Historical Literature+Modern Comedy=Brilliant Movie
Sex, love and sword fights; sounds like the average medieval romantic comedy, but Virgin Territory is far from ordinary. Starring Hayden Christensen and Mischa Barton, Virgin Territory brings history to a modern and comical story of romance and temptation.
Virgin Territory takes place in the time of the Black Plague in Florence. Despite this era being portrayed as rather depressing and dark in other films, director and writer David Leland portrayed Florence as the plague-ridden city it was, but took the viewer out of the city into the Italian countryside, where hilarity, sexuality, and romance ensue.
Narrated by “angel-bum” painter-turned-Priest Tindaro (Craig Parkinson), the tale weaves between three main groups of characters. First, there’s the gorgeous Lorenzo (Christensen), a gambler running from a sore loser, Gerbino della Rata (played by Tim Roth). Lorenzo “miraculously” ends up in a convent, where he is assumed to be deaf and dumb. He plays to this idea and becomes the sought after gardener to a group of young nuns.
Amongst these nuns is the beautiful and virginal Pampinea (Barton). Pampinea comes to the convent to protect her virginity while she awaits the arrival of her pre-arranged husband, Count Dzerzhinsky (played by Welshman Matthew Rhys). She also happens to be hiding from della Rata. While there, she learns of Lorenzo (who she knows from Florence) and his “gardening” skills from the other nuns.
It is this same convent that Tindaro turns to for his turn as gardener. Tindaro was traveling with Pampinea’s friends; Panfilo, Dioneo, Ellissa, and Lauretta. This group is on the way to Pampinea’s wedding to one of three men; Lorenzo, Gerbino or Dzerzhinsky. On their way, they stumble across a series of awkward and embarrassing obstacles, but they are not deterred from getting to the wedding.
Laced with comedic innuendo, romance, and sword fights, Virgin Territory is based on historical literature of the medieval pre-Renaissance era. These writings were The Decameron, which is also used as the film’s working titles in the United States and Italy.
The Decameron is a tale of a group of people telling each other stories while escaping the plague-ridden Florence. The original tales were written by Giovanni Boccaccio around 1350; this collection of 100 tales have influenced many pieces of great literature that have since been published. This includes: Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well and The Merchant of Venice; Moliere’s The Confunded Husband; as well as many other works by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Voltaire, Martin Luther, Petrarch and a plethora of ancient authors.
Not only does Virgin Territory bring historical literature into modern comedy and romance, but it depicts a dreary era as a time to escape and explore new territory.
Virgin Territory has been released in France and Greece and will be released on DVD in North America in the coming months.
It does contain sexuality, nudity and profanities and is rated “R” in the United States. The trailer below also contains nudity and sexuality, you have been advised.
That movie is indeed funny.