Bawdy Tales

In 1800, in Rome, two thieves are imprisoned and condemned to death. To pass the time, they decide to entertain themselves by telling ribald stories.

The thieves launch their framing device, promising to recount a sequence of tales before their execution. Each tale exposes human folly through erotic, violent, and comic episodes.

In the first tale, a duke and Nicolino discover that their wives have betrayed them with younger men and with a priest. Their discovery sparks jealousy, deception, and reckless passions that drive the plot.

In the second tale, two farmers clash with a clappers inspired rustic cavalry, echoing Giovanni Verga's rustic realism. The feud reveals stubborn pride and the gritty humor of rural life.

In the third tale, a debauched priest becomes infatuated with one of the girls the priest pursued and kills one of his pilgrims in a fit of passion. The act exposes religious hypocrisy and the ruinous reach of desire.

In the last frame tale, a husband spends all his money to win his wife's affection, and she invites an elderly man to live with them as a live-in john. The unusual living arrangement sets the stage for later turnovers of love and power.

The wife soon grows bored of both men and brings in a much younger lover, whom she meets frequently in a meadow outside town. The arrangement deepens the love triangle and foreshadows tragedy.

When the elderly man learns of the affair, the two men plan and ambush the younger lover in the meadow outside town. The crime is driven by mounting jealousy and passionate greed.

The wife dies of heartbreak, and the husband and the elderly man are left to confront the consequences of their actions. Their relationship unravels as the law closes in and the community weighs the crime.

The husband and the elderly man are executed for their crime, bringing their treacherous plot to a brutal close. The moral weight of the tale lands on the audience as the nooses rise.

Judgment Day arrives as the archangel lists all the criminals and asks how they plead. The moment frames the moral reckoning that threads through the narratives.

The archangel banishes the three conspirators to Hell while sending the young lover to Paradise. The two thieves facing execution laugh inappropriately at the irony, and the film closes on their lifeless bodies hanging.