Eight of Geoffrey Chaucer’s lusty tales come to life on-screen in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s gutsy and delirious The Canterbury Tales, which was shot in England and offers a remarkably earthy re-creation of the medieval era. From the story of a nobleman struck blind after marrying a much younger and promiscuous bride to a climactic trip to a hell populated by friars and demons (surely one of the most outrageously conceived and realized sequences ever committed to film), this is an endlessly imaginative work of merry blasphemy, framed by Pasolini’s portrayal of Chaucer himself.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Studio: Les Productions Artistes Associes, Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA)
Starring: Hugh Griffith, Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Josephine Chaplin, Alan Webb, Pier Paolo Pasolini, J.P. Van Dyne, Vernon Dobtcheff, Adrian Street, O.T., Derek Deadman, Nicholas Smith, George Bethell Datch, Dan Thomas
Description:
—Pier Paolo Pasolini’s startling candor and ribald humor illuminate these classic tales of romance, deception, murder and lust. A host of passionate lovers unite for a glorious, sometimes unexpected journey through Chaucer’s medieval England..
—Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories
—Pasolini’s artistic, sometimes violent, always vividly cinematic retelling of some of Chaucer’s most erotic tales
