Trilogy of Life (The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights) (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

obviously the director is known for making some still controversial films, however, if a film is watched with a respectful open mind and the whole piece is digested one begins to appreciate the beauty in the film. to me all three films can be appreciated as a whole. i'm not going to recount every film and every scene but rather say that when watching these films it really feels like you're genuinely taken somewhere foreign, exotic and grandiose. the settings and timing in these films are rich and alive. everything feels like somebody really telling you foreign stories where it feels like you can visualize being far away from reality. the question of abundant sexuality has to be taken into the context of each scene and one has to appreciate that its not a the center of the whole like pornography but is rather sensual if not at times comedic and does not ever cheapen the art which are these films. masterful cinema and beautifully restored by the criterion group.

A classic. Three works reflecting a revisionist interpretation of a long-past time. Variation of approach is to be considered as much of our understanding of the Middle Ages is of a conventional portrayal which we cannot know to be either accurate nor even terribly helpful. Seeing the past in terms which assault our expectations may ultimately not only help to see the present from a Leftist view in its portrayal of the past, but also reflects on the assumptions we hold of the past which are neither provable nor clearly worthwhile. It is good to take the very limited material that we have from the past and even its considerably selected presentation favoring the rich and the leaders so that we can more openly look to times which often may well have been quite different from how we generally understand them. People do change, and yet to a good extent motivations, conflicts and much of family and local interactions may not change all too much at some granular level.

Pasolini holds a special place for me in the canon, not on a technical or even artistic level, but as real and as human a filmmaker as ever worked. It's splendid that Criterion has taken these films, restored them, explained them, and given them better subtitles that some of the older versions. Truly a masterful work, the Trilogy of Life deals with sex, murder, inequity, disappointment, reward, honor, truth, lies, fate, will-- in ways that are distasteful, and happily so-- just like, well, life... Along with Salo, the extreme denial of life and the terror of pragmatic manipulation, I have never seen anything that so honestly and openly defies all suppositions, even at its cinematic worst. Thank God for Criterion! Now, if they could get to work on the rest of Pier Paolo's catalogue, I'd gladly make them a couple hundred dollars richer; for my subsequent poverty, I have Pasolini.

I know of this movies since the 1980s. It was about time to be able to own them on DVD. The Canterbury tales I first saw it in a cult movies midnight sessions Theater, specialized in this kind of movies. At the theater in the last chapter in hell, as soon as the angel asks the devil to show the monk where greedy religious personalities end up and saw the scale model of the demon's butt, I bursted laughing and I could not stop. I saw the other 2 movies later on. The stories are very good and the very original takes of the scenes. Pasolini is a master of perfectly representing scenarios as close possible as history books talk about the way of living of the people of the times where the action takes. As per se, he directed the spoken movie version of Medea, with Maria Callas, in opera scenary her favorite and most acclaimed role. Worth every penny. (Italian with English subtitles. The Italian dialogues are much funnier than the translation).

I have been wanting my own copy of this since I saw it at a film festival I about 1980. I have seen it on Amazon and put off buying it because the description says that it is in Italian with English subtitles. But when I saw it for 50% off, Italian or not, I can read. I received it and put in my 10 year old DVD player. After watching for a while, I thought I would check out all of the settings. THERE IT WAS. Settings/Language/English. It couldn't be that simple. I started it again, now either that switched the spoken language of Canterbury Tales to English, or Caused me to understand Italian. I am guessing it switched the spoken language to English.. ENGLISH YES ENGLISH.... SETTINGS/LANGUAGE/ENGLISH/! Just that easy. I have not checked the other 2 DVDs yet.

I'd seen these Passolini films way back when they'd first come out while a liberal California university student and awaiting the draft . . . Well, I was never drafted, earned a useless degree while waiting, and even became a member of the GOP, yet I had fond memories of those early 70's and snapped up this Trilogy of Life set as a reminder of those confusing/exciting/violent days. Now that my head is clearer, I can almost understand what Passolini was trying to do - sort of - and these blu-ray discs are of much better quality than the art-house films I'd originally seen. I'm happy with this purchase and would recommend this collection to any current or formally liberalized college kid who doesn't mind captions or speaks Italian. They're still fun, outrageous, controversial and come with deleted scenes we'd only speculated about back then (no, there's no hardcore sex after all). You should be a fan of foreign films with their typical rough editing (leading we besotted college guys with visions of erotic things never filmed), and specifically enjoy Passolini's early 70's work.

