Got my hands on some hash the other day, and consequently ended up watching a few movies, among others:
Satyricon (Federico Fellini 1969)
Loosely based on Satyricon (book) by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, Fellinis version presents a strange caricatured version of the citizens of the Roman Empire. They are presented as absolutely unstoppable in their hedonism and debauchery. Constantly fucking, eating untill they throw up and eating more, etc. At the same time, it seems almost everything they has been ritualized, so the entire movie is filled to the brim with chanting, music, dancing and strange behaviour in general. Except for the brilliant and quite funny ending, I didn't find Satyricon to be very interesting in terms of dialogue and plot. It is nonetheless well worth seing based on visuals and sound alone. It suffers a bit from the classic "art movie" trick of having tons of people staring at the walls/camera, but at least they are all fucking strange looking. Satyricon conveys to me a feeling of a society so engulfed in its own hedonism that it is on the brink of collapse.
Possession(Andrzej Zulawski 1981)
Starting as a very uncomfortable break-up/downward spiral movie set in West Berlin, Possession eventually takes a very surprising turn that I won't spoil for anyone here, but I highly recommend it. I will allow myself to say that things get very very fucked up for everyone involved. Sam Neill, who seems to have a habit of showing up in movies where I don't expect him to show up, plays fucked up and crazy almost as good as Isabelle Adjane, who plays his wife. The whole movie has that uncomfortable vibe to it thats hard to put your finger on.
