Les 1001 nuits

This is a french version of the Thousand and one nights. It's a good movie, and it has the added interest of watching a young Catherine Zeta Jones on her first film role (according to the IMDB). She has a couple of quite revealing nude scenes as well.

An ancient King marries a different woman each night and then has her put to death the next morning. His latest wife/potential victim is the beautiful Scheherazade but she comes up with a way to prevent her death. She tells a story to the King each night, causing him to keep her alive to hear the remainder of the story. When she runs out of stories she relies on a genie in a lamp to help her escape.

Not your usual Arabian Nights / 1,001 Nights. There's very little emphasis on the actual 1,001 nights of stories and more on Scheherazade's various escapes from the clutches of the King, largely with the help of a genie in a lamp. To further detour the plot from the legendary tale, the genie lives in the 20th century and is summoned via his TV which he then uses to enter the scene!

As you can see, it's pretty clumsy and haphazard, plot-wise, but it is goodish fun. There's an impishness and non-seriousness about proceedings that propels the film forward and ensures that it's never dull.

This is helped by Catherine Zeta-Jones playing Scheherazade. 20 years old and appearing in her first film, she is quite enchanting.

First part is a somewhat "sleeper" interpretation of the original legendary story. Had to remind myself to keep watching - although all paid off and switched to a balmy rapid pace in the 2nd part, where you have to wake up and keep alert to catch all of the jokes and plays which feast on the UK / middle-eastern switch location theme. Very funny for anyone with knowledge of people from either of these places.

First part is a somewhat "sleeper" interpretation of the original legendary story. Had to remind myself to keep watching - although all padi off and switched to a balmy rapid pace in the 2nd part, where you have to wake up and keep alert to catch all of the jokes and plays which feast on the UK / middle-eastern switch location theme. Very funny for anyone with knowledge of people from either of these places.

This movie, or pair of movies, has a relatively slow start, but warms up and accelerates to a rip-roaring laughter rate, well worth the patience. I would definitely watch it again if I found it, and would also go get my family to enjoy the fun.