Fellini Satyricon

Satyricon is a screen adaptation of Petronius's novella about life in the time of Nero. We are introduced into a bizarre and highly bisexual world of parvenus, war mongers, hedonists, pimps and catamites. Fellini offers a narrative of 25 distinct episodes, only loosely connected by the presence of the young and adventurous student Encolpio, who desperately longs for love and happiness, but who is constantly startled by the occurrence of events. The storyline is a bit too erratic for my taste but Fellini manages to capture the spirit of a disintegrating society in its relentless pursuit of pleasure. Shocking scenes of debauchery and black comedy were frowned upon by the audience in the late sixties and in my view this film tapped the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Encolpio's love-hate-relationship with Ascilto, and their joint attraction to the angelic slave boy Gitone, is placed at the center of the film. One may marvel at the young age of Trimalchio's rent boys who appear to us as innocent twelve-year-olds but Gitone is barely three years older! His vacillating heart makes him an elusive lover and his sexual relationship with both males seems to be sanctioned by Fellini. The true moment of détente is when Encolpio reclines with his beloved, which seems to suggest that pederasty is not necessarily dirty or wrong. If sex defiles, it also sanctifies. We are constantly reminded of the fact that humans are basically flesh and blood, containers of emotions and compulsions. The world we witness is a whorehouse without shame or disgust. In this respect, "Satyricon" tells us that boy love is deeply and irrevocably embedded in the human condition, and that it will always reveal itself, whatever the repressions it attracts, however bizarre its forms. The film warns us that we, over-civilized spectators of the 21st century, have wasted our lives, that we have not acted on our desires, that we have lost our most precious capital: youth.

4444(创建者)