- Pier Palo Pasolini, Il Decameron (UK/US: The Decameron), Italy, 1970. Strangely enough, Italy’s enfant terrible (auteur-painter–poet-writer-Marxist and the most religious of atheists) offered the role of the painter Giotto to two poets. First, Penna, then the more illustrious Paolo Volponi. When PPP was persuaded to take it on, himself, it became a mere pupil of Giotti, painting frescoes of heaven and hell on a church wall. He would also play Chaucer in the equally ribald second of this Trilogy of Life: The Canterbury Tales, 1971 (followed by Arabian Nights, 1973). All with non-professional actors apart from Laura Betti, Josephine Chaplin, Hugh Griffith andPPP’s amico Franco Citti and PPP’s lover Ninetto Davoli.
Usual occupation: PoetBirth year: 1906Death year: 1977Other name: Casting Calls: 1