The Canterbury Tales (1972)

►►►main menu◄◄◄

1. Play film
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3. Also available: other films by the same director that are available on DVD.
4. Director’s biography
5. Weblink: www.bfi.org.uk

►►►language◄◄◄

Italian with English subtitles. Did I mention that before? The Italian language is CHARMING!

►►►running time◄◄◄

107 minutes.

►►►chapter division◄◄◄

1. credits
2. prologue
3. the merchant’s tale
4. the friar’s tale
5. the cook’s tale
6. the miller’s tale
7. the wife of bath
8. the reeve’s tale
9. the pardoner’s tale
10. the summoner’s tale
11. epilogue

►►►story AND notes◄◄◄

It is easier to follow the stories in this film than it is with The Decameron and Arabian Nights. Every now and then you get a glimpse of Geoffrey Chaucer as he is writing his book with great enjoyment.

My following summary (I do not know if the ***SPOILER WARNING*** is necessary here, for most people are familiar with these folktales, but just in case) is represented in a way that shows each of the 8 main anecdotes on its own.

■ 1st Anecdote:

▪ The opening scene takes place in the market with all the noise, merriment and sometimes misery that you may encounter there, and this, as far as I see, is a suitable introduction.

A rich, old man chooses a young woman to become his wife. Not impressed by this old husband and his sexual potency, the girl tries to meet a young man who expressed his love to her. The man becomes blind all of a sudden, yet he holds his young wife’s hand and vows not to let go of it ever. He takes his wife to his garden, grabbing her hand firmly as usual, and she gives the key to her lover so that he waits for her there too. She tells her husband that she wants to eat some mulberries just to meet her lover who is waiting for her on the tree. She climbs the tree and makes love to the young man, but the king of fairies restores the ability to see to her husband to see his wife’s treachery. However, the queen of fairies gives the power of words to the young wife who convinces her husband, after her lover escapes, that his eye sight deceives him. Thus, the couple kiss and stroll home merrily.

▪ One of my tutors in the undergraduate years used to tell us stories from the books he read instead of explaining the lesson. I enjoyed his lectures immensely and I’m sure that I’ll never forget him for he had a great influence on me. Why am I telling you about him? Because the aforementioned story was one of the things he narrated to us, and one of the reasons that made me keep reading to know the sources of the beautiful things he knew.

▪ This story is about how deceitful women can be, and yes, you must have read so many folktales that tackle the same issue. What I like about this one is the magical element; the fairies take me to the wonderful mood that A Midnight Summer’s Dream put me in. Furthermore, the anecdote, as it appears in the film, does not condemn women, for the girl is young, poor (we see her eating meat greedily on her wedding day), and obviously helpless.

■ 2nd Anecdote:

▪ Here the Devil watches with delight the story of the two gay men about which I will talk more later.

“Devil take your body, and my pitcher too!”

A tax collector and the Devil meet on the road and decide to become friends. The tax collector threatens a poor but honest, old woman that if she didn’t give him a certain sum of money he would take her to court. She replies that she does not have the money, all she has is a pitcher, and she tells the man that she wishes the devil to take both the man and her pitcher, and so he does.

▪ The Devil here, probably as is the case with Goethe’s representation of Mephistopheles in Faust, as someone who is simply doing his job, and I have always been fascinated with this kind of devils.

■ 3rd Anecdote:

A carefree young man enjoys his life to the maximum that even when he is about to be beheaded he starts singing happily.

▪ The way Ninetto Davoli plays the role of this young man is obviously inspired by Charlie Chaplain. This is not just in the famous custom with the hat and cane, but also in the hurried movement that gives an additional funny effect. This is probably one of the stories that you find in every culture with many variations, but they all tell you to live your life happily, for being sad simply won’t change anything. In other versions of the tale, the singing comes out of the joyful man’s tomb after his death.

■ 4th Anecdote:

“A student wouldn’t be worth much if he couldn’t outwit a carpenter.”

“Make pliable that which is rigid… for everlasting pleasure. Amen!”

A student wishes to have sex with a jealous carpenter’s wife, and for this end he fools him into believing that a flood will destroy the earth. He tells the naïve man to prepare three big baskets, to hang them from the ceiling, and fill them with food enough for three days so that they hide in them. They do all this and hide each in his/her basket silently. Thus, the student and her young lover get the chance to enjoy themselves, but this is not the whole story. Another young man is in love with this woman but she never listens to him. As she is with her lover, he visits her and asks her for a kiss; she agrees but gives him her other cheek. Enraged, he goes to the blacksmith and borrows his very hot poker then returns to the woman’s house and asks her for another kiss. This time, the student decides to do what the woman did before so he gets his bottom burned and screams: “water!” When the husband hears this from his basket, he thinks it is the flood and starts screaming.

■ 5th Anecdote:

“Husband, come on! You know what we women are like.”

“I’m never without plans for the weddings and the like.”

This is the famous story of the wife of Bath; a very sexually active woman who kills her husbands with sex.

▪ Here, as in the previous story, women are presented as not passive at all. The wife of Bath and one of her friends watch a man taking a shower from the keyhole. This, as in the book by Chaucer, a story to satisfy the feminists who believe that women should have the upper hand; not men. She even argues that there is nothing in the Bible that says people should remain virgins.

■ 6th Anecdote:

“We are worse than monks, arses tight and pricks hard.”

