I just watched about three-quarters of Satyricon (it’s on DVR and I’ll finish watching it later, if my brain ever recovers). I think it broke my brain. I used to joke that really insane movies “Enfeeble” me after watching Meet the Feebles, but this movie takes the cake and eats it too. All I’m really able to say for sure is that the blonde lead is gay or bisexual and is infatuated with an androgynous young man and that he’s going to absurd lengths in pursuit of him. And then for long periods of the film that plotline seems completely abandoned and locations and situations change without any apparent reason or continuity. There are some shots that seemingly have NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER. I had to reverse the playback a few times to see if I missed something that would have made these scenes necessary or even sensible. It’s like someone trying to make a movie adaptation of Gil Orlovitz’s Milkbottle H. Someone please tell me what the fuck this movie is about.
Part of this is due to the fact that what we have of Petronius Arbiter’s original novel The Satyricon is in fragments, so it’s hard to tell what’s going on at some points. And then Fellini is… Fellini, always going for the interesting and grotesque situations and images, even at the expense of a consistent or logical plot. The scattershot nature of his source just gave him an extra excuse for this.
It’s not necessarily supposed to make sense or be deep.
You think that was bad, try 8 1/2.
If this is the weirdest movie you’ve ever seen, you haven’t seen enough movies. 
I really like 8 1/2.
My wife is a Fellini fanatic. I’ve been buying her DVDs regularly for birthdays, Xmas, etc. With me, a little goes a long way, but Amacord wasn’t bad. Likewise, I could follow La Dolce Vita.
Satyricon, however, was a head scratcher (and I had to read it in the original for my last semester of college Latin).
By the way, I think this movie influenced Terry Gilliam in a big way. I swear that two of the scenes from the “King Minos” (Sean Connery) section of Time Bandits were lifted from Satyricon – the birds flying out of the cooked beef carcas (which is also at Trimalchio’s Feast in Satyricon) and the guy in the Minotaur mask (which seems to be in both).
What was the part about hoisting the huge fish on board the boat all about? A friend told me that the fish was symbolic of the coming of Christainity-is this possible?
The fianl scene (where the party goers have to eat the deam man’s fl;esh-that was disgusting!)
Cervaise is dead right.
You bettter stay away from Jodorowsky’s films (Just got the new box set!)
The first night I ever dropped acid, I watched Satyricon. Part of it, anyway. September 1978. I was a college freshman, 17 years old. I wandered into the auditorium of the Yale Law School where the Yale Law School Film Series was running, saw it for a while, then wandered back out with some new friends I’d just met. It was a small part of many dozens of adventures I had that night.
But I’ve never wanted to go back and see it again.
So, Mike, how’s El Topo?
Actually, I WANT to see El Topo!
I am not one to shy away from avante garde films, not one to shy away from ANYTHING artistic, being an artist myslef…Fellini caught me off guard, but I WILL watch the remainder of the film…
I WILL PREVAIL!!!
Don’t know what Mike thought ;), but the new box set is fabulous. Print quality is outstanding; presentation is nearly perfect. And the movie, of course, is a near-masterpiece of primitive surreality.
And Holy Mountain is even weirder. Makes Satyricon look like an episode of Saved by the Bell. 
List, please! 
I loved Satyricon - saw it when I was 14. One of the most “formative” experiences of my life to that point.
A couple of years later, I saw The Devils. Although it was a bit more straightforward than Satyricon, it was no less a “fever dream” (and I’ve seen both El Topo and the Holy Mountain.
BTW, there is a segment in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto which is remarkable in its similarity to Satyricon (i.e. in the city where the sacrifices are being performed). I actually think it was a deliberate homage to Fellini.
Satyricon is Fellini’s meditation on a Godless - specifically un-Christian - universe. That it is rambling, directionless and at times completely incoherent is completely deliberate. Encolpio (the blonde guy) wanders aimlessly looking to satisfy his entirely carnal lusts and only ends up more & more frustrated. References to birth & the absence of ressurection abound - notably the rich patron who lies in his grave and has his assembled household/entourage ‘mourn’ him, or the androgynous ‘demi-god’, who turns out to be nothing more than a sick child.
Since you didn’t make it to the end of the movie, I’ll put it in spoilers:
Encolpio & Ascito stumble on the funeral of a rich man. The rich man has specified in his will that his benefactors must literally eat his corpse in order to inherit his riches. The benefactors are a bit perturbed, but do in fact commit cannibalism in order to attain the promised wealth. This scene fades to a ‘modern-day’ shot of Roman ruins - with crumbling frescos of Encolpio & Ascito on a barren beach. Fellini is making the statement that men who turn to the secular world rather than Christ will simply wither & fade away.
Yeah, the box set is great and the quality of the transfer is excellent. I never saw either before, but I’ve read tons about both. I was much more impressed with “Holy Mountain” than “El Topo,” but both are worth seeing.
The DVD of extra stuff was interesting, too. Peter Gabriel mentions that “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” was inspired by Jodorowsky, and that definitely gives me a whole new take on that album.
I agree.
Still, I’m not a huge fan of *Satyricon *either. I’m not a huge Fellini fan in the first place–though I recognize his contributions. This paper’s Dave Kehr said it best when he said about Satyricon: “A shallow, hypocritical film, without a glimmer of genuine creativity.”
And yeah, on the scale of weird, *Satyricon *is actually pretty tame.
Again I plead; list, please? I am not afraid of weird, despite the impression that my OP might have made.
Eraserhead would probably be up there.
This movie was the least entertaining Fellini film I’ve ever seen.
Is it Jodorowsky-esque? Yes, in that its pretention is overwhelming and that never once will you have a clear understanding what the movie is about, nor will you care.
Jodorowsky sucks and so did Fellini with this rare misfire.