''Shéhérazade'' is a 1963 French adventure film directed by

Pierre Gaspard-Huit Pierre Gaspard-Huit (29 November 1917 – 1 May 2017) was a French film director and screenwriter. He directed the 1963 film '' Shéhérazade'', which starred Anna Karina. He was once married to actress Claudine Auger when she was 18, and he wa ...

and starring

Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019)

as the title character. The cast also featured

Gérard Barray Gérard Barray (born 2 November 1931 in Toulouse) is a French actor. Early life and education Barray's parents split up quickly and his mother, who came from Montauban decided to return to her hometown with her little boy. Around the age of 15, h ...

Antonio Vilar Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

and Giuliano Gemma The film is loosely based on the '' One Thousand and One Nights''. The film's sets and costumes were designed by the art director Georges Wakhévitch.

Plot

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

in the year 809. The city is ruled by the

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

, Haroun-al-Rashid, to whom the beautiful and spiritual

Scheherazade Scheherazade () is a major female character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the '' One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' de ...

has been promised. Ambassadors of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...

arrive in Baghdad to ask the Caliph for free access to the Christian holy sites. Among these envoys from the west is the knight Renaud Villecroix, who falls in love with her. The grand

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

, enemy of the Caliph, ambushes a traveling party and takes Scheherazade prisoner, threatening to cut off her head. Renaud saves her and flees into the desert with her.

Cast

Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019)

as Shéhérazade *

as Renaud de Villecroix *

as Haroun-al-Raschid * Giuliano Gemma as Didier *

Marilù Tolo Marilù Tolo (born Maria Lucia Tolo; 16 January 1944) is an Italian film actress. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1960 and 1985. Life and career Born in Rome, Tolo, at a very young age, worked as an assistant of Mario Riva in the ...

as Shirin *

Fausto Tozzi Fausto Tozzi (29 October 1921 – 10 December 1978) was an Italian film actor and screenwriter. He appeared in 70 films between 1951 and 1978. He wrote the script for ''The Defeated Victor'', which was entered into the 9th Berlin Internation ...

as Barmak * Gil Vidal - Thierry *

Jorge Mistral Modesto Llosas Rosell (24 November 1920 – 20 April 1972) known professionally as Jorge Mistral was a Spanish film actor. During the 1940s, he became a star in films produced by CIFESA. In the 1950s, he lived and worked in México and ap ...

as Grand Vizir Zaccar * Fernando Rey * Joëlle LaTour as Anira *

Rafael Albaicín Ignacio Rafael García Escudero, known as Rafael Albaicín, was a Spanish matador and film actor who was born on 5 June 1919 in Madrid, and died on 3 September 1981. In 1948 he began as matador in Las Ventas, taught by Cagancho. He also played t ...

* Karamoko Cisse * María Calvi *

José Calvo José Calvo (March 3, 1916 – May 16, 1980) was a Spanish film actor best known for his roles in western films and historical dramas. He made around 150 appearances mostly in films between 1952 and his death in 1980. He entered film in 1952 ...

* Félix Fernández * María Granada *

José Manuel Martín José Manuel Martín Pérez (born 24 May 1924) is a Spanish retired film and television actor, radio broadcaster, and screenwriter. He was a popular character actor in Spanish cinema during the 1950s and 60s, best remembered for playing villaino ...

(as J.M. Martín)

Box office

It was the 46th top-grossing film of 1963 in France, where it sold 1,375,848 tickets at the box office. In Poland, it sold more than tickets, making it one of the thirteen highest-grossing foreign films in Poland . This adds up to more than 3,375,848 tickets sold in Europe.

References

External links

* 1963 films 1963 adventure films 1960s French-language films Films based on One Thousand and One Nights Films directed by Pierre Gaspard-Huit Films produced by Serge Silberman Films set in the 9th century French adventure films 1960s French films {{adventure-film-stub