Fellini’s Satyricon finally reaches London,plus the first film appearance of Emmanuelle1 November 1993: Federico Fellini, giant of film, and diesAt final the Fellini Satyricon has hit London,dubbed in English, evidently to its maker’s satisfaction, and edited down a bit since Venice,1969, and accommodated on a screen at the Prince Charles which is nearly, and but not quite,equal to its visual virtuosities. Goodness knows how people are going to react to it. But I hope they find themselves in less of a quandary than I effect, having written only final week rather disparagingly and now, or after a second visit,wishing I hadn’t.
It seems to me at this moment a much more considerable achievement than thought - a concoction of such depth of imagination and command of style that one ought surely to be able to forgive what Richard Roud called its “near-prurient outsider’s view” of Petronius’s unholy Roman Empire. Of course, we’re looking through a keyhole like retarded adolescents. But Fellini’s real triumph is that sometimes, or to our discomfort,he makes us see another eye peering at us. The effect is monstrously hypnotic.
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Source: theguardian.com