The Decameron

• Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Comedy
• Movie Type: Sex Comedy, Period Film
• Themes: Sexual Awakening, Bohemian Life
• Main Cast: Pier Paolo Pasolini
• Release Year: 1970
• Country: IT/WG/FR
• Run Time: 107 minutes

Plot

The Decameron was the first of director Pier Paolo Pasolini's "trilogy of life." The film, based on the sexually supercharged tales of Boccaccio, is a patchwork of many of Pasolini's favorite themes. Pasolini himself plays the role of an aspiring fresco painter who is advised that his completed work will never be as satisfying as his dream of that work. The film is followed by Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales and The Arabian Nights. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

Although Pier Paolo Pasolini does away with the framing device and the story structure of Giovanni Boccaccio's classic set of tales, he does follow the source's sense of playfulness about matters both sensual and romantic. Sex is a device for deceit for many of the characters: a woman invites a wealthy young man to her home, presumably to entertain him but then "reveals" that she is actually his sister and proceeds to rob and humiliate him; a young man pretends to be a deaf-mute to get a job in a convent where he might seduce the younger nuns, but then all of them, including the mother superior, demand a piece of the action; a priest is talked into providing a secret spell for an impoverished couple, only to use his powers as an excuse to have sex with the wife; a young woman claims to need an open-air balcony for sleeping on a hot night, when what she really wants is a trysting spot with her lover. Pasolini appears several times as Giotto, who is seen contemplating the creation of a mural in a church, though in the end he asks, "Why execute a work when it's so beautiful to dream it?" Nearly all eight stories here are well executed, but Pasolini, like so many artists, understands the gap between the conception of a piece and its actual realization. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Cast

Guido Alberti; Patrizia Capparelli - Alibech; Franco Citti - Ciappelletto; Ninetto Davoli - Andreuccio; Jovan Jovanovich; Angela Luce - Peronella; Silvana Mangano - Madonna; Gianni Rizzo; Monique Van Vooren; Pier Paolo Pasolini - Giotto; Giacomo Rizzo; Gianni Esposito; Patrizia de Clara; Wolfgang Hillinger; Vittorio Fanfoni

Credit

Danilo Donati - Costume Designer, Pier Paolo Pasolini - Director, Nino Baragli - Editor, Tatiana Casini - Editor, Enzo Ocone - Editor, Ennio Morricone - Composer (Music Score), Pier Paolo Pasolini - Composer (Music Score), Dante Ferretti - Production Designer, Tonino Delli Colli - Cinematographer, Alberto Grimaldi - Producer, Franco Rossellini - Producer, Pier Paolo Pasolini - Screenwriter, Giovanni Boccaccio - Book Author

Similar Movies

Tom Jones; Le Voci Bianche; Farinelli; Interno di un Convento; Immoral Tales

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