Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58748 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-06-18
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini's film of The Canterbury Tales was one of a trilogy from the early 1970s that, like its companions The Decameron and the Arabian Nights, was an international box-office hit playing for long runs in mainstream cinemas. All of them adapt a masterpiece of literature where man becomes the moral catalyst for his own destiny. Chaucer's ribald sense of humour was a natural outlet for Pasolini's own desire to throw caution to the wind on screen, causing controversy at the time by displaying all facets of the male and female body unadorned. (Although it all looks pretty tame now, the Italian authorities were a threatening presence to Pasolini at the time.) Produced by Alberto Grimaldi with a large budget, the location scenes were filmed in many historic sites in England, notably Wells Cathedral, its crypt, and the surrounding flatlands leading toward Glastonbury, captured in early spring by Tonino Delli Colli's cinematography. The cast with Italian and English actors dubbed into Italian with English subtitles is a mixed blessing. Hugh Griffith as Sir January is one Anglo-Saxon recognisable from his role as the lecherous squire in Tom Jones, and overacts like the rest of the cast. Pasolini himself appears briefly as Chaucer in a non-speaking role that one regrets he didn't enlarge for himself in this sprawling tableaux of pilgrim's tales (Ken Russell's excesses from the same period come to mind). The musical score, an adaptation by Ennio Morricone of some traditional indigenous melodies, prefigures the early music revival by a few years and provides a stimulating soundtrack. --Adrian Edwards

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Italian language, English subtitles
Ratio 1.66:1

Synopsis
Six of Chaucer's classic 15th-century tales presented complete with all their bawdy humour about romance, deception, and lust. Second film in the TRILOGY OF LIFE.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining romp through medieval England
One of Pasolini's trilogy of films exploring the story-telling tradition ("Decameron" and "Arabian Nights" are the other two), and a central storyline which is probably the most familiar of the three for British, if not other, English speaking audiences. Pilgrims assemble at a tavern in Southwark to begin their journey to Canterbury and the martyr's burial place.

Chaucer's central conceit, in writing the "Canterbury Tales", was that here we have a collection of apparently devout individuals, setting out on a pilgrimage, a journey of discovery and faith, yet they find the notion so inherently boring they have to spice it up by telling one another bawdy and decidedly not very spiritually uplifting tales. The moral of the tale is in the moralities of the tellers!

Pasolini turns the tables on poor old Geoffrey Chaucer. In this film, Chaucer is stripped of his artistic integrity and satirical pen, to become a hen-pecked husband who scribbles erotic tales for his own amusement and gratification. But, of course, the director himself plays the part of Chaucer!

And the tales are bawdy. The costumes, settings and action is surreal. A fine actor like Huw Griffiths is reduced to a caricature by the dubbed Italian and the subtitles. Pasolini demands a melodramatic acting style, a throwback to the storytelling times - and there are moments in the film where he pays homage to Chaplin and the Keystone Cops. The bawdy, slapstick nature of comedy is timeless. And silent comedy, mime, is equally a part of a living, storytelling tradition.

Chaucer's characters flow across the screen. The Wife of Bath is insatiable. Tom Baker reveals all, but this was before his Dr.Who days! The action descends into Hell ... a pastiche of Hieronymus Bosch's vision. Pasolini keeps returning to themes of brotherhood, deceit and deception. He explores male bonding and friendship ... and its potential for corruption. Three friends try to outwit one another, but only Death triumphs. Death is no fearful spectre, but a consummate teller of tales, a manipulator of reality.

This is a triumphantly funny and bawdy little romp into English literature, a roller-coaster ride of individual idiosyncrasies and frailties. Exotic, surreal, and outrageous in places, it's an entertaining and engrossing film.

A film I just can't help liking...
This is the second film in Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life", coming between "The Decameron" and "Arabian Nights". Looked at dispassionately, it's certainly not perfect. The editing is rough, with some stories finishing or starting so abruptly it can take you by surprise. A bit more 'topping and tailing' would have been in order. Also, some of the acting is poor, mainly due to Pasolini's habit of using amateurs in the bit parts. Some have also complained that it's not very faithful to Chaucer's work (which is true, but to be fair, film versions of books often take liberties with their source material).

Having said all that however, I can forgive "The Canterbury Tales" almost anything. I love the bawdy atmosphere that pervades the entire film. Pasolini has concentrated on the raunchier aspects of Chaucer's tales, added a few of his own for good measure, and produced one of the great hedonistic films of all time. This is not one for the prudish, as it frequently shows nudity, sex, and bodily functions. Even so, the film is often quite beautiful visually, with various English locations used to good effect.

The cast is interesting (apart from the previously mentioned non-pro's that is). There are Pasolini regulars Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, and Laura Betti, who has a field day as the Wife of Bath. Also, you get some familiar British faces such as Hugh Griffiths, Robin Askwith, and Tom Baker in his pre-Doctor Who days. Pasolini himself does well in the role of Chaucer. The print used here by the BFI is in Italian with English subtitles. It's a definite improvement on the version that was issued in the States by Image Entertainment, which was poorly dubbed in English.

At the end of the film there is a great final flourish that you won't forget in a hurry.

Hmmn!
Hmmn indeed. It's rather difficult to rate this film and at one stage I was tempted to give it five stars (and indeed in a certain sense it deserves it). This is the 2nd part of Pasolini's so-called 'Trilogy of Life'and is (in certain respects) very much like The Decameron (which preceded it) and Arabian Nights (which came after). It is in turns, extremely funny (in a Chaplain-esque way), shocking (although not quite in the same league as Salo') and rather beautiful (particularly in the use of Technicolor). That said some of the performances leave alot to be desired.
Nevertheless, this is inventive (a particularly liked the way Pasolini played Geoffrey Chaucer - the author of the Canterbury Tales), and at the same time true to the text.
Declared obscene by the Italian courts (wrongly I'm sure you will agree), Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales is at times rather (how to put this?) rude, in a toliet-humour way: Friars being excremented out of the Devil's bum in hell,blowing off in peoples faces, lots of fondeling, and really, the most foul language. Completley faithful to the original then.