"Actor: Pier Paolo Pasolini"

• The Canterbury Tales (I Racconti di Canterbury) | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £8.97   |  Saving you £11.02 (122.85%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini's film of The Canterbury Tales was one of a trilogy from the early 1970s that, like its companions The Decameron and the Arabian Nights, was an international box-office hit playing for long runs in mainstream cinemas. All of them adapt a masterpiece of literature where man becomes the moral catalyst for his own destiny. Chaucer's ribald sense of humour was a natural outlet for Pasolini's own desire to throw caution to the wind on screen, causing controversy at the time by displaying all facets of the male and female body unadorned. (Although it all looks pretty tame now, the Italian authorities were a threatening presence to Pasolini at the time.) Produced by Alberto Grimaldi with a large budget, the location scenes were filmed in many historic sites in England, notably Wells Cathedral, its crypt, and the surrounding flatlands leading toward Glastonbury, captured in early spring by Tonino Delli Colli's cinematography. The cast with Italian and English actors dubbed into Italian with English subtitles is a mixed blessing. Hugh Griffith as Sir January is one Anglo-Saxon recognisable from his role as the lecherous squire in Tom Jones, and overacts like the rest of the cast. Pasolini himself appears briefly as Chaucer in a non-speaking role that one regrets he didn't enlarge for himself in this sprawling tableaux of pilgrim's tales (Ken Russell's excesses from the same period come to mind). The musical score, an adaptation by Ennio Morricone of some traditional indigenous melodies, prefigures the early music revival by a few years and provides a stimulating soundtrack. --Adrian Edwards

• The Canterbury Tales (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (05/12/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The second part of Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life is based on the fourteenth-century stories of Geoffrey Chaucer. Plunging with gusto into some of the blackest and bawdiest of the tales, Pasolini celebrates almost every conceivable form of sexual act with a rich, earthy humour. The film’s visual magic is complimented by this new high-definition restoration.Special features Alternative English-language version presented with English-version inserts Original Italian trailer Exclusive new documentary exploring Pasolini’s significance on the Italian genre film Fully illustrated booklet including essays, reviews and biography A particular delight is the use of a largely British cast, including Hugh Griffith, Jenny Runacre and Tom Baker, which Pasolini himself takes the part of Chaucer.

• The Decameron | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £12.08   |  Saving you £7.91 (65.48%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The first of Pasolini's colourful and highly erotic Trilogy of Life films based on famous story circles (to be followed by 'The Canterbury Tales' and 'Arabian Nights') 'The Decameron' contains ten stories based on the fourteenth century works of Giovanni Boccaccio. Capturing the bawdy earthy spirit of the original the film romps through its tales of sex and death - of lusty nuns and priests cuckolded husbands murdered lovers and grave-robbers with five of the stories linked by an artist 'Giotto's pupil' played by Pasolini himself.

• The Decameron | Blu Ray | (27/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The first of Pasolini's colourful entertaining and highly erotic Trilogy of Life films The Decameron tells ten stories based on 14th century originals. Full of bawdy earthy spirit and presented in high definition restoration the film romps through its tales of sex and death - of lusty nuns and priests cuckolded husbands murdered lovers and grave robber - with five of the stories linked by the character of an intriguing artist played by Pasolini himself.

• Oedipus Rex | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on the mythical Sophoclean dramas Pier Paolo Pasolini's powerful film is a faithful retelling of the Oedipus story framed within a prologue and epilogue set in 1960s Bologna. The tale unfolds in an unidentified desert where choosing to ignore the warnings of the blind soothsayer Oedipus (Pasolini regular Franco Citti) sets out on a fateful journey that will see him break the taboos of patricide and maternal incest. Poetic and dream-like Pasolini's Oedipus Rex boldly tackles its controversial subject matter head on and stands amongst the finest achievements from one of Italian cinema's leading innovators.