Satyricon 19 – Scene XIII: Encolpius The Husband

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Film, satyricon

(Previously – Satyricon 18 – Scene XII: Encolpius Married)

There is another fade out to denote time passing on the ship, and when the camera returns, snow coats the deck (really fake polystyrene).[1] Also visible is a jagged anchor (unrealistic but suggestive of what we recognize as an anchor) and a large square apparatus made of wood and copper. The production designer meant this to represent the huge mirror the inventor Archimedes famously built during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BCE to focus and burn Roman ships with the rays of the sun.[2]

As the journey drags on, the non-slaves listen to a singer accompany a lyre. It is not entirely clear, but according to the script this is Lichas, completing his transformation into “the next Giton”. Encolpius has been saved from a life of servitude, but is still separated from his original beloved, Giton. The younger man uses his secret language hand signals on a sailor who is massaging his knee, which plunges Encolpius into gloom.

In a shot that closes this short scene, the audience at the recital looks at the camera. The wealthy passengers are near, and in the distance the sailor/soldiers are arranged in a box resembling a frame. Artificiality continues to be imposed upon the scenes.

(Up Next: Satyricon 20 – Scene XIV: Lichas Murdered)

——-

[1] Hughes, Eileen (1971), On the Set of Fellini-Satyricon (Morrow), p. 189.
[2] Ibid., p. 187.

Satyricon 18 – Scene XII: Encolpius Married

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Film, satyricon

(Previously – Satyricon 17 – Scene XI: Encolpius Confined and Pinned)

In the novel, Encolpius’ sea voyage was meant to evoke Odysseus’ travels.  In Homer’s tale, Odysseus angered the sea god Poseidon and was repeatedly shipwrecked in his attempt to reach home.  Encolpius had angered the fertility god Priapus and embarked on a voyage of his own to placate the divine power.

In Fellini’s film, once Lichas has claimed him by defeated him in a wrestling bout, he marries Encolpius.  However, Lichas interestingly inverts his conqueror’s role and becomes the wife in the arrangement.  This mirrors the relationship between Encolpius and Giton in the film, where Giton the younger partner is routinely feminized.  Therefore, the next “partner” of Encolpius takes on a feminine appearance as well.  Fellini may have made Lichas act this way to continue his fascination with “weird sexuality”, or may have been showing another construct that is accepted in the world of the film (and antiquity) but would be considered strange for most of the modern audience.

Satyricon 17 – Scene XI: Encolpius Confined and Pinned

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Film, satyricon

(Previously – Satyricon 16 – Scene X: Encolpius Captured)

Soon, Ascyltus is showing his reconciled friend how to entertain himself during the journey, since Ascyltus is all about seeking pleasure. He shows Encolpius a spy hole in the wall of their hold, a wall where Fellini artfully arranges almost naked bodies in boxes to further suggest the idea of confined men.

Satyricon 16 – Scene X: Encolpius Captured

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Film, satyricon

(Previously – Satyricon 15 – Scene IX: Eumolpus’ Bequest)

In the previous scene, an overhead shot showed Eumolpus in the final moments of his speech.  Once silence, except for the wind, descends, Encolpius receives an overhead shot, but we notice that it is different.  It is horizontal (Eumolpus’ was vertical), light appears at the top (Eumolpus was completely in shadow), and it is immediately clear that it is a location shot (the previous scene was obviously staged in a studio).  This marks our transition into another chunk of the narrative, another chapter in Encolpius’ adventures where he is kidnapped and put aboard a ship.

In the Petronius novel, after some more quarreling over Giton, Encolpius and Ascyltus reconcile and they, along with Eumolpus, plan to make a journey somewhere (section 99ff.).  There is a break in the surviving text and suddenly the characters are on a ship.  Fellini has preserved the disjunction in the text on the screen, although he allows a roughly-woken Encolpius to be, like us, momentarily confused as to what is happening.

Satyricon 15 – Scene IX: Eumolpus’ Bequest

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Film, satyricon

(Previously – Satyricon 14 – Scene VIII: Trimalchio’s Tomb and the Widow of Ephesus)

Somehow Eumolpus has escaped the kitchen of Trimalcho and wanders, supported by Encolpius, through a cultivated field. The movie returns the focus to Encolpius after the lengthy Trimalchio episode where he was largely in the background.

Note how the quiet, almost serene, field immediately follows the loud laughs of Hermeros’ audience. Again noise is contrasted with silence and connected via a jump cut.

Satyricon 14 – Scene VIII: Trimalchio’s Tomb and the Widow of Ephesus

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Film, satyricon

(Previously – Satyricon 13 – Scene VIIc: Dinner with Trimalchio – Third Course)

I love the Widow of Ephesus story both because of its clever punch line and its Epicurean philosophy.  In the novel, it is told by Eumolpus to soothe tensions after an argument on Lichas’ ship (sections 111-112).  In Fellini’s film, it is told by Hermeros, the rich freedman who earlier berated Encolpius…

Satyricon 13 – Scene VIIc: Dinner with Trimalchio – Third Course

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Film, satyricon

(Previously – Satyricon 12 – Scene VIIb: Dinner with Trimalchio – Second Course)

We’ve jumped ahead to a later point in the dinner from Trimalchio and Fortunata’s wild dance.  Fellini really loves allowing a scene to reach a noisy crescendo and then immediately jump cutting to a quiet, calmer scene.  It underscores the fragmentary nature of the narrative.

“On July 26th…” – This scene comes directly from the novel (section 53).  Trimalchio’s accountant reads out the current tally of his business acquisitions (so his guests can hear).  The text is almost the same (although in the novel the name of the crucified slave is Mithridates).  Petronius lists Trimalchio’s fortune as ten million sesterces.

The men in the pit are the musicians who are now given a moment to eat.