Inspired by the novel by Petronius, Emperor Nero’s official “arbiter of elegance,” Fellini Satyricon is a tour through the spectacle of Rome during Nero’s reign. The loose plot follows Encolpius in search of his male lover, Giton, through an empire of feast, festival, orgy, and death. “The events emerge directly from the well of pre-incarnate memory,” Nathaniel Dorsky wrote. “We see a real world. Fragments of a history reveal themselves. . . . The audience must actively explore the screen as Fellini himself explores and discovers.” Fellini called the film “a science fiction picture, but projected into the past, not the future. It is a journey into the unknown.”