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**** “Fellini Satyricon.”

MGM/UA. $29.95. 1969.

Federico Fellini’s version of Petronius’ “Satyricon” is a cinematic phenomenon, though it’s also sometimes disappointingly joyless. Fellini plays against the bawdy humor of the original, drowning Ancient Rome’s polymorphous perversities in rhapsodically voyeuristic horror. On some level, the film seems to be showing us a hell with only two exits--suicide or flight--and it also has two shallow lead actors: Martin Potter and Hiram Keller. But viewed as a lyric nightmare on history--and, metaphorically, on the ‘60s hedonistic excesses--it’s extraordinary. Danilo Donati’s design, Giuseppe Rotunno’s cinematography, Nino Rota’s wildly eclectic score and Fellini’s synthesis of all these sights and sounds fuse into a fascinating spectacle. Letterbox format.