Arabian Nights (1974 film)


Arabian Nights is a 1974 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Its original Italian title is Il fiore delle mille e una notte, which means The Flower of the One Thousand and One Nights.
The film is an adaptation of the ancient Arabic anthology The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, better known as The Arabian Nights. It is the last of Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life", which began with The Decameron and continued with The Canterbury Tales. The lead was played by young Franco Merli who was discovered for this film by Pasolini.
The film contains abundant nudity, sex and slapstick humor. It preserves the eroticism and the story within a story structure of Arabian Nights and has been called "perhaps the best and certainly the most intelligent" of Arabian Nights film adaptations.

Plot

The main story concerns an innocent young man, Nur-e-Din, who comes to fall in love with a beautiful slave girl, Zumurrud, who selected him as her master. After a foolish error of his causes her to be abducted, he travels in search of her. Meanwhile, Zumurrud manages to escape and, disguised as a man, comes to a far-away kingdom where she becomes king. Various other travellers recount their own tragic and romantic experiences, including a young man who becomes enraptured by a mysterious woman on his wedding day, and a man who is determined to free a woman from a demon. Interwoven are Nur-e-Din's continuing search for Zumurrud and his adventures. In the end, he arrives at the far-away kingdom and is reunited with Zumurrud.
The film comprises 16 scenes:
Filming took place in Isfahan, Iran, the deserts of Eritrea and Yemen as well as in Nepal. The soundtrack was composed by Ennio Morricone.

Locations

Awards

The film was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix Spécial Prize.