Fellini Satyricon [Blu-ray]

Oh, i was just so wonderfully excited when i was informed that this visual extravaganza,one of Fellini's most famous, and, daring movies, was in fact getting the "Criterion's treatment"! What a perfect choice: this time, Fellini goes wild telling of Rome at its rowdy ancient times, with a formidable, and visionary reconstruction, perfectly served by the 'maestro', who doesn't worry about the budget, obviously, but creates, and, invents segments , that are truly art in motion and become a feast for the eyes composed of exquisitely presented, designed, and photographed beauty! This is a movie that is truly one of a kind, thanks also to the contributions of an excellent, ensemble work from a first class international cast, and crew: they achieve such visuals and momentum, sometime you'd think to be watching a master's painting instead, it's that kind of luxury fascinating all audiences with the most beautiful, and vibrant colors, just stunning to look at ! And, there's hardly a dull moment in "Satyricorn": it is a delightful, and never less than compelling, Art Film you get to watch, and to taste, almost as if it was a very fine wine, as intoxicating as it is highly dreamy. A cast of a thousand faces helps the show to take off, too, while Martin Potter and Hiram Keller, are quite unforgettable, as the two lead characters who never seem afraid to live in the moment some of the most outrageous parties the days had to offer, but you realize soon they are tragically lost, always looking for something that isn't clearly there: they are two adventurous young men open to all what life has to offer, but, ultimately, missing love and communion, faith and hope. After all they are portrayed as icons of the most exuberant, and most decadent days of the fierce Roman Empire and of its greedy and deceitful society who does never stop wanting more and more, ignoring others, and rarely giving or caring, as they are selfishly way too engaged in facing the present, to be able to worry about the future! They live on, spending all the strength and wealth, brought by the power, to exhaustion, and, without remorse, but, actually, almost consuming themselves through an array of increasingly incessant, mysterious, isolating functions, often enforcing cruel mores and laws, while a perpetuating restlessness and its visible lack of justice and sensibility, often it's haunting the narration as an omen hinting to this insane living at the search of the ultimate pleasure, as a darker sensation that is obviously suggesting the advent of much less lavish and carefree days ahead! The harrowing wild crowd however seems way too addicted to the luxury, and to a somewhat sick and insatiable desire for whatever they can get a kick out of living, to be able to expect, or even to care for the end of their foolish run. Fellini is excellent indeed in recreating that world with all of its damnation, greed, and despair that eventually will take the Empire to its ruinous fall. And, i will add that Criterion delivers as usual, and this version of the movie is restored to be indeed a true spectacle, and a joy for the eyes. If you haven't seen this movie before, this is certainly the best way to see it today, and, if you already have seen it, instead, this is the opportunity for a second (or third ..) experience of this unique piece, one of the gems encrusting the work of outstanding genius director, and true master, Federico Fellini, a man who highly, and so successfully, contributed to change the movies and their art, revealing a whole new world of winning creation, amazing and arresting visuals, finding a whole new sense of the media and ways to modern storytelling.

I love Fellini’s Satyricon; to my eye it is the most visually opulent and imaginative of all of his films, a riot of color and texture, an orgy of provocative and disturbingly dreamy images. So I was delighted to see that it was finally being released on Blu-ray, and by Criterion, no less. Loaded with extras, the release gives us a beautifully detailed reproduction of Fellini’s canvas, and for that I am thankful.What I am not thankful for, however, is the treatment of subtitles and language options (or a lack thereof). It’s highly disappointing that Criterion didn’t bother to include the English-language dubbed soundtrack that is available on the earlier DVD release from MGM Home Entertainment. I’m sure that many foreign-language film aficionados, for whom an English dubbed version is anathema, find the original language version superior, and I must say that I have encountered far too many horrible English language dubs out there. But there are several circumstances that argue strongly for one in this case. First, keep in mind that ALL versions of Satyricon—and the overwhelming majority of Italian films in general—are dubbed in post-production, even for the Italian-language version. That’s how Italian film studios have made movies for most of the past century; soundtracks were not recorded during the actual filming. (Producer Walter Wanger wrote insightfully about the trials faced during filming of the 20th Century Fox epic Cleopatra at Cinecitta studios in Rome; countless shots were ruined because of noise generated by the crew members, who were not accustomed to remaining silent during filming.) So in this, Satyricon is no worse than any other Fellini film. But what is disconcerting in this case, is that the three leads are all English-speaking actors: Martin Potter (Encolpio) and Max Born (Gitone) are English by birth, while Hiram Keller (Ascilto) is American. And it is totally evident, even glaringly obvious, that they are speaking their lines in English. So you have the discomforting experience of seeing them mouth the words that you are reading in the English subtitles while hearing other actors altogether voicing Italian dialogue that may or may not be close to what they are actually saying.I read once that Fellini’s original intention was to have the movie dubbed into Latin or some other dead language, so that everyone, regardless of nationality, would be forced to read the subtitles, as he wanted to emphasize a disconnect between the viewer and the ancient mythological world he was trying to create. Obviously he did not adhere to his original intention, however, as the film was shown in theaters and released on Blu-ray by Criterion with a dubbed Italian soundtrack.Making it worse is the fact that the subtitles are large and superimposed upon the film image—and those images are of paramount importance in a psychedelic dreamscape such as Fellini as concocted here. That may be how the subtitles appear in theaters, but at home the picture, even on a widescreen TV, is letterboxed, and those same subtitles could have been relegated to the black portion at the bottom of the screen, without disrupting the visual impact of those superb pictures. I’m surprised no one thought of doing that here.Otherwise, the quality of the release is uniformly excellent. Apparently Criterion giveth, and Criterion taketh away.

We ordered from Australia, and got a DVD in a format that doesn't work here.

"Satyricon" (1969) is directed by Federico Fellini (Amacord, 8 1/2). This 130 minute film is remastered by Criterion in 4K resolution. The film is based on parts of Petronius's classical Roman satire. The original Petronius work consisted of 16 books of which only parts of three books are known now to exist. Fellini wished to represent this notion of fragmentation in the movie and he does so by showing glimpses here and there of Roman life without any real narrative or story. Fellini takes Petronius's realist work and fashions a surreal and rather grotesque view of Roman times that resembles a sort of freak show that speaks of an unknowable past.As usual Criterion includes a wealth of special features, including a behind the scenes documentary, archival interviews with the director, as well as interviews with classicists Luca Canali and an essay by film scholar Michael Wood.

High quality Blu-Ray edition, in Italian with English subtitles, with a number of documentaries, commentaries, and interviews about Fellini and his adaptation of Petronius' fragmentary novel. The background information is critical for helping one to better understand the novel and what Fellini was trying to achieve with his film. It really helped me to appreciate the film and Fellini's creative genius.

upon release I bought it was still watch it today along with Caligula

A film of Fellini' s fantasy.