In ancient Rome, a young student (Martin Potter) has had his boy toy (Max Born) stolen from him by his ex-lover (Hiram Keller) who has sold him to an actor (Fanfulla) and he is determined to get him back. Thus begins a surreal fantasy and journey through the decadence of imperial Rome. Two words: freak show. If one realizes that it's pointless to attempt to try and make any kind of narrative sense of this mess, one can enjoy the slumming like strolling through a carnival. Visually, it's a sumptuous feast with Giuseppe Rotunno's stunning wide screen imagery, Danilo Donati's handsome costumes and Luigi Scaccianoce's dazzling art direction. It's not the kind of film where acting matters a whit so the amateurish performances of the two leads can be ignored (if you didn't, you'd go batty). People always talk about those "Fellini faces" and Fellini must have had his posse on overdrive to populate this film with all the weird and bizarre types he could grab off the street. Some of them look like they don't have their wits about them which gives the film an uncomfortable exploitative feel. I can't recall a film with more leering faces and flicking tongues (was Fellini's direction, "act like a snake!"). The large wasted cast includes some well known names as Capucine (whose beauty is deliberately sabotaged), Alain Cuny, Lucia Bose, Magali Noel and Donyale Luna.
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