Satyricon (Fellini Satyricon)

Federico Fellini directed Satyricon (Fellini Satyricon), a 1969 Italian-French film that many count among his strangest; he described it as a mysterious, suggestive fairy tale. It treats the debauchery of pre-Christian Rome as an analogue of the modern age. It was entered in the 30th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Pasinetti Award.

The source is the satirical work Satyricon by the Roman writer Petronius, who lived under Nero and whose text survives only in fragments. Fellini adapted it very freely, in nine episodes. Encolpius (Martin Potter) and his friend Ascyltus (Hiram Keller) try to win the heart of the young Gitón (Max Born) in a surreal Roman landscape. Their path runs through pleasure-loving company and conversations about religion, life and sexuality. The cast also includes Salvo Randone, Magali Noël, Capucine, Alain Cuny, Gordon Mitchell and George Eastman.

Fellini wrote the script with Bernardino Zapponi and Brunello Rondi; Alberto Grimaldi produced, and filming took place at Cinecittà. Giuseppe Rotunno was the cinematographer, Ruggero Mastroianni the editor and Nino Rota the composer, with the Turkish composer İlhan Mimaroğlu contributing to the music. The film earned Fellini his third Oscar nomination for Best Director and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It is also known as The Degenerates.