‘The Decameron’ romps across WCAA screen

HONESDALE, PA — The Wayne County Arts Alliance’s (WCAA) Sunday Night Cinema presentation for March 22 will be Italian director Pasolini’s “The Decameron.” The film is a classic adaptation of 14th-century tales of love and tragedy, and features a completely uninhibited and joyful romp across the Italian countryside. The setting is ripe for friendliness turning into treachery, piety into debauchery, sinners into saints, love into lust and numerous variations.

The film is based on nine stories from Giovanni Bocaccio’s “Decameron,” a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Among the tales depicted are that of a young Sicilian who is swindled twice, but ends up rich; a man who poses as a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns; and a scoundrel who fools a priest on his deathbed. In the course of his storytelling, Pasolini satirizes the Church while throwing in liberal doses of life and love.

“The Decameron” won the Silver Bear award at The Berlin Film Festival and is the first film in Pasolini’s “Trilogy of Life”, which was later completed by “The Canterbury Tales” and “Arabian Nights.”

The program will be presented 7:00 p.m. at the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, 32 Commercial Street in Honesdale. A donation of $5 per person is suggested, to help support the activities of the alliance. The showing will be preceded with a short introduction and followed by a discussion.

For more information visit waynecountyartsalliance.org or call 570/253-6850.