Deluding Games of Love

Many filmmakers have been drawn to the challenge of adapting Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century masterwork The Decameron. Screenwriter and director Jiří Krejčík attempted to couple one of the stories from The Decameron with one from The Heptameron, a later collection of works written by Marguerite of Navarre that was inspired by the great storyteller of the Italian Renaissance. The film Hry lásky šálivé (The Deluding Games of Love, 1971) thus comprises two stories, Arabský kůň (Arabian, 1971) and Náušnice (Earrings, 1971), two comical narratives about marital infidelity. In the first, a tight-fisted nobleman deservedly forfeits the fidelity of his beautiful wife. In the second, a pretty chambermaid scoops some valuable jewellery while a bored noble couple have marital issues. Krejčík’s legendary precision and craftsmanship produced a costume-and-comedy drama that won over audiences in the early stages of the post-1968 “normalisation” period with timeless entertainment. The film’s appeal could only be increased by the cast, led by Miloš Kopecký and Slávka Budínová.