Arabian Nights (1974) - Pier Paolo Pasolini 

Throw this in that pile of "?" films from PPP. Like several others this was released on DVD very briefly and almost immediately went out of print. That particular DVD was about 22 minutes shorter than the version Pasolini originally edited. This shortened film may help explain why the film is so confusing at times. Stories blend into each other and stack layers of narrative upon each other and seem to retreat from themselves at inconvenient times. Perhaps the full version makes a little more sense of this, or perhaps just throws more confusing layers into the mix. This was certainly in line with his later period of literary adaptations and although considered a final chapter in a trilogy (Decameron, Canterbury Tales) this was in line with a lot more in his filmography. The underlying story is a man who has his beautiful slave kidnapped and he has to find her, although he proves to be about the worst rescue party around, ignoring all advice and falling asleep as he is waiting for her to climb down. Along the way his slave becomes a King, and he just stumble onto her kingdom. Before all that though are tales of carnality in numerous countries with some laughably bad effects and an awful lot of nudity. Some Pasolini regulars pop up throughout and everyone has that extremely annoying way of delivering all of their badly dubbed dialogue while giggling. Shame that a decent cast couldn't have been assembled or at least one person who could act. The over simplistic nature of the stories seem linked more to the fundamentals of the source material rather than any flaw in design, but still there's a lot to be bothered with here.