Page 1 of Pasolini - `Trilogy of Life` on DVD

Have been umming and ahhing over buying these 3 DVDs - Canterbury Tales, Decameron, Arabian Nights - from HMV since they`re in their world cinema sale at the moment (about £10 each).

Anyone know if the DVDs themselves are any good? Picture quality, sound etc (shouldn`t be too bad since they`re BFI discs). Guessing there`s not much in the way of extras though.

Also mighty curious to see Salo, mainly based on its reputation it must be said though.

This item was edited on Monday, 5th April 2004, 19:28

I`ve bought all three bfi titles over the last couple of years. The quality is as good as you can expect given the age of these films, so there`s not much difference between watching them on vhs and dvd. Sound is pretty ordinary, too - especially on Canterbury Tales, where the original spoken English is dubbed into Italian and then retranslated into English subtitles...

But these films are joyful. They are faithful to the bawdiness of the originals - rude, grown-up and funny - and ultimately they're rather life-affirming.

Salò is an interesting movie: I`m torn between thinking it`s a necessary film to explore the inhumanity of fascism, while it sometimes seems to take a bit too much pleasure in some of the S&M. It`s intelligent and sometimes near unwatchable, even though some of the final special effects look pretty tacky today.

If you`re interested in these, it`s worth getting hold of Oedipus Rex - currently only available on R1. A tremendously ambitious take on Sophocles` play (and on one of the foundation stones of modern psychoanalysis), Pasolini makes brilliant use of landscape and manages successfully to relate the story to the modern world. I think it's his most affecting film (though others seem to prefer the Gospel).

Thanks, think I`ll go for the trilogy and Salo since a quick check shows these to be the only versions available on DVD with English subtitles and (in the case of Salo) without having to pay hundreds for OOP Criterions discs!