Satyricon, the most visually glorious film I've ever seen, is an art history textbook liberated from its pages and transferred to film. The images metamorphose from monochrome to color, from abstraction to realism, from seeming to be in a studio to being outdoors before your amazed eyes. The exteriors are breathtaking, the sets are superlative, the colors, the composition, the lighting are stunning. I've seen this in paintings and mosaics, but never in film. Not even Tarkovsky can compare.<br /><br />Satyricon does not tell a story in the usual sense of the word. There are two protagonists, but their adversary isn't on the screen, he's in the director's chair. Fate pushes Encolpius and Ascyltos from one adventure to the next. Like reading Don Quixote, there are stories within the story and we lose our protagonists sometimes, but then they reappear to guide us to the next chapter within the art history book Fellini has created.<br /><br />History, architecture, mythology, painting, poetry: these are the subjects of the movie. But even bigger than that is the true sense of mystery that this film evokes regarding art. Art was born out of mankind's need to create order in the face of chaos and mystery. The mystery still has not been solved, so art (this film, for example) continues to live. Art is humanity, and Satyricon is a waking dream on this topic. Although times change and mores shift, mankind hasn't changed much in the 2000 years since Petronius wrote The Satyricon. Within the chaos of this film you will find much that is familiar, even if you can't really tell your friends what it's about.