PIER PAOLO PASOLINI: THE EROTIC FILMS
The release of new prints of Pier Pasolini’s last four films provides the occasion to appraise one of cinema’s most daring and controversial artists. Prolific as a filmmaker, screenwriter, essayist, poet, critic and novelist, Pasolini (1922­1975) was drawn to the world of misfits on the fringes of society: political, religious and sexual rebels, prostitutes, criminals and thieves. A self-described Catholic-Marxist his personal life and politics were inseparable from his impassioned poetic vision, what he referred to as a "desperate vitality." The films of his acclaimed "Trilogy of Life,"—THE DECAMERON (1970), THE CANTERBURY TALES (1972), and THE ARABIAN NIGHTS (1974), based on a literary classic of the same title, preceded his planned “Anti-Trilogy of Life,” the first and only film of which was SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (1975), completed just before his murder in Rome by a street punk. During his lifetime his challenging films were condemned and frequently banned for their frank sexuality, casual violence and rejection of middle-class values. But their impact and influence has only grown with time and are now recognized for their pivotal place in literature and independent world cinema.

OCT 17 19 FRI 7 P.M., SUN 5 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
THE DECAMERON
ITALY 1970
DIRECTOR: PIER PAOLO PASOLINI Loosely based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s classic novel set during the Black Plague, Pasolini offers his own dark vision of mankind driven by venal and carnal urges. In Naples a protégé of the painter Giotto (Pasolini) is besieged by sordid thoughts while creating a religious fresco. Comic, poignant, lascivious, and rife with rude pagan fantasies, the episodes of this first film in Pasolini’s "Trilogy of Life" coalesce into a bawdy, satirical portrait of man’s base nature. "Taking ten tales out of the 100 in Boccaccio's DECAMERON, Pasolini has created one of the most beautiful, turbulent and uproarious panoramas of early Renaissance life ever put on film."—Vincent Canby, THE NEW YORK TIMES. (112 mins.) Mature content. Age 18 and over.

OCT 18 19 S AT 7 P.M., SUN 7:15 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
THE CANTERBURY TALES
ITALY 1972
DIRECTOR: PIER PAOLO PASOLINI Chaucer’s bawdy tale of adventures on the road to Canterbury provides the basis for the middle film in Pasolini’s "Trilogy of Life." The travelers’ tales progress from relative innocence to deepest decadence as a carnival of ribald medieval pilgrims journey to the martyr’s shrine with nary a thought of repentance. Pasolini himself plays Chaucer, ushering his band of largely nonprofessional actors into the eye of a storm of carnal exploration overseen by the devil himself. Richly-hued art direction by Dante Ferrette (GANGS OF NEW YORK) evoke the paintings of Brueghel and Bosch. Long banned in Italy for its graphic eroticism, the film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. (109 mins.) Mature content. Age 18 and over.

OCT 24 26 FRI 7 P.M., SUN 4:30 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
ARABIAN NIGHTS
ITALY 1974
DIRECTOR: PIER PAOLO PASOLINI Visually the most exquisite of the “Trilogy of Life,” series, and the most optimistic of his visions, ARABIAN NIGHTS is an exotic adaptation of the ancient Persian anthology. Once again pushing the boundaries of sex and violence, Pasolini interweaves ten stories, sometimes telling one within another and linking them all through the framing story of a free-spirited slave girl who chooses a new master, is kidnapped, escapes disguised as a man, and eventually becomes a King. A playful puzzlebox of fantasies, the approach is both authentically medieval and modern at the same time, taking as its motto, "The complete truth does not live in one dream but in several dreams." (130 mins.) Mature content. Age 18 and over.

OCT 25 26 SAT 7 P.M., SUN 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM
ITALY 1975
DIRECTOR: PIER PAOLO PASOLINI “Be prepared, SALO is not for the weak of heart. The polar opposite of the "Trilogy Of Life," SALO reconsiders his early premise of sexuality as a liberating force as it depicts with cold precision the sexual and psychological atrocities visited on sixteen young men and women held hostage by a group of depraved fascist nobles at the end of WWII. Pasolini based the film on a notorious book by the Marquis de Sade, but shifted the locale to the town of Salo, where Pasolini’s brother was killed during the war (and where he himself was arrested by the Nazis). One of the most controversial and widely censored films ever made (it took over 25 years for the uncut version to screen in England), SALO has lost none of its power to shock and disturb.”—AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE. "SALO is a mystery . . . a medieval mystery play, a holy performance—and thus enigmatic. And so it must not be understood. It would be terrible, if it were misunderstood."—Pier Paolo Pasolini. (117 mins.)
Mature content. Age 18 and over.