Fellini - Satyricon (1969)

Cover for DVD release

Loved it!  Is it disjointed, yes.  Is it perplexing, yes.  Is the subject matter a bit unnerving, of course, but that to a certain degree is what makes it palatable.

On IMDb, Satyricon gets a measly 6.7, but I think this grossly underestimates the power of the film.  As with Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), I'm sure the subject matter drives a good chunk of people away from it.  But just like Hedwig, if you look beyond your own prejudices and distastes, there is a beautiful love story, or more succinctly a beautiful story, told well.

The cinematography is phenomenal, and for those that approach films like classic books (i.e. looking for alliteration, foreshadowing, hyperboles, etc) Fellini seems to be a master of that.

The only possible detriment to the movie, and I don't think it's the film itself, is the quality of the print I was looking at.  I wonder if a bluRay reissue would take the time to clean the film to get rid of the excess of scratches that my DVD version had.

Apart from such trivialities, the film was spotless, and deserves it's place in the pantheon of classics.