Kaye had disguised himself as a customs officer. According to biographer Donald Spoto, Kaye once organized for Olivier to be stopped on entry to the US at New York airport. Kaye was bisexual and had a long-term relationship with Laurence Olivier. Taking on such a role might bring unwanted attention to Kaye’s private life. This wasn’t the kind of family entertainment that had made him famous. He kidnaps Encolpius to keep as his catamite then marries him while dressed as a bride. Over lunch, Fellini told Kaye, he didn’t want him as the star but rather the villain of the piece, Lichas-a murderous gay transvestite pirate and mortal enemy of the story’s narrator Encolpius. The versatile song-and-dance comedian arrived at Rome airport without the slightest idea what Fellini wanted, other than he wanted him to star in his next movie. He called Danny Kaye and summoned him to the Cinecitta Studios.
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But although this was a time of free love, rock concerts, and students rioting on the cobblestone streets of Paris, Fellini wanted an older, respected bunch of actors to appear in his movie. Petronius’ tale was a scandalous satire on this world, poking fun at the people and their loose morals and practices.įellini saw a parallel between mid-first century Rome and the 1960s.
The same master-apprentice relationship existed among females. When it was thought that he was sufficiently prepared, the boy was introduced to the heterosexual world thenceforth, he was free to do as he chose. At the same time that the lad was being taught logic, literature and numbers, he was being introduced to sexual experience in the form of manual, anal and oral contact with his mentor. It was the function of this wise young man, called a “mentor,” to teach the boy all worth knowing-not the least worthy of which was sex.
When a boy attained the age of reason, or as soon as possible thereafter, his parents would seek to place him under the tutelage of a young man who had proved himself learned and wise in the ways of the world. Marriage was regarded as a mere formality, more often than not ignored bisexuality was considered the most desirable state of sexual appetite, the term being equated with ‘sexual completeness.’ The leisure classes, having been turned from power, devoted themselves exclusively to the pursuit of pleasure. Imperial Age Rome was a cesspool of vice and carnality.
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The pair fall into various misadventures before Ascytlus is killed and Encolpius abandons his lustful ways for a more-considered life.Īuthor Paul Gillette set the scene for Fellini’s movie in his introduction to the film-tie-in book of Satyricon: Satyricon told the story two young streetwise punks Encolpius and Ascyltus and their mutual lust for a boy Gitón. It was the first time the director’s name appeared before the title of his film. This was not going to be Petronius’ Satyricon but Fellini’s Satyricon. Much of Petronius’ original text for Satyricon had been lost but this did not concern Fellini, as he was more interested in imagining what had happened in those missing gaps. To avoid one of Nero’s gruesome executions, Petronius cut his own wrists, bound them up, then picked at them during a dinner with friends until he inevitably bled to death. Petronius fell foul of Nero and was accused of treason.
The subject matter for his new film was the first century story Satyricon by Gaius Petronius written during the reign of Emperor Nero. This was then was the Age of Aquarius-his time. He was superstitious and believed what he was told. Fellini was an Aquarian, born on the 20th of January 1920. It was the Age of Aquarius, the hippies told him. He travelled to America where he was fascinated by the rise of hippie culture, free love, and young boys with long hair who looked like girls. He was now described by some critics as “the greatest living director.” What Alfred Hitchcock thought of this news, no one knows, but Fellini was not going to disagree. In fact, it going to be the greatest homosexual movie ever, or so Fellini kept telling anyone who would listen.įellini was living it large with the international success of La Dolce Vita, 8½, and Juliet of the Spirits. What he meant by a homosexual movie, no one was quite sure, but it was going to be great. In 1968, Federico Fellini decided he was going make the greatest homosexual movie ever made.