Ninetto Davoli

Startling candor and ribald humor illuminate these classic tales of romance, deception, murder and lust. A host of lovers and pilgrims unite for a wonderful and at times unpredictable journey through Chaucer's medieval England.

Giovanni Boccaccio's famed 14th-century collection of stories, The Decameron, comes to racy and ribald life in this triumphant adaptation by director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who co-stars as the painter Giotto. Tales of lust, violence and humor intertwine in the remarkable film, the first in Pasolini's "trilogy of life" (followed by The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights). It won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1971.