The Decameron DVD Review

( aka 'The Decameron' )

directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italy 1970

"The trilogy of The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and the Arabian Tales of 1001 Nights create a mythical world where the nature of sex can be explored. The bawdy nature of the original stories helps to do this, but the fact that the originals are made up of many tales is important too. An effect that increases during the trilogy is the use of the frame. In The Decameron we see Pasolini, playing a pupil of the artist Giotto framing a scene with his hands. In the next scene we se e the people in the frame turned into a mural. Even the colors used in the film are to suggest a Renaissance painting (contrast with the use of color in Dick Tracy to mimic a pulp comic's ink). Ignoring the content the trilogy are beautiful to watch. Bu t it was the content that shocked manv people, and is the reason why The Decameron is still on the Vatican's black list. Those on the right were shocked by the graphic depiction of sex and those on the left were dismayed to find a lack of ideology. Pasolini answered them both with the comment that the 'ideology is really there, above your heads, in the enormous cock on the screen'. His justification for making an almost pornographic film was that he wished to show that it is bodies that are the most revolutionary things of all. They represent that which can not be codified. Yet it was clear that the people in the films were not sympathetic characters, and it becomes even more apparent in the later films, that these people are not really human, but sexual puppets controlled by instincts."

Excerpt Taken from the Review found HERE

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Recommended Books on Italian Cinema (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)


Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present by Peter E. Bondanella	Fellini on Fellini by Federico Fellini, Isabel Quigley	Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism by Millicent Marcus	Vittorio De Sica: Contemporary Perspectives (Toronto Italian Studies) by Howard Curle, Stephen Snyder	Italian Film (National Film Traditions) by Marcia Landy, David Desser	Italian Movie Goddesses: Over 80 of the Greatest Women in Italian Cinema by Stefano Masi, Enrico Lancia	Italian Cinema by Maggie Gunsberg	I, Fellini by Charlotte Chandler, Billy Wilder	Vittorio De Sica: Director, Actor, Screenwriter by Bert Cardullo

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DVD REVIEW: MGM Region 1

All screenshots courtesy of Ashirg. Thanks Gregory!

DVD Box Cover		Click the logos to order from:
Distribution	MGM Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:50:56 minutes
Video	1.85:1.00 Letterboxed WideScreen / anamorphic Average Bitrate: 5.4 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
Bitrate: Alliance Atlantis
Audio	Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: M G M, Inc Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 1970 Aspect Ratio(s): Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only) • Color, Widescreen • Theatrical trailer • Widescreen anamorphic format
Comments:	Both BFI and Image discs used the non-anamorphic transfer in the previous incarnations of the film on DVD ( http://www.mondo-digital.com/pasolini.html ) . MGM did a brand new anamorphic transfer for this release. Colors are accurate and blacks are deep, but there's grain in the print. The print spots some specs, but nothing too major. After Salo discs, this is very satisfying release. Mono audio is without distortion. The extras are limited to a very grainy anamorphic US trailer and optional English, French or Spanish subtitles. out of Gregory Meshman
	DVD Release Date: November 5, 2002 Keep Case Chapters: 20