The Decameron The Decameron
  • Italy
  • 1971
  • 111 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Italian
  •  
  • Spine #632

Pier Paolo Pasolini weaves together a handful of Giovanni Boccaccio’s fourteenth-century moral tales in this picturesque free-for-all. The Decameron explores the delectations and dark corners of an earlier and, as the filmmaker saw it, less compromised time. Among the chief delights are a young man’s exploits with a gang of grave robbers, a flock of randy nuns who sin with a strapping gardener, and Pasolini’s appearance as a pupil of the painter Giotto, at work on a massive fresco. One of the director’s most popular films, The Decameron, trans­posed to Naples from Boccaccio’s Florence, is a cutting takedown of the pieties surrounding religion and sex.

Cast

Ciappelletto Franco Citti
Andreuccio of PerugiaNinetto Davoli
RusticoJovan Jovanovic
Masetto of LamporecchioVincenzo Amato
PeronellaAngela Luce
MonkGiuseppe Zigaina
Giotto’s pupil Pier Paolo Pasolini
MadonnaSilvana Mangano
GiannelloVincenzo Ferrigno
Musciatto, the wealthy merchantGuido Alberti
Don GianniVittorio Vittori
Father SuperiorGianni Rizzo
NunPatrizia de Clara
Donna GemmattaMirella Catanesi
Queen of SkullsMonique van Voren
PietroGiovanni Davoli
CaterinaElisabetta Vito Genovese

Credits

DirectorPier Paolo Pasolini
Executive producerFranco Rossellini
ProducerAlberto Grimaldi
Assistant directorsSergio Citti and Umberto Angelucci
Written byPier Paolo Pasolini
Based on the stories ofGiovanni Boccaccio
Director of photographyTonino Delli Colli
Supervising editorEnzo Ocone
EditorsNino Baragli and Tatiana Morigi
Art directorDante Ferretti
CostumesDanilo Donati
Music selections byPier Paolo Pasolini
Musical collaboratorEnnio Morricone
ContinuityBeatrice Banfi

Film Essays

Thumbnail_decam_feature_current

The Decameron: The Past Is Present

By Colin MacCabeNovember 13, 2012

With this frenetic cinematic fresco, Pasolini began his Trilogy of Life and its forays into a . . . Read more »

Video


Video

The Decameron

Pasolini Speaks

November 14, 2012

Watch video »

Play

Photo Galleries

Trilogy of Life Packaging

November 14, 2012


Film Essays

Thumbnail_decam_feature_current

The Decameron: The Past Is Present

By Colin MacCabeNovember 13, 2012

With this frenetic cinematic fresco, Pasolini began his Trilogy of Life and its forays into a . . . Read more »


Video