''Les 1001 Nuits'' is a French-Italian

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

loosely based on the ancient Arabic legend ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

''. It is directed by

Philippe de Broca Philippe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac (; 15 March 1933 – 26 November 2004) was a French film director. He directed 30 full-length feature films, including the highly successful ''That Man from Rio (''L'Homme de Rio'')'', ''Le Magnifique, ...

and stars

Catherine Zeta-Jones Catherine Zeta-Jones (; born 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress. Recognised for her versatility, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Tony Award. In 2010, she was appointed Comm ...

as Sheherazade, who has married a king (

Thierry Lhermitte Thierry Lhermitte (; born 24 November 1952) is a French actor, director, writer and producer, best known for his comedic roles. He was a founder of the comedy troupe ''Le Splendid'' in the 1970s, along with, among others, Christian Clavier, Géra ...

), who desires to have many virgin wives, but only one at a time. As soon as the King has consummated his relationship with a new wife, he has her put to death at sunrise. Sheherazade delays this unfortunate ending by putting off the connubial event for a thousand and one nights, telling irresistible stories that are unfinished when the sun rises. In this version, Sheherazade finds a magical lamp that holds the genie Jimmy Genius ( Gerard Jugnot) who is from the 20th century. Jimmy helps Sheherazade by providing her with 20th-century technology including a

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

that is used to drop a nude Sheherazade into a man's lap. Actress Catherine Zeta Jones received her first film role in ''Les 1001 Nuits''. The film was shot in 1989 and released in 1990 to little acclaim.

Plot

In ancient

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

, a

caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

marries a different beautiful girl every morning, and then he has her killed every night. One of these girls, named

Scheherazade Scheherazade () is a major character and the storyteller in the frame story, frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the ''One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade ...

, decides to rebel against the authority of the bloody caliph. To prevent the caliph from executing her, she entertains him by telling a fantastic story every night. Among these stories is the legend of

Sinbad the sailor Sinbad the Sailor (; or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a Literary cycle, story-cycle. He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the early Abbasid Caliphate (8th and 9th centuries A.D.). In the course of seven voyages thr ...

, who made seven journeys to seven different lands, meeting magical creatures and finding priceless treasures. Once Scheherazade runs out of stories, she invokes the help of the

Genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

of the Lamp, the protagonist of one of her stories, who takes Scheherazade to the modern world.

Cast

as The King *

Gérard Jugnot Gérard Jugnot (; born 4 May 1951) is a French actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. Jugnot was one of the founders of the comedy ''troupe'' Le Splendid in the 1970s, along with, among others, his high-school friends Christian C ...

as Jimmy Genius *

as Scheherazade *

Stéphane Freiss Stéphane Freiss (born 22 November 1960) is a French film, television, and stage actor. He won a César Award for his performance in the 1988 film '' Chouans!''. Selected filmography *'' Premiers désirs'' (1984) *''Vagabond'' (1985) *'' Ch ...

as Aladdin *

Vittorio Gassman Vittorio Gassman (; born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000), popularly known as , was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important producti ...

as Sindbad *

Roger Carel Roger Carel (born Roger Bancharel; 14 August 1927 – 11 September 2020) was a French actor, known for his recurring film roles as Asterix, the French voice of '' Star Wars C-3PO, and the French voice of Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, and Rabbit in ...

as The Grand Vizier

Production

Production on ''Les 1001 Nuits'' began on April 17, 1989. The lead actress

was performing at the

West End theatre West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes"West End"in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1195, ...

when she was spotted by

who offered her the role in the film. The film was shot in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, and

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. Production ended on August 1, 1989.

Release

The film was released in 1990. The film was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in 1990 in France. This film was broadcast as a double telefilm on

Antenne 2 France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...

in the early 1990s. The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

version is the one released in the cinema, which is shortened and has fewer characters. A 2 DVD edition of the film was released in 2004.

Reception

Box office

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, the film sold 29,340 tickets in its first week. At the end of its theatrical run in Paris, it sold 72,409 tickets. It sold a total of 254,739 tickets in France, where it was the 78th top-grossing film of 1990.

Critical response

In 2004, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' stated the film received "little acclaim" and was remembered mostly for "its enjoyable nude scenes".

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1001 Nuits, Les 1990 comedy films 1990 films 1990s fantasy adventure films 1990s fantasy comedy films 1990s French films Films about uxoricide Films based on One Thousand and One Nights Films directed by Philippe de Broca Films scored by Gabriel Yared Films set in Baghdad Films shot in France Films shot in Morocco Films shot in Tunisia French fantasy adventure films French fantasy comedy films Genies in film Italian fantasy adventure films Italian fantasy comedy films