it, Novelle licenziose di vergini vogliose, lit=Licentious Tales of Lusty Virgins, is a 1973 Italian decamerotic comedy film lensed and directed for the most part by

Joe D'Amato Aristide Massaccesi (15 December 1936 – 23 January 1999), known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres (westerns, decamerotici, peplum, war films, ...

. The story and screenplay were written by D'Amato and producer Diego Spataro. The film is noteworthy for involving

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was somet ...

and

Francesco Petrarca Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

- some of the most important people of Italian medieval and renaissance literature - as well as

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

in a plot which presents Boccaccio's dream descent into

Dante's Inferno ''Inferno'' (; Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem ''Divine Comedy''. It is followed by ''Purgatorio'' and '' Paradiso''. The ''Inferno'' describes Dante's journey through Hell, guid ...

as a frame for a number of story vignettes dealing on the sinful lives of the damned he encounters on his way.

Plot

Giovanni Boccaccio dreams of being led into hell, precisely into the department of "lechers". On his way, he learns the stories of some of the damned. *Two married couples agree to switch partners and enjoy the other's spouse. *A friar takes advantage of a young woman whose husband is insatiable. *A merchant entrusts his household to one of his nephews, including his wife, who instructs the young man in the art of sex. *A married merchant has a homosexual relationship with one of his workers; his wife threatens to tell everyone if her husband's lover will not satisfy her in bed. *A husband entrusts his wife and daughter to a music teacher, underestimating him as shy and harmless. On his way, Boccaccio also meets Nero and the majestic figure of Dante Alighieri.

Cast

Gabriella Giorgelli Gabriella Giorgelli (born 29 July 1941) is an Italian film and television actress. She appeared in more than 70 films between 1960 and 1998. Biography Early life Born in Fossola, a frazione of Carrara, Giorgelli was the daughter of a busines ...

*Margaret Rose Keil *Enza Sbordone *Antonio Spaccatini *Paolo Casella *

Mimmo Poli Mimmo Poli (born Domenico Poli, April 11, 1920 – April 4, 1986) was an Italian film character actor. Career He was one of the best known and most active characters of Italian cinema; in his thirty-five-year career he boasted an immense filmo ...

*Marco Mariani *Evelyn Melcher *

Attilio Dottesio Attilio Dottesio (16 July 1909 – 12 February 1989) was an Italian film character actor and singer. He appeared in 170 films between 1940 and 1985. Born in Brescia, Dottesio began his career in France, where first he obtained some success ...

*Tony Askin *Stefano Oppedisano *

Enzo Pulcrano Enzo Pulcrano (born 31 May 1943 in Acerra, Italy, near Naples; died 28 February 1992) was an Italian actor and writer active in the 1970s and known for Rulers of the City (1976), La Banda Vallanzasca (1977) and A Pugni Nudi (1974), in which he re ...

*Fausto Di Bella *Lucia Modugno

Production and censorship

The first version of the film was entitled it, Le mille e una notte di Boccaccio a Canterbury, lit=The Thousand and One Tales of Boccaccio in Canterbury - a title reflecting all three subject matters of Pier Paolo Pasolini's '' Trilogy of Life'' which consisted of Boccaccio's ''

The Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...

'' (1971), Chaucer's ''

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...

'' (1972) and ''

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', an adaptation of ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' released in 1974). This first title, however, ended up being discarded when the film was rejected by the Italian board of censorship on November 15, 1972. According to the list deposited at the ministry when the film was resubmitted, several sequences were cut or shortenend, among them the shots in hell containing female

frontal nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...

and other sex and nude scenes as well a close-up of Brother Alessio in the barrel of excrements, while the first episode was completely reshot without nudity. Since the film's original director Joe D'Amato was at the time already working as cinematographer on

Alberto de Martino Alberto De Martino (12 June 1929 – 2 June 2015) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born in Rome, De Martino started as a child actor and later returned to the cinema where worked as a screenwriter, director and dubbing supervis ...

's ''

Counselor at Crime ''Counselor at Crime'' ( it, Il consigliori, also known as ''The Counsellor'') is a 1973 Italian-Spanish crime film directed by Alberto De Martino and starring Tomas Milian, Martin Balsam and Francisco Rabal. Cast * Tomas Milian: Thomas Accard ...

'' in the United States, the direction of the reshoot was given to

Franco Lo Cascio Luca Damiano (born Franco Lo Cascio; 29 August 1946) is an Italian film director. Born in Rome, Lo Cascio started his career as the assistant director of Fernando Di Leo in almost all the films he directed between 1967 and 1974. In 1974, he ...

. The film ended up being 106 metres, i.e. approximately 4 minutes, shorter. It passed when it was resubmitted under its current title on April 18, 1973.

Release

The film was theatrically released in Italy. It was later distributed on VHS by Shendene & Moizzi in their "Collezzione decamerotico".

Bibliography

* * * *

References

{{Joe D'Amato Films directed by Joe D'Amato Commedia sexy all'italiana 1970s sex comedy films 1970s Italian-language films 1973 comedy films 1973 films 1970s Italian films