Quick, what do The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and the Tales of the Arabian Nights all have in common? If you said that they are all books you were forced to read in high school or college, books that you found awful then and would never think of reading again, you need to get this delightful set of films and reeducate yourself. What you don’t remember, and what director Italian Pier Paolo Pasolini absolutely reveled in, is that all these literary classics were, and are, full of bawdy behavior. Really bawdy behavior. Pasolini is no stranger to putting erotic — and disturbing — images on the screen, as anybody who has seen his masterpiece Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom can attest (if they admit they say it in the first place). The movies included in this Trilogy of Life set are much more upbeat and life affirming. They celebrate sex and sin while at the same time, like in the case of some of the stories told in the Canterbury Tales, aren’t afraid to add a moral message at the end. Pasolini just makes sure we all see the smile on the sinners’ faces before the lesson is learned.
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