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Analysis Of The Movie ' Arabian Nights '

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Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1974 film, Arabian Nights, uses enframing in order to produce a rich dialogue around a particular theme seen in The Arabian Nights stories. His film uses two kinds of enframing devices, parallel stories and dictated stories. Parallel stories are instances where the camera moves between two different characters and their stories. Dictated stories are instances where the characters themselves read or relate a story. Both of these enframing methods work to draw comparisons between the main story of Nur Ed Din and the various enframed tales. The parallel stories work off one another to establish a foil between Nur Ed Din’s sexual exploits and Zumurred’s sexual danger. The scene of interest is right after Zumurred has become king, the thief who kidnapped her comes to town and is crucified (Arabian Nights 00:35:44-00:37:42). The thief represents Nur Ed Din’s failure in the relationship because the thief is the danger Nur Ed Din created when he did not listen to Zumurred resulting in her kidnapping. Having the following scene be Nur Ed Din’s experience of being abducted by and fooling around with several women, creates a foil between Zumurred’s and Nur Ed Din’s experiences (Arabian Nights 00:37:43-00:40:17). The comparison also reminds the audience that Nur Ed Din is getting distracted and failing to fix the relationship he ruined. This foil is further enforced as the scene moves back to Zumurred where she executes the man who attempted to rape her. The

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