interests thoroughly overhauled by a flawlessly balanced, clean, and clear image that stands alongside the brands best works to date. Federico Fellini’s expressionist lighting has never looked this sharp, especially in scenes featuring Danilo Donati’s jaw-dropping set designs and reveals cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno’s work as some of the finest of that era you will ever witness. If there feel you experience a few mild shifts in the colour balance in some of the more visually dynamic scenes, they are just a fading blemish on the visage with this Criterion Collection’s impressive and stunning restoration. Supervised by director of photography Guiseppe Rotunno, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, and flicker. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm optical soundtrack positive. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX 4. Transfer supervisors: Lee Kline, Giuseppe Rotunno, Russell Smith. Colorist: Sheri Eisenberg/Colorworks, Culver City, California.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – The Criterion Collection presents us with just one Italian [Latin] 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio track. As with any Federico Fellini film, you always get to experience some appropriately strange sound design choices, that is very lively, wonderfully weird, so making the sound design a truly Federico Fellini awesome atmospheric experience, and this in turn gives us a sound mix that preserves the film's wonderful unusual ethereal audio ambiance, that of course go so well with the amazing Giuseppe Rotunno cinematography visuals. Again with a Federico Fellini film, there is of course the overtly detached audio sound experience that adds a deliberate and suitably dreamlike quality to the audio track. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm optical soundtrack positive. Notable clicks, thumps, hum, crackles and background hissing is thankfully absent from this film and were manually removed using Pro Tool HD, AudioCube’s integrated workstation and iZotope RX 4.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno for this Blu-ray release
Special Feature: Audio commentary featuring an adaptation of Eileen Lanouette Hughes’s memoir On the Set of “Fellini Satyricon”: A Behind-the-Scenes Diary [2004] [1080p] [2.35:1] [129:28] This audio commentary was recorded by The Criterion Collection in 2004 and features a dramatic reading of Eileen Lanouette Hughes 1971 memoir on the set of ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ – A Behind-the-Scenes Diary about the films production. To listen to the audio commentary while viewing the movie, press the AUDIO button on your remote control for the right audio presentation. With Eileen Lanouette Hughes we get to hear numerous details related to the film's shooting schedule, source material, visual style, casting, and production difficulties are shared throughout. Likewise, we get lots of details about Federico Fellini's directing style and several quotes and anecdotes from the set. Though the “recited essay” style of the audio track is not as appealing as a more natural discussion might have been, this commentary is packed with great information that Federico Fellini fans will really enjoy. Though Eileen Lanouette Hughes opens with an introduction, explaining how Eileen Lanouette Hughes came to the project, the rest of it is her obviously reading a prepared “adaptation” of her work, with her interjecting on occasion her own feelings about the film. Eileen Lanouette Hughes obviously rearranges things around to fit was is going on onscreen, but Eileen Lanouette Hughes talks a lot about the various sets, the casting, the general feel on set, which comes off more like a circus than a film set at times, and what it was like to be around the director Federico Fellini. Eileen Lanouette Hughes gives great detail descriptions of everything but the best aspects of her track are when she talks about her conversations with Federico Fellini, which range from how many orgasms a woman could have in a night, to comparisons of the film ‘SATYRICON’ to Federico Fellini’s other work, which interestingly had Federico Fellini explain his feelings as to why the character of Steiner, in the film ‘La Dolce Vita,’ did what he did, when that film didn’t fully explain it — admittedly trying to avoid a spoiler there. There’s some other interesting stories and there was a real fear that the other ‘SATYRICON’ production that was going on would steal from Federico Fellini’s film and we also get a few amusing anecdotes, like one actress, when asked if she had seen a Federico Fellini film before, mentions she saw the film ‘Blow Up,’ but I did admittedly zone out later on. We do get some interesting aspects towards the film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ but sadly it felt more like an audio book. But despite this, some of what Eileen Lanouette Hughes read out of her diary about her experiences on the set of the film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ was quite insightful and we get lots of small gems of information about certain amazing things that happened on the set of the film.
Special Feature: Ciao, Federico! [1970] [480i] [1.37:1] [60:15] With this featurette we are presented with American critic-filmmaker Gideon Bachmann’s documentary shot on the set of ‘FELLINI SATYRICON.’ Gideon Bachmann, a long-time Rome resident, made this 16mm documentary about the Italian director Federico Fellini. This 1970 documentary chronicles the director at work during the filming of ‘FELLINI SATYRICON.’ Throughout the running time we get plenty of interview footage material with the filmmaker and lots of amazing footage of Federico Fellini in action on the film set, offering an intimate peek at his sometimes gentle and sometimes aggressive directing style, where the film sets appear crowded and disorderly, and with the director Federico Fellini talking to his actors through takes, giving them minute detailed instructions about what they are supposed to be doing and a technique which, combined with his disinterest in dissecting the characters and delving into psychology and motivation, adds greatly to the alien world depicted in the film ‘SATYRICON.’ We also get to see the cast and crew deal with the occasional obstacles and during leisurely guitar breaks between shots. Of course, the real highlight was a quick visit on the film set from director Roman Polanski himself, where the legendary and controversial director spends his brief time on-screen raving about Disneyland. "You must come back to Disneyland," he insists to Federico Fellini. One hilarious aspect of this particular featurette is that when there is any violent movement for some of the cast directed by Federico Fellini or even when Federico Fellini himself waves his arms about in a violent manner, we get the sound of loud rapid explosive sounds that matches the erratic body and arms movements. At one point we get some input from some of the English cast informing us what they liked about the director Federico Fellini. But most of all, watching this madcap documentary is a very surreal experience, as is some of the composed music. Contributors include: Federico Fellini [Director], Gideon Bachmann (uncredited), Max Born (uncredited), Capucine (uncredited), Alain Cuny (uncredited), Dante Ferretti (uncredited), Hiram Keller (uncredited), Tanya Lopert (uncredited), Giulietta Masina (uncredited), Sandra Milo (uncredited), Magali Noël (uncredited), Roman Polanski (uncredited), Martin Potter (uncredited), Salvo Randone (uncredited), Mario Romagnoli (uncredited), Sharon Tate (uncredited) and Romolo Valli (uncredited). Italian with white English subtitles.
