The Canterbury Tales (1972)

Pasolini's artistic, sometimes violent, always vividly cinematic retelling of some of Chaucer's most erotic tales.

Director:

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writers:

Pier Paolo Pasolini (screenplay), Geoffrey Chaucer (book) (as G. Chaucer)

Stars:

Hugh Griffith, Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hugh Griffith	...	Sir January (segment the Merchant's Tale)
Laura Betti	...	The Wife from Bath
Ninetto Davoli	...	Perkin
Franco Citti	...	The Devil
Josephine Chaplin	...	May (segment the Merchant's Tale)
Alan Webb	...	Old Man (segment the Pardoner's Tale)
Pier Paolo Pasolini	...	Geoffrey Chaucer (Wraparound Segment)
J.P. Van Dyne	...	The Cook (Wraparound Segment)
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	The Franklin (Wraparound Segment)
Adrian Street	...	Fighter (Wraparound Segment)
Orla Pederson	...	Pilgrim (Wraparound Segment) (as OT)
Derek Deadman	...	The Pardoner (Wraparound Segment) (as Derek Deadmin)
Nicholas Smith	...	Friar (Wraparound Segment)
George Bethell Datch	...	Host of the Tabard (Wraparound Segment) (as George B. Datch)
Dan Thomas	...	Nicholas (segment the Miller's Tale)

Storyline

Pasolini's artistic, sometimes violent, always vividly cinematic retelling of some of Chaucer's most erotic tales.

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Plot Keywords:

male full frontal nudity | erotica | male pubic hair | male rear nudity | strong sexual content | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | History

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Certificate:

NC-17

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

30 May 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Canterbury Tales

Filming Locations:

Layer Marney Tower, Tiptree, Essex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Productions Artistes Associés,Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min 140 min (premiere)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Italian title is a exact rendering of the English title "The Canterbury Tales" into Italian. The German title, however, "Pasolinis Tolldreiste Geschichte" references the German title of Honoré de Balzac's "Contes drolatiques", which appeared in Germany as "30 tolldreiste Geschichten".

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Goofs

Some of the women have tan-lines from bikinis.

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Quotes

The Cook: Between a jest and a joke, many a truth can be told.

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Alternate Versions

The original UK cinema version was cut by the BBFC with edits to anal sex shots, a man being whipped, and Rufus urinating on the crowd during the 'Pardoner's Tale' segment for an 'X' certificate. The cuts were fully restored in 2001 and the certificate downgraded to a '15'.

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Connections

Referenced in Troll (1986)

User Reviews

We are nothing but the entertainers of Satan

We know where we are – in England – with the songs and music, the looks of these people, the way they dress, the way they look, the faces they make and the faces they have, their violent games and the first jest, and the first joke, sets the action in a fighting ring with a red lady dressed in so much crimson sanguine velvet that she looks like a cardinal, the bird of course. And the hats, Lord, or the way they dress their hairs. Holbein, Rembrandt and the Flemish school, and yet their inns cum nunneries cum brothels cum stables and a lot of welcoming remarks are real enclosed farcical and at times lethal bordellos. Most festivities take place in big halls. That's England isn't it, cold and rainy, uncertain and wet, at least as for the climate and the weather. The garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and Pan fingering his pipe is not bad at all, looking like a Stonehenge of well trimmed bush pillars. The most intriguing sequence is that of the homosexuals who are tricked into sex by some agents of the church, but only to be proposed a choice: pay or burn on the griddle. One is rich and goes through. The other is poor and burns. The scene is amplified by the dais and the canopies all around the quadrangle where it happens, by the velvet of the dresses and by the silence, by the kids watching the show, the green lawn of this quadrangle surrounded by Norman or Tudor architecture, the bringing of the faggots by half nude teens before the bringing in of the gay yelling faggot, his being tied on the griddle, the lateness of the priest and his cross and the silence again when the flames finally engulf the man. And all is seen through the eyes of a bun-vendor who does not say a word and roams behind everyone. And it is all calculated by the local bishop with the help of a consenting youth who plays the bait. And the mute witness is later revealed to be the devil enjoying the show set up for him by the good old Christian men and women. And there we start descending into a Flemish vision of Hell. And Hell is on earth with Charlie Chaplin arriving in the picture, accompanied by the traditional music of his mute films on a pipe, the cops, the cheating at the soup distribution, the cane and the bowler hat, the bored bride in a wedding, the monstrous father of the wimp bridegroom that gets creamed with the wedding cake, the strict family but the cheating mother who feeds bad Charlie in the back of the father, even a job shining, or should I say, polishing eggs, playing dice with what Dickens would have called street Arabs, and Shakespeare scoundrels I guess. And he introduces us in his dream of a bawdy paradise on earth, interrupted by two cops who arrest him and put him in a pillory. Add to that the flood. And the red widow strutting across this mess. In England religion has been turned into a business, a sham, a parody, a farce, a social carnival in which a windmill grinds corn without turning its wings, but it does not matter since the miller is a thief. But Chaucer in the film leads us to another inn-brothel of England. And an angel will take you to Hell and you better like devils and Satan and you will discover where all the friars are kept in Hell by Satan himself. You'll drown in a real colic of friars all over the world directly from under the tail of His Lord Satan. Amen for sure.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines