Although it received mixed reviews upon its release in 1969, FELLINI SATYRICON was a major work by one of the cinema's greatest filmmakers. CIAO, FEDERICO! is a lively, ribald, entertaining, and revealing documentary of the shooting of that masterpiece.
Federico Fellini was having second thoughts about permitting Gideon Bachmann to film him shooting his latest picture, a spectacular, episodic work loosely based on the ancient writings of Petronius Arbiter. At one point, apparently, Fellini unsuccessfully urged Bachmann to drop his cinema verite
approach and replace it with a scripted interview format. Relationships between the two men deteriorated even further following the release of the documentary, Fellini feeling his manhood had been impugned by the lyrics of one of the soundtrack songs. Frustrated by Fellini's elusiveness and
contrariness Bachmann abandoned an autobiography he had been writing about the maestro.
After a very brief prologue, CIAO, FEDERICO! begins with Fellini directing an orgy scene from SATYRICON. He speaks in English to his English-speaking actors and in Italian to his crew. Broad gestures of arms and hands liken him to an orchestra conductor and, much in the manner of a silent film
director, he rarely stops talking, even as his camera is rolling--a luxury afforded him by the fact that his movies were almost entirely post-dubbed.
Most of the remainder of the documentary was photographed on two SATYRICON shooting sites: outside on a beach and inside at a Roman banquet. The general impression the observer receives is one of apparent confusion, customary on a movie set but even more pronounced on a Fellini shoot, because none
of the cast and crew know what their director is trying to achieve, and he himself is often unsure what he is after, preferring to find his film in the process of making it than working from a carefully planned schematic.
Fellini's directorial manner seems rather harsh and bullying. "How come you're so stupid!" he says to one performer; he's chastised by another for using profanity; in a scene in which an elderly character is pummeled with fruit, the director is shown leading the pelting with considerable vigor.
According to one actress, however, "He's a very nice person.... There's good vibrations all the time from him, even when he's shouting and yelling."
CIAO, FEDERICO! also records the inherent longueurs that occur on a movie set between takes. During these breaks we see Fellini frequently complaining about his crew; the crew applauding a beautiful blonde when she strips to her bikini for a dip in the ocean; one of SATYRICON's stars, Max Born,
strumming on a guitar and singing a Bob Dylan song; another one, Hiram Keller, wrangling with someone about his salary (and good-naturedly chewing out "Giddie" for filming the incident). In CIAO, FEDERICO!'s final segment several members of Fellini's cast come forward to comment on their boss: "He
plays every part in his film," "The meaning only he knows," "I don't think he needs reality," etc. After Fellini observes that his work is his life, the film concludes with a montage of still photos of its subject, taking him from the present back to infancy.
Although little of FELLINI SATYRICON's greatness can be kenned from this nervously photographed, often irreverent documentary, it is must viewing for cineastes. Unlikely to endorse it, on the other hand, are NOW (Bachmann's camera betrays a positively Fellinian preoccupation with the female
posterior) and the SPCA ("Veterinarian!" we hear Fellini shouting, "That cow keeps moving!"). (Nudity, profanity.) leave a comment