Cert 15
125 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language, sex references
Regrets, I have a few.... including the fact that I cannot admire art just for its own sake, I do not have a funny bone which is easily tickled and I have watched so many horror movies that I am no longer easily shocked.
Failing number one means that I just didn't get Miguel Gomes's Arabian Nights, Volume One.
I have read how it beguiled those at the Cannes film festival and would delight art house film buffs and political activists alike.
I reckon I fit into the former category but it went straight over my head.
This may be because I have not read Arabian Nights and so was not aware of the story of Scheherazade, the king's wife who tells him unfinished stories to prevent him keeping up his habit of bumping off spouses after their first night together.
The adaptation is, therefore, a series of often unconcluded, surreal episodes with the background of the anger of the Portuguese people at the austerity measures forced upon it by Europe.
In fact, the scenes with most clarity are explicit about how the Portuguese feel as if they have been ripped off.
But these are diluted with takes which range from Gomes and his crew being buried in sand to an exploding beached whale.
I have to accept that Arabian Nights has chimed with many viewers but I struggled to find first base.
Perhaps this is my failing or perhaps this is another case of The Emperor's New Clothes.
Reasons to watch: a very different take on the Arabian Nights story
Reasons to avoid: I found it almost impossible to follow
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 3/10
Star tweet
David Jenkins Short excerpt from my interview with Miguel Gomes:
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