Special Feature: Fellini: With this featurette we are presented with three film excerpts from archival interviews that includes several interviews of two people who have worked with the director Federico Fellini on the film ‘SATYRICON’ and discuss the directors creative process of making his films and some of the common themes in his other films and with these three featurettes we are informed that while the director hated interviews, Federico Fellini declined to take part in them, but eventually the director changed his mind and here are the three very rare interviews and they are as follows:
Gideon Bachman [Audio only] [1969] [1080p] [1.78:1] [10:48] With this featurette segment starts with a good quote from Gideon Bachman, where he states, “The ideal film is the one you are making,” where obstacles are stimulating, because they cause you to create. Gideon Bachman calls the film ‘SATYRICON’ his most difficult film ever, because he had to create a world and also portray situations that are considered forbidden and Gideon Bachman found it was the most stressful film for him to work on. Italian with white English subtitles.
French Television Excerpt [1969] [480i] [1.37:1] [1:38] The very short segment presented here, appeared on the 16th December, 1969 and is from an episode featured on Le 20h de France 2 French TV programme. Gideon Bachman talks about morality, or lack thereof in the film ‘SATYRICON,’ and instead showed decadence and vitality. French with white English subtitles.
Gene Shalit [1975] [480i] [1.37:1] [3:00] With this last featurette in this series we have another short interview and the most amusing one, where Federico Fellini briefly chats with Gene Shalit in what appears to be a New York diner. It begins with the title card that reads “Perfection.” Gene Shalit repeats a previous Federico Fellini quote “A good picture has defects,” and has to be complete, vital, and cannot reach perfection and director Federico Fellini makes fun of Gene Shalit’s appearance of his hair and moustache, because it is imperfect and outlandish, yet he likes him for those flaws. The same can be said about the truth with film ‘SATYRICON.’
Special Feature: Giuseppe Rotunno [2011] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2.35:1] [7:38] With this featurette interview we have the film's cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno who shot nine different projects, both features and segments of portmanteau movies for Federico Fellini, but claimed that the ‘FELLINI SYTYRICON’ was the most challenging if them all. In this interview, that was conducted by The Criterion Collection in 2011, and Giuseppe Rotunno describes the production of this epic film and also elaborates about his collaboration with the director Federico Fellini and shares his stories from a film set. Giuseppe Rotunno was born on the 19th March, 1923 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. Giuseppe Rotunno is known for his work on the films of ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’ [1988], ‘Amarcord’ [1973] and ‘All That Jazz’ [1979]. Italian with white English subtitles.
Special Feature: Fellini and Petronius [2014] [1080p] [1.78:1] [23:51] With this featurette documentary, that was produces by The Criterion Collection in 2014, gives us classicists Joanna Paul [English] author of the article “Fellini – Satyricon: Petronius and Film,” and Luca Canali [Italian] who served as an advisor on the movie, discusses Federico Fellini's famously loose adaptation of Petronius’s work. The pair addresses details about the author, and various changes made to the original material. Italian with white English subtitles.
Special Feature: Mary Ellen Mark [2014] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2.35:1] [12:57] With this featurette we have the world-famous photographer Mary Ellen Mark who was just twenty-eight when LOOK magazine assigned her to document production of ‘FELLINI SYTYRICON.’ In this interview that was conducted by The Criterion Collection in 2014, and Mary Ellen Mark shares her photographs from the time in 1969 and discusses her experiences on the set and especially experiencing director Federico Fellini way of working.
Special Feature: Felliniana: With this featurette we get to view the usual selection of ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ ephemera – including posters, books, and programs from Don Young’s massive collection of Federico Fellini – related memorabilia of the Federico Fellini Archive Collection. Press the right arrow button on your remote control to move the images forward and the left arrow button on your remote control to move the images backward. To exit, press the ENTER button on your remote control. There are a total of 31 images.
Theatrical Trailer [1969] [480i] [1.78:1] [2:24] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON.’
PLUS: An in-depth essay by film literary scholar Michael Wood entitled “NOT JUST FRIENDS”" Michael Wood is the author of “America in the Movies; Film: A Very Short Introduction,” and the forthcoming “Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much.” Michael Wood is professor emeritus of English at Princeton University. Michael Wood is also a literary and cultural critic, and an author of critical and scholarly books as well as a writer of reviews, review articles, and columns.
Finally, the film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ is without doubt Federico Fellini's most wildest and most eccentric film ever from this auteur director. The film ‘FELLINI SATYRICON’ has been beautifully restored in 4K and is an absolutely stunning 1080p image resolution with The Criterion Collection Blu-ray release. It also offers a fantastic substantial outstanding selection of new and archival special features that offer plenty of invaluable and rare information about the great Italian director Federico Fellini and his unusual working methods that provide an intimate peek into the legendary director's process. The Federico Fellini film is as always a very unconventional storytelling, and especially featuring erotic and violent content that will probably not be for everyone’s taste, but to my mind this is an undeniably fantastic Blu-ray release for a very unique eccentric film and it is a film that when I first viewed it in the cinema, it was a totally magical experience and has been one of my an all-time favourite Federico Fellini film. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