Two students are sent to grind the grains, but the owner of the miller tries to deceive them. Instead, they manage to have sex with his daughter and wife.

■ 7th Anecdote:

Three young men know that a friend of theirs was killed by a person called Death, so they decide to take their revenge. They meet an old man on the road and treat him badly, as they treat everybody else, and tell him their story. Noticing how ignorant they are, he tells them that they can meet death behind a particular tree. They go there and find so much gold, and of course, they end up killing each other out of greed.

■ 8th Anecdote:

“I may give you what I have, none other for sure.”

A greedy friar visits a dying man and asks him to donate something. So, the man tells him to reach under his backside and get what is there, and he grants him a fart.

▪ At the end of this short scene, an angel visits the friar and takes him with him to see how Hell looks like. Perhaps this is the most important scene in the whole film.

►►►original text◄◄◄

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth century. The frame tale is about a number of pilgrims who tell stories just to pass the time as they go to visit a shrine at Canterbury Cathedral.

►►►What do I think?◄◄◄

To start with, Pasolini’s choice of stories is very remarkable in this film; even the serious ones of them are not tragic. That is because to have a tragedy, as I remember from Aristotle’s Poetics, you should at least have a protagonist that people can sympathize with. This does not apply to the story of the three friends, for they all seem to be evil. However, although Pasolini was faithful to the original text in a way, he added a small detail that is tragic for sure. It is the story of the two homosexual men who are threatened to be excommunicated or even killed for what they did; however, the rich one pays money to be forgiven, while the poor one is burnt alive. What actually pained me in this story is the reaction of the poor man’s partner as the former was being reprimanded for his deed. This partner, who appeared to me to be a male prostitute, was actually laughing carelessly while the poor man was threatened to be killed. I believe, this sad story, which is not there in Chaucer’s book by the way, “must give us pause” as Hamlet puts it, especially because Pasolini was gay himself.

What actually fascinates me most about this film is the image of Hell; I don’t know how many times I watched this scene in particular. It is a dreary place with black rocks and depressing grey smoke. We hear screams all the time, and we see hanged people, strange creatures with wings, satyrs having sex with men (as a punishment of course), but the strangest of all is how corrupt men of religion are punished. The angel calls Satan and asks him to show that friar where other evil friars are kept, the Devil lifts his tail, and yes, expels them out of his anus. I searched for women in this Hell scene, but couldn’t find a single one. Here, I couldn’t help contrasting this with the final mainly Heaven scene from The Decameron, in which the dominant figure is feminine. It is true that some glimpses of Hell are also presented in that scene with women being tortured, but can we say that this “gender-related” issue is meant by Pasolini? Maybe this is just what I want to believe; that most women are going to heaven and all men are going to hell. You decide.

Talking about females in Pasolini’s trilogy, they are definitely shown as free and active as far as their sexuality is concerned. In this film, the Wife of Bath along with her friend peep at a man through the keyhole as he is taking a shower, and the Wife herself makes the initiative to have sex with the man. As for The Decameron, the story of the girl who caught her nightingale speaks for itself. Coming to Arabian Nights, the scene is repeated so many times that you get the feeling that sexuality is completely mastered by women.

Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life, seems to be a celebration of sexual love. This is mixed with other topics, mainly condemning the hypocrite priests and nuns in The Decameron and Canterbury Tales, but it culminates in Arabian Nights in which love is given the central position. Of course, these three films are very optimistic in general, unlike the first film in the Trilogy of Death, Salo, which is extremely pessimistic, perhaps with the exception of the last conversation in it. Having finished my reviews of The Trilogy of Life and Salo, I cannot but express that I would have loved to know which other two books Pasolini had in mind to complete his nightmarish trilogy. So, if you know, please tell me:)

►►►director◄◄◄

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922 –1975) was an Italian poet, novelist, playwright, journalist, linguist, film director, philosopher and actor. The director’s biography section on this DVD sheds more light on the artist’s turbulent life and mysterious death. Among his most famous films in addition to Il Decameron are Arabian Nights and The Canterbury Tales. His most controversial film remains to be Salò which is based on Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom.

►►►actors◄◄◄

Pasolini plays the role of the writer, Geoffrey Chaucer, in the film. He seems cheerful for he is enjoying writing his book, but this character is not well-developed like that of the artist in The Decameron. Anyway, please notice his reaction as he imagines his wife; so funny.

Franco Citti, the evil man Ciappelletto in Il Decameron and the demon in Arabian Nights, is the Devil in I Racconti di Canterbury, and he does his job very well. His features do help him, but what I like most about the way this actor presents evil is the indifference which is mixed with deceit that you see in his eyes; you always get the feeling that he hides much and tells only a little.

►►►just a little more◄◄◄

■ The 15 certificate. Why not 18 like The Decameron and Arabian Nights? I couldn’t figure that out. The film includes nudity and sex exactly like the other two films. Maybe they take humor into consideration.. yes, I agree, this one is funnier than the other two:) But, I think, it is more erotic than the other two as well.

►►►a word on sex◄◄◄

What’s with Buttocks fetishism in this film!

►►►price◄◄◄

Amazon: £8.96 - £49.90

►►►recommended?◄◄◄

Certainly. Whether you are interested in literature or not does not make a difference here, the film is fun to watch, and although it is presented in a systematic, “sophisticated” way, it is not complicated at all.