At the dinner with Trimalchio, the host decides to read some of his own poetry only to have a drunk Eumolpo make fun of it. Outraged, Eumolpo is thrown into the kitchen oven, only to be "saved" by Encolpio. They are both thrown out and languish in the field outside.
I adore Fellini's eye for light and drama. Many scenes in the Satyricon are forcefully homoerotic by nature.
Abruptly Encolpio, Ascylto, and Gitoni are captured on thrown onto a slaver ship. The owner of the ship, Lychas likes to wrestle to the death and catches Encolpio spying, so decides to wrestle him. As he is about to finish Encolpio off, Lychas is entranced by Encolpio's beauty and decides instead to marry him.
Nero was accused of publicly marrying a young boy named Sporos. Petronius was a good friend to Nero and yet this scene was in the original manuscript. Perhaps Nero had a good sense of humor about his affairs, or the detractors created the charge. Sporos was indeed at Nero's side throughout his life and even at his death, so it's not inconceivable.
In a nod to realism, Fellini has the seamen kill a whale. It's the little details like this that makes me love Fellini so much. It has nothing to do with the plot, but it makes the setting more realistic.
There is a major regime change and the old Emperor has evidently been dethroned. Those patrons who were supportive of the old regime are now on the outs with the new one. In a scene directly from history, a rich couple sends off their children and slaves to another land and then take their own lives. In Ancient Rome it was better to die by your own hand than to be killed or enslaved. It was all about honor and the law. With their suicide, their descendants are allowed to inherit instead of everything going to their killers or the new Emperor. Armies march and loot is taken from temples and cities in the only real montage of the film. Lychas ship is boarded and he is killed and evidently the slaves are set free. Ascylto and Encolpio escape and come upon the near empty villa of the suicides. I don't know where little Gitoni went, because he never shows up again.
Ascylto and Encolpio have a three-way with a black slave girl in a very tender scene. The film garnered much attention for this scene considered too risqué for many theaters.
In a scene that wasn't in the book, the two boys come upon a thief who talks them into kidnapping a local demi-god, a hermaphrodite child who is reportedly able to cure sickness. The idea is that they could ransom the child, or use him/her to accumulate wealth. However, the hermaphrodite is sickly and soon perishes, spoiling their scheme. The thief turns on the boys and they have to escape.
In keeping with the fragmented nature of the book, Fellini now suddenly skips to where Encolpio is forced into a maze and made to fight the Minotaur. When Encolpio is finally face to face with his doom, the Minotaur pulls off his mask to reveal a handsome man who laughs at the boy. Then, to his horror, there is an entire population laughing at him. The King explains this is a special holiday where everyone must laugh, and to kick it off there must be a very big prank pulled on an unknowing pawn, hence the Minotaur vs. Encolpio. To make it up to Encolpio, they provide him a beautiful woman for him to make love to. Encolpio is quite proud of his sexual prowess, but can't actually do the deed in front of whole town. This makes him a laughing stock again and he is embarrassed. In order to "get his groove back" he and Ascylto journey to a special brothel where sexual healing is practiced and they meet up again with Eumolpo. Nothing seems to work though and Encolpio is beginning to worry that his "sword will be forever blunted". They then travel to see a witch who can supposedly cure him.
Through the use of hallucinogenics and trickery, Encolpio is indeed cured, but as he declares his victory, Ascylto is killed outside by the ferryman.
Encolpio is saddened and decides to take off on a ship full of ex-slaves to whereabouts unknown. As the book ends (due to not having the actual end of the book) so the movie concludes.
Many people have hated this movie because of the fragmented scenes and the strange way Encolpio gets away from each situation simply by being cute. Even more are put off by Fellini-esque directions such as the "breaking of the fourth wall", the "ugly" beautiful people, or the bizarre soundtrack. However, this will remain one of my all time favorite movies, forever!
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