A Look Back: Secondo Tempo: Il Decameron

An adaptation of nine stories from Boccaccio's "Decameron

Many FH readers, and devoted fans of the male form in cinema, have heard of 1971's The Decameron. (Italian: Il Decameron) but the movie, and the male nude scenes were new to me. The anthology film, written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, is based on the 14th-century allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio.

This is the first film of director Pasolini's Trilogy of Life, the others being The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights. Each film was an adaptation of a different piece of classical literature focusing on ribald and often irreligious themes. The tales contain a fair amount of nudity, both male and female. 

In the second half of the film, and in the fifth story, we're introduced to a young woman named Caterina, who, during a game of hide and seek, meets and falls in love with a beautiful young boy named Ricciardo.  Scared to tell her father about her new love, she decides to spend the night sleeping on the terrace so she and Ricciardo can meet up and make love without her parents finding out.

Caterina's parents set up a makeshift bed for her outside where she awaits for Ricciardo. He scales the wall of her house and makes love to her in the makeshift bed. The next morning the girl's father goes outside to find the two lovers sleeping naked, while she is holding Ricciardo's penis.

Dad grabs mom, but instead of being angry, the parents think Ricciardo is a good match, and think a marriage would bring fair amount of money which would help with their social standing.  Dad tells Ricciardo the only way he is leaving is to marry his daughter.  Ricciardo happily agrees, and the parents leave the couple alone, welcoming them to continue to make love and be with each other.

Young Ricciardo is played by actor Francesco Gavazzi.  Not only was this Gavazzi's first nude scene, it was his first and only movie, and credit that I could find.  It's not really that odd to find a an actor, especially in a small part requiring full frontal nudity, be a one and done when it comes their film career.  I tried to find an interview, and see what Gavazzi did after the film, but there was not much out there.  If anyone knows, let me know.  Thanks to xyzpdq for the clip!