Between 1971 and 1974, Italian filmmaker Piers Paolo Pasolini produced and directed three adaptions of famous Medieval stories. The Arabian Nights (Il fiore delle Mille et una Notte) was the last, and the most ambitious, with filming locations in Yemen, Iran, and Nepal. If you've seen the other two (The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales), this one will be familiar; most of the same actors, especially Pasolini's lover Ninetto Davoli (left) and his protege Franco Merli, below, whom he discovered working at a gas station in Sicily.
Don't worry, he's 21 in this scene.
Some of the same annoying bits as in the previous movies: dozens of people sitting around singing for no reason; lengthy closeups of random people with bad teeth grinning idiotically at the camera; stories that merge into other stories, so you're never sure what you're watching.
Pasolini eschews the more familiar stories, like Aladdin and Ali Baba, to concentrate on Nur Ed Din (Franco Merli) who loses his favorite slave girl, and wanders around, crying and having erotic adventures while searching for her.
Inside that story is another, about Aziz (Ninetto Davoli), who depends on his girlfriend for advice on how to win The Girl of His Dreams. It ends badly.
And a few others. Prince Tagi (Francesco Paolo Governale) falls in love with a girl through hearing a story about her, but she doesn't like men.
Pasolini eschews the more familiar stories, like Aladdin and Ali Baba, to concentrate on Nur Ed Din (Franco Merli) who loses his favorite slave girl, and wanders around, crying and having erotic adventures while searching for her.
Inside that story is another, about Aziz (Ninetto Davoli), who depends on his girlfriend for advice on how to win The Girl of His Dreams. It ends badly.
And a few others. Prince Tagi (Francesco Paolo Governale) falls in love with a girl through hearing a story about her, but she doesn't like men.
More after the break
So he makes a tapestry in the garden that convinces her to give heterosexual love a try.
A man, Alberto Argentino, tries to save a woman from a demon, but ends up being turned into an ape.
A man (Luigi Antonio Guerra) tries to save a boy from a prophecy, but ends up killing him.
It's all rather confusing and very heterosexist. In spite of the frequent assertions that it's perfectly ordinary to prefer men to women, the only same-sex relationship is just hinted at, and ends in tragedy. Otherwise there are about a dozen men and women in love with each other.
The last scene is rather annoyingly homophobic. When Nur Ed Din arrives in a city-state, the King summons him and orders him to submit to anal sex.
That being said, this is by far the most beefcake-heavy of the trilogy. There isn't as much female nudity, but every male character spends most of his screen time with his clothes off. There are closeups of gigantic penises. If you want to see Ninetto Davoli aroused, this is your chance.
I suggest going through on fast-forward to the interesting exteriors and penises, so you can skip the heterosexism of the gay director and his boyfriend.
The last scene is rather annoyingly homophobic. When Nur Ed Din arrives in a city-state, the King summons him and orders him to submit to anal sex.
Nur Ed Din initially refuses -- he's straight -- but it's screwing or death. Then the King takes off his disguise -- it's the slave girl he's been searching for! Apparently she wanted to get even with him for...um...his endless devotion. But Nur Ed Din won't have to do anything disgusting after all, and the boy and girl hug and kiss for a heterosexist conclusion.
That being said, this is by far the most beefcake-heavy of the trilogy. There isn't as much female nudity, but every male character spends most of his screen time with his clothes off. There are closeups of gigantic penises. If you want to see Ninetto Davoli aroused, this is your chance.
I suggest going through on fast-forward to the interesting exteriors and penises, so you can skip the heterosexism of the gay director and his boyfriend.
I'm guessing you know that the nude male holding a flower..2nd photo from the top is from an "interesting" Pasolini film...Salo
ReplyDeleteThe Merli shots from "The Arabian NIghts" were too dark, so I substituted one from "Salo." Only two years different.
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