I'm watching Fellini's Satyricon for the first time today

Not at all, OP. What a bucket of slop.

I'd rather watch Cleopatra.

I get he's supposed to be a genius. For years, I'd periodically make an attempt at watching Fellini movies.

Then, I realize life was much to short to waste a couple hours on movies I found utterly uninteresting.

For whatever reason, I cannot get into Fellini movies. Maybe I should try again. It's funny because I actually love Antonioni and his movies are actually very "boring".

Didn't like it. He's made some great films but this wasn't one of them.

*Fellini Satyricon (before I'm OH, DEARed)

I was just 18 when I saw it. Hated the movie, loved the mostly naked boys.

Our film society screened this in college, and it was so discontinuous that we were convinced we’d accidentally skipped a reel. We hadn’t.

Some of the imagery is great but it's not one of his best. Most of his best films were in b&w.

I'm not sure I can finish this in one sitting ...

No reason to. It doesn’t go anywhere.

LOVE this film. My fave of Fellini.

Agree with r9. Some Fellini films are perfect (La Strada and 8 1/2 come to mind immediately), but Satyricon is a major miss. Some great scenes, but as a whole, it works like a series of Ken Russell outtakes.

Watching it, I had to keep reminding myself that it was Fellini and not Pasolini (of whom it would have been much more typical).

[quote]Watching it, I had to keep reminding myself that it was Fellini and not Pasolini (of whom it would have been much more typical).

r17 I'm having the EXACT same reaction. It feels very Pasolini-esque

It is rumored that Richard Simmons is a background actor in Satyricon.

[quote] Fellini and not Pasolini

There's a vast difference between them.

One hetero; one homo.

Pasolini is sensuous; Fellini enjoys the ugly and the grotesque.

Pasolini revels in nudity, natural clothing and the outdoors; Fellini filmed much of Satyricon in a dark ugly disorienting synthetic studio with sheets of black plastic.

La Strada, 8 1/2, and La Dolce Vita are his best. But then again Dino Risi and Pasolini were better directors.

Fellini does not age well, unfortunately.

Does anyone recommend I Clowns?

I'm finishing it up this afternoon/evening. (I'm at the part where the pirates approach.)

I must say, I loved the scene where the poet was dying. I'll post the dialogue in a bit, because it's beautiful.

I'm also checking out Petronius' Satyricon from the library this week ... because I'm intrigued.

Just a few moments of pleasure in two hours of ugly Dadaist tedium.

I just watched Fellini's "I Vitelloni" for the second time.

It's on YouTube. Give it a try.

It's a lovely warm comedy. Entertaining. Beautifully directed and acted.

With Fellini's films it helps if you speak Italian and know the culture, Fellini's films are very much speaking to an Italian audience.

Watched it in lockdown. I had fun. The scene with the nympho is fun.

I'm watching Nights of Cabiria for the first time and am loving it, well, Giulietta Masina. I saw La Strada a couple of years ago and she is a genius!

Hiram Keller was SO beautiful

"The Clowns" is OK. It has aspects of a mockumentary, in addition to being a real documentary. It was made for TV, and is not as visually stunning as some of Fellini's other work. I'm not big on clowns or circuses, so I wasn't predisposed to like it...

Well, I'm not sure if I'll watch it again, but if I do, it will be without subtitles so I can focus on the amazing visuals.

Are all the actors Italian?

That is absolutely a fat Richard Simmons in the background shot above. Of course he didn't have any photos of him fat, he is a gay man, after all!

Donyale Luna was stunning in it

This movie is full of freaks.

This is not one of Fellini’s best, OP.

La Dolce Vita is one of my favorite movies and I’ve watched it dozens of times. It’s that good. La Strada, Nights of Cabiria (wow, what a performance!), 8 1/2 and Amarcord are also brilliant.

Roma is also a bit disjointed, but it’s supposed to be a mosaic of scenes that represent the city. Most of the scenes are good/interesting, but they each go on a little too long.

Whoever said his best movies (outside or Amarcord) are in black & white, was right.

I'm watching I Clowns this afternoon ... without subtitles. My Italian isn't good enough to follow, but I hope at least to appreciate the visuals.

Did any of the actors go on to do much else after doing his films?

I own a remastered copy, OP, and don't have to go to a Intelligentsia of Akron Salon Event to see it.

Yes, OP, I am jealous. I've heard so much about this film over the years and I want to make my own judgement on the film.

R27 - I love I Vitelloni, but despite the comedy, there's a sadness that runs through and concludes the movie.

The guys in it seem aimless even though they have dreams.

They basically live off their families.

They come across as emotionally stunted, and they're trapped both in and by their environment.

One can presume that the guy who ends up escaping is not that much unlike Fellini himself.

The final scene - with the guy looking out the train window as what he sees (both visually and in his head/heart) passes him by - is in my opinion one of the all-time great movie endings.

Martin Scorsese has said I Vitelloni influenced him when he was making Mean Streets, and I would argue that even Saturday Night Fever bears more than a passing thematic resemblance.

R39 try Fellini's Il Bidone (1956) aka The Swindler's. Like Fellini's best films it's in b&w

Salo wasn't directed by Fellini r41

I remember watching this with my friends as a teenager and they all thought Gitone was a total user skank.

I like pasolini with brocolli rabe and sausage.

How old was Max Born when this was filmed?

I'm watching Pasolini's Medea today, inspired by this thread.

I hate to be THAT PERSON but they really don't make films like this anymore. I feel special effects have, in some ways, ruined filmmaking.

Nope, not jealous at all — but you do do, OP!

Hiram Keller was Joni Mitchell's boy toy

Hiram Keller was hetero? I assumed he was an AIDS death.

There was a very brief discussion about him here years ago:

Not to turn this into a Pasolini thread, but has there ever been a director with such an keen sense of the beauty of the human face?