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Arabian Nights

Il fiore delle mille e una notte

France, Italy

1974

130 Min
Color
1.85:1
Italian
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
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DIR Pier Paolo Pasolini

PROD Alberto Grimaldi

SCR Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dacia Maraini

DP Giuseppe Ruzzolini

CAST Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Franco Merli, Tessa Bouché, Salvatore Sapienza, Ines Pellegrini, Margareth Clémenti, Luigina Rocchi, Alberto Argentino, Francesco Paolo Governale

ED Nino Baragli, Tatiana Casini Morigi

PROD DES Dante Ferretti

MUSIC Ennio Morricone

Cannes (In Competition): Grand Prix

Synopsis

In this film inspired by the ancient erotic and mysterious tales of the Middle East, the main story concerns an innocent young man who comes to fall in love with a slave who selected him as her master. After his foolish error causes their separation, he travels in search of her. Various other travelers who recount their own tragic and romantic experiences include stories of a young man who becomes enraptured by a mysterious woman on his wedding day, and a man who is determined to free a woman from a demon. —IMDb

Director

Original

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Born in Bologna in 1922, Pier Paolo Pasolini left behind a searing legacy that haunts contemporary Italy more than thirty years after his death. More than anyone, Pasolini gazed deeply into Italy’s role in the spread of Fascism and, more controversially, the continuing influence of its ideas in post-war Europe. For him, this was a matter of great personal significance; his father was a soldier in the Fascist Army (he had once protected Mussolini from an assassination attempt) while his brother joined the resistance only to be murdered in an ambush. This personal trauma coincided with a period of intellectual development as Pasolini engaged with Marxist philosophy; especially the works of Antonio Gramsci, the founder of Italy’s Communist Party (PCI). His relationship with the PCI, however, was tense. As a poet and intellectual, Pasolini scrutinized his fellow Communists as critically as he did bourgeois society. His enemies retaliated by targeting his personal life; the first instance… read more

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Justerodeusintherain

16May13

A beautiful soulful movie, i felt it was a little long and that nearer the end i started to loose motivation. But a great movie all the same, beautiful scenery and music was very authentic i personally don't feel there are enough movies like this so orientated round their country and culture. I also found it very funny in parts im not sure if this was deliberate.

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Josh Tierney

22Dec12

A masterpiece on every level. The copious nudity -- mainly male -- never comes across as false, only ever natural, with the actors'/characters' revealed bodies treated much like costumes. The stories reach intellectual sublimity through their earthy simplicity. It is a film for the soul. Morricone's score, invisible in the other films in the Trilogy of Life, stands out here with supreme beauty.

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Christopher M. Jones

9Sep12

What is it with Pasolini and kid's butts? I know this takes place in an age where child sexuality was more prominent but there was absolutely no reason that character had to pull that child prince's robe down far enough to see his ass. Gives me the fucking creeps.

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    Graeme Higginson

    13Sep12

    Pier will be Pier. I personally thought that the broad use of nudity was quite eloquent in Pasolini's typically visceral approach. To be fair, nakedness was used universally among the characters, not solely with minors, and is reflective of the picture's overall tone; I didn't find anything to be particularly accentuated about the children's nakedness compared to the nakedness of the others.

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bokonon

19Mar12

Raw beauty

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W184

The Delay of Death – Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life

By Gabriel Abrantes on December 24, 2012

On the occasion of new DVDs by Criterion and a MoMA retrospective, a look at Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Trilogy of Life” and Salò.

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Pasolini's "Arabian Nights"

13 posts by 9 people over 2 years ago