The Decameron (1971)

AKA: Il Decameron

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writers: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giovanni Boccaccio

Composer: Ennio Morricone

Starring: Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Vincenzo Amato, Angela Luce, Giuseppe Zigaina, Maria Gabriella Maione, Vincenzo Cristo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giorgio Lovine

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Ribaldry! Rakes and libertines. Raised skirts and lowered lashes. A blush on every cheek. Pasolini. Filming The Decameron. Bringing life to art...and art to life.

Plot: An adaptation of nine stories from Bocaccio's "Decameron": A young man from Perugia is swindled twice in Naples, but ends up rich; a man poses as a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns; a woman must hide her lover when her husband comes home early; a scoundrel fools a priest on his deathbed; three brothers take revenge on their sister's lover; a young girl sleeps on the roof to meet her boyfriend at night; a group of painters wait for inspiration; a crafty priest attempts to seduce his friend's wife; and two friends make a pact to find out what happen= s after death. Pasolini is up to his old tricks satirizing the Church, and throwing in liberal doses of life and love.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Part of the Nunsploitation Project (July & August 2013). Click here for more naughty nun insanity!

How awesome is this...the other night I saw this in a theater as the first part of a double bill with SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (1975).  All I have to say is WOW!  While the comedy doesn't cease until the end, after the first half or more it starts to ease up on the funny and before I knew it I found myself watching art unfold.  On the surface it's a silly comedy anthology set many hundreds of years ago loaded with nudity and bawdy humor but it's the way Pasolini mixes in the other ingredients that makes this much more than what it begins as.  At times it's very funny and then he turns the tables like the story with the three brothers set on killing their sister's lover because they don't think she should be having sex.  Great story.  Hell, nearly all of them are fantastic. 

What makes this, albeit temporarily, fall into the Nunsploitation genre is one VERY FUNNY story about a young man who fakes being a deaf mute in order to get work at a convent.  It doesn't take long before he's having sex with all of the nuns.  The moment when the Mother Superior inadvertently causes him to speak for the first time is hilarious.  It's a miracle!  I'm looking forward to watching this again someday because one viewing isn't enough for this 2 hour film, even with the rare opportunity to see it on the big screen.  The same goes for SALO.