The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a 1972 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on the medieval narrative poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. The second film in Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life", preceded by The Decameron and followed by Arabian Nights, it won the Golden Bear at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival. With the "Trilogy of Life", Pasolini sought to adapt vibrant, erotic tales from classical literature. With The Decameron, Pasolini adapted an important work from the early era of the Italian language. With The Canterbury Tales he set his sights to the earthy Middle English tales of Chaucer. Behind the scenes, Pasolini broke up with Ninetto Davoli and said in retrospect, he was not in the right frame of mind for this kind of silly, lighthearted trilogy, yet it remains one of his most important films. The film came after a string of movies of the late 1960s in which Pasolini had a major ideological bent. Though this film is much more light-hearted in nature Pasolini nonetheless considered it among his most "ideological". The film can be seen as an attack on the stiff sexual mores of both Chaucer and Pasolini's times. Overview The adaptation covers eight of the 24 tales and contains abundant nudity, sex, and slapstick humour. Many of these scenes are present or at least alluded to in the original as well, but some are Pasolini's own additions.