This is a very unique set of films. The actors are apparently local people so, while they are a bit awkward, they certainly give the films more realism. I am a bit surprised of the sexual nature of the films given that the plots are set in areas I believe are dominated by Islam.

The Decameron, Canterbury Tales, and Arabian Nights, are all collections of adventurous, entertaining stories. Pasolini did a wonderful job of bringing many of those stories to the screen in a very funny and artistic way.

字幕DVDをレンタルで見て大いに楽しめたので高画質クライテリオン盤を購入しましたがさらに楽しめました

Though their bawdiness may not be to everyone’s taste, these three movies by Pier Paolo Pasolini still stand out fresh and highly original, 50 years after their initial release. The Criterion edition presents remarkably restored images and sound. In “Il Decamerone”, the general framework of the written work is completely omitted, and the viewer basically perceives just a succession of sketches. In “The Canterbury Tales”, three narrative levels are present: that of Chaucer writing the tales, that of the pilgrims going to Canterbury and finally the stories told by some of them. This makes things a bit difficult to fathom in a single viewing. “Arabian Nights” is much better organized, though in tongue-in-cheek fashion, with links between the stories, for instance one character in a tale telling a story wherein another starts a new account. Supplements are abundant and varied. They include notably : • For “Il Decamerone”, a specially made “visual essay” dealing with Pasolini’s overall filmography that describes how this movie is organized around two paintings, one by Bruegel and the other by Giotto; a feature on “Alibech”, a tale that was filmed in Yemen and in the end excluded from the final cut; various television interviews with Pasolini himself; • For “The Canterbury Tales”, an interview with Sam Rohdie where he lauds the film’s vitality and a featurette where the travails of editing the film are told, including how a full tale and a total of 20 scenes were rejected from the final cut, what some interpret as a betrayal towards Chaucer’s work; • For “Arabian Nights”, a “visual essay” analyzing the movie, deleted scenes for a total of 25 minutes and a surprising short film where Pasolini discusses urban form. Teeming with life, the three films are punctuated with haunting images, most beautiful but some repulsive. They are recommended to all who appreciate thoughtful, original but at times rough-cut cinema.

パゾリーニの 生の３部作 と呼ばれる「デカメロン」「カンタベリー物語」「アラビアンナイト」を収録したボックスセット。デジパック仕様の３作と６０頁ほどの小冊子が紙の箱に入っています。クライテリオンの画質は、いつもながら素晴らしく、「デカメロン」のナポリの緑、海、まぶしい光がリアルに感じられる。そこで展開される艶笑エピソードが楽しく時間を忘れる。プロの俳優に混ざって、現地の人も多数出演しているようで、その顔顔顔、表情が面白く、楽しそうで、観ているこちらも自然と笑顔になってくる。あと裸の女性の後ろ姿、大きなおしりなどにも、おおらかで素朴な人々の魅力を感じてしまう。「デカメロン」素晴らしいです。何度も観かえしたい。「カンタベリー物語」は英国を舞台としていて、英国人俳優の演技のせいか、はじける感じはなく割と普通の映画という印象。英語字幕で観ていたのですが、エピソードのつなぎが分かりにくく、一度観ただけでは内容がよくわからず、ネットで粗筋を確認してから、もう一度観なおして理解しました。「デカメロン」「アラビアンナイト」は、なんとなく筋がわかるし、映像を観ているだけで楽しめたのですが、「カンタベリー物語」はちょっとイマイチという感じ。「アラビアンナイト」は、前２作にくらべると艶笑というよりも、少しシリアスでファンタスティックな感じ。中東？アフリカ？にロケした雄大な映像が美しく、クライテリオンで良かった！！こちらもアフリカ系出演者たちの笑顔、くったくのない裸が魅力的。「デカメロン」「アラビアンナイト」を観ているとホント、ハッピーで幸せな気分になれます（「カンタベリー」でもニネット・ダボリらのイタリア人出演者は無邪気な笑顔をさそってくれてはいるのですが・・・）。裸が多いですが、全然いやらしさはない。これに日本のボカシやらが入ったら、もう台無しですね。なんだか薄汚いいやらしいエロ映画になってしまうような気がします。なので、このクライテリオン版がおすすめです。特典映像も多数。「デカメロン」にはカットされたAlibechというエピソードを字幕と写真で再現したものが、「アラビアンナイト」には削除シーン（長くなってもあった方がイイような気がした。カンヌ映画祭の上映時には入っていたようです。）が入っていて興味深かった。

Let's just say it's not what I expected. The quality of the DVDs was good but the stories were very strange. I don't even know how to describe the stories accurately. They were odd.