Dolce&Gabbana have funded the restoration of Fellini’s Satyricon, a movie released in 1969 by the “La Dolce Vita” director that depicted the decadence of the Roman Empire.
When released in 1969 the Satyricon by Fellini was received by the critics with mixed feelings: “auto-complacent”, “too experimental”, “way too kitsch” were only some of the comments in the reviews.
Actually simply too much ahead of the times, Fellini’s Satyricon was a very difficult movie to understand then, depicting a crazy, decadent panorama of Roman Empire, a story only partially based on the literature work of Petronio Arbitro.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana decided to fund the restoration of the movie, entrusted to photography director Giuseppe Rotunno, who took care of the movie’s photography 43 years ago. The restored movie edition will debut at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 13 at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater.
Stefano Gabbana explained to Repubblica, one of the most important newspapers of Italy, that “Satyricon is not a movie for everyone, but it’s also true that what you don’t understand immediately is often refused and rejected”. (October 5th 2012, pag.47) Domenico Dolce agreed, “Maybe among all Fellini’s movies this is most complicated one to follow. But we love all Fellini’s works anyway”. This happened to the two designers, too: not being understood just because they were too ahead of times.
Fellini himself actually defined the movie “an excerpt of science fiction from the past”.
Asked by Laura Laurenzi if there is a scene that they prefer, they both say there is not one in particular, but in general they love the way Imperial Rome is depicted, how inspiring it is. Always been in love with women, they also appreciate the modern choice of the actress in the movie: Lucia Bosé, Capucine, Donyale Luna, Magali Noël.
The two fashion designers have been always inspired by Fellini, and they even entitled at least three of them to him: “La Dolce Vita” (Spring Summer 1992) “Le notti di Cabiria” (Fall Winter 1996), “Roma” (Fall Winter 1997). Their aim, as much as the cinema universe, is to tell a story.
And it doesn’t matter how much effort and money this requires: the important thing – they both say without revealing the cost of the initiative – is to preserve the history and the culture of our country.”
Source: la Repubblica, 5/10/2012, article by Laura Laurenzi, pag.47
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