Four films chronicled by Richard Corliss

FROM SATYRIC TO SUBLIME

Fellini Satyricon is the title United Artists has used to distinguish Federico the Freaked-out’s latest film from a cheapie movie called Satyricon made at the same time. It also might help dispel the suspicion that Fellini’s freak tragedy in Roman drag has any more than the most tenuous connection with remnants of a comic potpourri by the first-century libertine Petronius. Introducing his lucid translation of Petronius’ remarkable shards, William Arrowsmith claims that the Satyricon was written to be read aloud by a highly trained actor-rhetorician, whose rhythm and inflections would breathe life into what might seem monotonous if read as literature. The hope for this picture, that Fellini would act both as translator to the modern world and “reader” or interpreter of its tempo and mores, is crushed by the end of the first reel. Fellini, self-proclaimed “man of the circus,” is actually the side-show barker who (literally) parades an endless line of freaks, fumps, fools and phonies before our presumably gaping child’s eyes.

RC

About the Author

Richard Corliss

FROM SATYRIC TO SUBLIME

Fellini Satyricon is the title United Artists has used to distinguish Federico the Freaked-out’s latest film from a cheapie movie called Satyricon made at the same time. It also might help dispel the suspicion that Fellini’s freak tragedy in Roman drag has any more than the most tenuous connection with remnants of a comic potpourri by the first-century libertine Petronius. Introducing his lucid translation of Petronius’ remarkable shards, William Arrowsmith claims that the Satyricon was written to be read aloud by a highly trained actor-rhetorician, whose rhythm and inflections would breathe life into what might seem monotonous if read as literature. The hope for this picture, that Fellini would act both as translator to the modern world and “reader” or interpreter of its tempo and mores, is crushed by the end of the first reel. Fellini, self-proclaimed “man of the circus,” is actually the side-show barker who (literally) parades an endless line of freaks, fumps, fools and phonies before our presumably gaping child’s eyes.