Build a movie plot around this: What do Encolpius and Ascyltus hope to get from kidnapping the hermaphrodite? Ransom
The film opens on a graffiti-covered wall with Encolpius lamenting the loss of his lover Giton to Ascyltus. Vowing to win him back, he learns at the Thermae that Ascyltus sold Giton to the actor Vernacchio. At the theatre, he discovers Vernacchio and Giton performing in a lewd play based on the "emperor's miracle": a slave's hand is axed off and replaced with a gold one. Encolpius storms the stage and reclaims Giton. On their return to Encolpius's home in the Insula Felicles, a Roman tenement building, they walk through the vast Roman brothel known as the Lupanare, observing numerous sensual scenes. They fall asleep after making love at Encolpius's place. Ascyltus sneaks into the room, waking Encolpius with a whiplash. Since both share the tenement room, Encolpius proposes they divide up their property and separate. Ascyltus mockingly suggests they split Giton in half. Encolpius is driven to suicidal despair, however, when Giton decides to leave with Ascyltus. At that moment, an earthquake destroys the tenement.Encolpius meets the poet Eumolpus at the art museum. The elderly poet blames current corruption on the mania for money and invites his young friend to a banquet held at the villa of Trimalchio, a wealthy freeman, and his wife Fortunata. Eumolpus's declamation of poetry is met with catcalls and thrown food. While Fortunata performs a frantic dance, the bored Trimalchio turns his attention to two very young boys. Scandalized, Fortunata berates her husband who attacks her then has her covered in gizzards and gravy. Fancying himself a poet, Trimalchio recites one of his finer poems whereupon Eumolpus accuses him of stealing verses from Lucretius. Enraged, Trimalchio orders the poet to be tortured by his slaves in the villa's huge kitchen furnace. The guests are then invited to visit Trimalchio's tomb where he enacts his own death in an ostentatious ceremony. The story of the Matron of Ephesus is recounted, the first story-within-a-story in the film.[4] Encolpius finally leaves the villa, helping the...