The Decameron (Italian: Il Decameron) is a 1971 anthology erotic comedy film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, based on the 14th-century collection of stories by Giovanni Boccaccio. It is the first film of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life, the others being The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights. Each film was an adaptation of a different piece of classical literature focusing on ribald and often irreligious themes. The tales contain abundant nudity, sex, slapstick and toilet humour.
Pasolini's intention was not to faithfully recreate the world of Boccaccio's characters but to criticise the contemporary world through metaphorical use of the themes present in the stories. Stories are often changed to southern Italy and heavy use of the Neapolitan dialect is used to signify the mistreatment and economic exploitation of the poorer region by the richer northern parts of Italy.
The film was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Jury Prize.
Contents
Plot
Prologue:
The film, shot in Neapolitan dialect at the behest of the director, offers a variety of episodes from the stories in Giovanni Boccaccio's book, and are linked through a pupil of the painter Giotto (played by Pasolini himself) who arrives in Naples to paint a mural.
The credits roll while the song-play Zesa Viola o La Zita in cerca di un marito is played over top. The Neapolitan ballad is about a maid searching for a husband. The film begins with Ser Ciappelletto (who returns later in the film) committing a murder and hiding a dead body. The scene then transitions to the story of Andreuccio.
Andreuccio of Perugia:
In the first episode (based on Second day, fifth tale), Andreuccio of Perugia has come to Naples to buy horses. A rich lady learns of this from one of her older servants and devises a trick to con him of his money. She invites him over to her home for supper under the pretext that they are long lost siblings. After supper they both retire to bed and Andreuccio gets into his nightshirt and puts his clothes and money on the bed. He then goes to use the restroom where he falls through a trap door and is dropped into a trough of excrement. The young man escapes and meets two thieves who are attempting a robbery at a nearby church to steal the jewels from the tomb of the Archbishop Filippo Minutolo who died a few days earlier. Andreuccio is persuaded to participate and enters the tomb to steal the jewels. He finds the bishop's prized ring and keeps it for himself. He tells the others he couldn't find it and they know he is lying. They shut the door on him enclosing him in certain death. He screams out to no avail. Later, another group of robbers enter with the exact same plan of stealing the jewels from the tomb. Andreuccio hears this and lays in wait. The lead robber asks the other two to enter the tomb but they refuse. He calls them chicken and mocks them for being afraid. He tells them "dead men don't bite" when hearing this, Andreuccio pops up and bites the robber's leg. The three robbers run away in terror while Andreuccio jumps up out of the tomb afterward and prances away with his new ring.
Ciappelletto, the Thief: In Naples, an old man is reading to an interested crowd a bawdy story (based on Ninth day, second tale) in Neapolitan. In a convent, a nun is having a sexual affair with a male visitor. When the other nuns discover this they rush to snitch on her to the Mother Superior. The Mother Superior who was having sex with a priest is awakened by knocking on her door in the middle of the night and quickly gets dressed. She accidentally puts his underpants on her head mistaking it for her veil and rushes out of the door. The Mother Superior begins scolding the nun but she points out the underpants and the nuns all realize the Mother Superior is guilty of the same sin. From that day forth, the nuns all get lovers.
List of tales
Second day, fifth tale - a young boy from Perugia is swindled twice, but ends up becoming rich.
Ninth day, second tale - a Mother Superior reprimands a nun for having sex with a man but it becomes clear she is guilty of the same sin (translated into Neapolitan by an old man and listened to by a crowd).
Third day, first tale - a man pretends to be a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns.
Seventh day, second tale - a woman must hide her lover when her husband comes home unexpectedly.
First day, first tale - a scoundrel fools a priest on his deathbed.
Fifth day, fourth tale - a young girl sleeps on the roof to meet her boyfriend at night.
Fourth day, fifth tale - three brothers take revenge on their sister's lover.
Ninth day, tenth tale - a man tries to seduce the wife of his friend.
Seventh day, tenth tale - two friends make a pact to find out what happens after death.
Sixth day, fifth tale - two painters are stopped in the rain and are given new clothes.
Third day, tenth tale - in Tunisia a princess escapes into the wilderness where a monk tricks her into having sex with him. This scene was removed and is now presumed lost.
Fourth day, eighth tale - a man goes on a journey to Paris and returns to his hometown to find the woman he loves married. He dies of grief. She sees this and then lays by his side and dies too. This scene was removed and is now presumed lost.
Credits
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Written by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Based on: the stories of Giovanni Boccaccio
Executive producer: Franco Rossellini
Producer: Alberto Grimaldi
Assistant directors: Sergio Citti, Umberto Angelucci
Director of photography: Tonino Delli Colli
Supervising editor: Enzo Ocone
Editors: Nino Baragli, Tatiana Morigi
Art director: Dante Ferretti
Costumes: Danilo Donati
Music selections by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Musical collaborator: Ennio Morricone
Continuity: Beatrice Banfi
Relation to Boccaccio's original text
The adaptation of Boccaccio's Decameron by Pasolini has been debated. He "abandons the framing device in the book, placing us instead in a fluid world in which one story runs into another." He also changes the location from Florence to Naples and uses the Neapolitan dialect. This also enables Pasolini to put commentaries on the class conflicts and economic exploitation of the contemporary society in the stories. "By grafting the marginal modern (the Italian lumpen poor, the third world) onto medieval texts, Pasolini hoped to fashion an alternative to a present that he found ever more repellent."
