Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Decameron may be a faithful adaptation of parts of the original Giovanni Boccaccio medieval allegory, but it fails as an actual film. Boccaccio's The Decameron was a collection of 100 tales from 14th century Italy told via a frame story of ten youths exchanging stories in order to pass the time while taking refugee from the Black Death. In Pasolini's adaption, he removes the frame story and presents nine tales in a wandering, disjointed narrative. We see a young man from Perugia get swindled twice in Naples before becoming incredibly wealthy. A laborer poses as a deaf-mute and seduces an entire abbey. An evil man tricks a town into venerating him as a saint after he dies. A young girl gets caught sleeping with her boyfriend on the roof of their house by her parents who force them to get married. All of these tales and more are presented by Pasolini with liberal doses of sex, nudity, and an irreverence towards the Church. The problem is that by removing the frame story, Pasolini has robbed audiences unfamiliar with the original text of context. Those who are familiar with The Decameron will appreciate these tales for how they skewer social conventions. But for everybody else, Pasolini's film will seem to be a random assortment of bizarre stories with ultimately no purpose. Pasolini's The Decameron is merely the skeleton of a film. Some might argue that when Pasolini made the film, he intended it to be only for people who would understand what he was trying to do. Personally, I find that unfair and even reprehensible.
6/10
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