The Decameron
|
Our Price: $27.76 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $11.99 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Decameron
Movie Review: More Joy in the Creation than in the Result
Summary: 4 Stars
Pier Paulo Pasolini's The Decameron (Il Decameron) is a very difficult film to review. A series of nine tales based on the classic by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) is only a starting point. Pasolini uses the stories to poke fun at the hypocracy of the chuch and to make some rather pointed comments about the nature of art itself. Pasolini seems to feel that true artistic expression exists in the creation of the art not necessarily in the finished product.
The film was quite controversial when it was released but seems far tamer by today's standards. Pasolini freely adapts nine stories from Boccaccio's fourteenth century collection of a hundred short stories. He interweaves the tales of happy or tragic lovers, naughty nuns and lusty priests, naive husbands and cheating but quick-witted wives, inept grave robbers, and a young gardener who got more than he had bargained for, with his own meditations on art, life, death and love. Pasolini himself plays a painter who observes the characters that inspire him to paint a fresco on the church's wall.
Pasolini was a great admirer of the human face and quite a few are on display here. Using primarily unprofessional actors makes the film feel more real. In reality this technique makes the film both more interesting and more difficult to watch. The viewer is continually presented with views of horrible teeth that take away from the experience. That said the cinematography by Tonio Delli Colli and art direction by Dante Ferretti make every frame of the film feel like a Renaissance painting and Pasolini, whether you love his work or hate it was a true master of his craft.
While the film is somewhat slow moving, Pasolini rewards the careful viewer. Pasolini in addition to comments on the church and the arts also pushes his Marxist agenda in the two tales involving young lovers who are exposed by family members. Whe the parties are both of the same social class there is no problem and marriage is proposed. When the lovers are of different social classes one of the participants is killed. Pasolini chose his tales carefully in order to make his points and on this level the film is quite successful.
The edition that I viewed was the standard definition disc by MGM World Cinema and the transfer was quite good. There were no problems with the Italian mono sound. The subtitles were white which makes them a little hard to read at times but this is not a significant problem. Overall this disc is a good introduction to Pasolini's Trilogy of Life it is also the most accessible of Pasolini's films and is well worth a look.
Movie Review: Innocence, Earthy Humor and Lust for Life
Summary: 4 Stars
Pasolini freely adapts ten or so episodes from Boccaccio's fourteenth century collection of hundred short stories. He interweaves the tales of happy or tragic lovers, naughty nuns and lusty priests, naive husbands and cheating but quick-witted wives, inept grave robbers, and a young gardener who got more than he had bargained for, with his own meditations on art, life, death and love. Pasolini himself plays a painter Giotto who observes the characters that inspire him to paint a fresco on the church's wall. In the end of the film Pasolini's Giotto comments that it may be better to dream about a work of art than to actually produce it.
"Decameron" is the first part of Pasolini's "Trilogy Of Life", which continues with adaptations of two other celebrated works of world fiction; "The Canterbury Tales" (1972) and the "Arabian Nights" aka "A Thousand and One Nights" (1974). All these books have been known as distinguished and revered works of literature that belong to the immortal classics. There are probably so many big volumes have been written about them that it would take more than a thousand and one days and nights to read them. They talk about love, death, the meaning of life, and religion but first and most of all - they entertain. At the time they were told and written down, no one would think of them as the future academic references. That's why they are so alive, earthy, coarse, and bold. I have not seen two other Pasolini's films but 'Decameron' captures the original spirit of Boccaccio's tales truthfully and with love, humanity, and perfect sense of the medieval Italy.
The film has a look of a renaissance painting - not only Italian Renaissance (Giotto) but Netherlandish Northern Renaissance - Peter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch.
Full of rustic comedy and innocence, earthy humor and lust for life -"Decameron" is one of the most optimistic, and celebrating life films ever made. Its sexuality is straightforward and honest, moving and not insulting. This film, my first Pasolini made me want to see the rest of the trilogy and the rest of his films.
4.5/5
Movie Review: MGM's transfer is gorgeous, Pasolini's film is weird
Summary: 4 Stars
Of Pasolini's three "Trilogy of Life" films (Decameron, Canterbury Tales, and Arabian Nights), I find the Decameron to be the most disjointed. By removing the original frame-tale (presumably for the sake of length), he opened himself up for some serious flow problems. About halfway through the film, Pasolini himself makes an appearance as a pupil of Giotto who is commissioned to make a painting of Naples on the wall of a church. This becomes a frame-like device (at the tableau scene near the end, you can see many of the characters from the various episodes in the film), but still doesn't make up for the lack of connection (or at least division) between the stories -- one simply stops and the next starts. There are several instances of narrative continuity (look for the grave-robbers at the saint's funeral later in the film), however, including the aforementioned tableau.That being said, Pasolini's film (and his film-making style) are very influential (most noticeably in the work of Peter Greenaway), with his use of static shots taken from far away in order to give a sense of scale (and awe). Many of the shots in the film are incredibly beautiful (many are simply odd), such as the landscape shots when Andreuccio (played by the incomparable Ninetto Davoli) is running from the city at night.
Overall, while The Decameron is fairly disjointed and shot in a Pasolini's unusual style, it is still a very enjoyable (and hilarious) film. MGM's DVD is a vast improvement over the earlier Image edition, featuring a lush transfer, optional subtitles, and a very strange (and very, very 70's) trailer.
Movie Review: No beauties parading
Summary: 4 Stars
What makes Pasolini's movies different fundamentally is deploying the average-looking artists to perform, as cinematography is a parade of beauties customarily.
Very average looking near pimply teen-actors play sex-peppered middle ages Italian stories perfectly, but a viewer supposed something more from a scandalously famous Salo - Criterion Collection creator.
Probably, an Australian-produced DVD is short of something.
Movie Review: Probably Pasolini's best
Summary: 4 Stars
Pasolini's first film in his "Trilogy of Life". It tells nine separate tells from the book "The Decameron". All have a very ribald sense of humor and has a surprising amount (for an R rated film) of male and female nudity. Not for anyone who is easily offended but a fairly good film for those who are interested. Also there are a few really huge swipes at the Catholic Church--one story has a convent of nuns using a man to sexually satisfy all of them--and this is shown in a positive light!