According to Ben Lawton, "Pasolini's intention was not to recreate the medieval world of Boccaccio's characters but instead to comment on contemporary Italian society through the metaphorical use of the original novellas of the Decameron. Pasolini dismantles the bourgeois frame of the brigata and replaces it with two subframes composed of modified novellas from the Decameron. ... chose particular stories from the Decameron to reverse Boccaccio's original intention and comment on the class conflict." "Boccaccio relied upon various sources for the Decameron, such as the French fabliaux tradition, contemporary chronicles, medieval romances, Italian folklore, exempla and others, in the same way that Pasolini's filmic text incorporates the original work with Marxist overtones and references to his past cinematic works."
Production
Filming locations
Naples, Italy - the tale of Andreuccio and the tomb robbers.
Villa Cimbrone, Ravello, Italy - the church of the aroused nuns in the Masetto de Lamprecchio story.
Loire Valley, Maine-et-Loire, France - the German city in the tale of Ser Ciappalletto.
Caserta Vecchia, Caserta, Campania, Italy - story of Peronella hiding her lover in a jar.
Sanaa, Yemen - Gafsa, Tunisia in the Alibech story set in Alibech's palace (deleted and now lost scene).
Mount Vesuvius, Italy - Rustico's hermit abode in the Sahara desert (deleted and now lost scene).
Paris, France - tale of Girolamo and Salvestra (deleted and lost scene).
Safa-Palatino, Rome, Lazio, Italy - miscellaneous interiors
Score
The soundtrack of the film mainly consists of pre-existing music. In consultation with Ennio Morricone, Pier Paolo Pasolini chosen representative examples of Italian folk songs from different localities and Latin mediaeval chants. The album Italian Folk Music, Vol. 5: Naples and Campania compiled by Alan Lomax for Folkways records was heavily drawn from. The following is a list of the musical cues:
"Zesa Viola/ la Zita in cerca di un marito" (The Maid in Search of a Husband)" - mediaeval Neapolitan song
"Canto dei portatori" (Porters' Song)" - folkloric Positano chant
"Serenata popolare campana" (popular Serenade of Campania)" - traditional Cilentan song
"Canto delle lavandaie del Vomero" (Song of the Washerwomen of Vomero)" - popular Neapolitan song
"Ballo del tamburo" (Tambourine Dance)" - "tammurriata": the folk dance from Campania
"Mittit ad virginem" (To the Virgin He Sends)" - Latin sacred chant
"La pampanella" (The Little Leaf)" - traditional polyphonic singing in the Irpinian dialect
"Fenesta ca lucive" (The Window That Used to Shine)" - Neapolitan Romantic song
"Canto delle olivare" (Song of the Olive Trees)" - Neapolitan folk song
"Veni Sancte Spiritus" - Latin sacred chant
"La Cammesella" (The Camisole)" - Neapolitan folk song
"Am blim blom" - Neapolitan Nursery rhyme/"filastrocche"
Deleted scenes
Two scenes were deleted from the film: the story of Girolamo and Salvestra and the story of Rustico and Alibech. Pasolini removed Girolamo because he felt it was a weaker story, and he removed Alibech because he wanted to save the Yemen scenery as a surprise for his later film Arabian Nights, the third film in his Trilogy of Life. Despite much searching by Laura Betti neither have turned up though the Alibech scene still survives on the script and has been recreated using stills from the film. This recreation is available for viewing in the documentary The Lost Body of Alibech.
In Gafsa, the princess Alibech lives with her family in contentment. She is interested in learning about Christianity though her Muslim family try to dissuade her from this. She goes off into the Sahara desert to learn from the Desert Fathers. She meets two monks who tell her to continue on. She meets a third monk named Rustico and stays with him. He is very aroused by her and tells her that his penis is the Devil and her vagina is Hell and that the Devil must be sent back to Hell by God's own order until "the pride vanishes from his head". They do this six times. Alibech is very interested in continuing with this while Rustico is tired out. Meanwhile, in Gafsa, Alibech's family die in a fire so the warlord Neerbale rides out into the desert with his men to retrieve Alibech and bring her home in safety. They take her away much to Rustico's chagrin. Back in Gafsa, Alibech is bathing. She tells her female servants that it was wrong for Neerbale to steal her away when she was learning about the Christian God and doing such great things as sending the Devil to Hell. They ask her what she means and she explains. They laugh and tell her that Neerbale will do that with her too so she must not worry.
Reception
The Decameron was the third most popular film in Italy in 1971 with 11,167,557 admissions behind The Godfather and the Italian ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità. It was the 21st most popular film in Italy of all-time and is currently ranked 25th.
Home video
The film was released by the Criterion Collection in a 3-BD box set Trilogy of Life.
