It seems like everyone on this message board missed a very important point about Satyricon: It is based on a Book! So much of the "weirdness" is not Fellini's doing, but the author's! The book was written by Petronius, one of the Emperor Nero's courtiers in the 1st Century. The book is widely recognized by historians as a peek into the lives of lower class Romans, and the general social mores of the time. In addition, parts of the book were lost during the Middle Ages, so the sketchy, non linear storyline comes from the book, not Fellini! Besides being visually gorgeous, the film does a very good job of portraying how very different ancient Graeco-Roman society was from our own, and how sex in particular was not seen as shameful or in any way limited to a narrow idea of what's "normal" as it is in America today. Unlike recent Roman Period movies or shows - such as HBO's "Rome" - which are constantly trying to make the ancient world seem familiar and "just like us." Fellini goes the other direction, and gives the other side of the coin - YES, the Romans were "like us" in many ways, but in other ways, they were also quite Alien, and UN-like modern Americans - VERY unlike.