The Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights

1973–74. Italy. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Franco Merli, Ines Pellegrini, Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti.“The film offers itself as the prototype of ‘pure’ narration: that is, of narratives that live off of one another, that are embedded in one another to such an extent that it is often impossible to determinate the containing tale from the contained. Il fiore will reproduce the image of the self-generating tales of the original text, and yet its expulsion of the original frame-tale, the story of Scheherazade, is a function of Pasolini’s refusal to trace a possible outer limit to narration within the film itself” (Patrick Rumble, “Stylistic Contamination in the Trilogia della vita: The case of Il fiore delle Mille e una notte,” in Pier Paolo Pasolini: Contemporary Perspectives, 1994). In Italian; English subtitles. 129 min.