The Canterbury Tales (1979)

Why so much hype?

What makes it different from others?

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

My goodness, this is an awful film. It's like a teenager's take on Chaucer's masterpiece, stripping away everything except the bawdy. In essence it's soft core porn set in beautiful locations. There is some mild amusement to be got from identifying the NT properties, cathedrals and half-timbered buildings that form the backdrop to the endless succession of gurning faces and cavorting naked bodies, but that is about it. There is no sense at all of a pilgrimage going on and the constant use of folk song from a much later period is jarring.I am at a loss as to why Pasolini made the film but whatever his reason, it's best forgotten.

Strange at times but a most delightful tale of 8 stories from the mother land. I am confused as there isn't any x rated content in the movie. There is some nudity but nothing that warrants an x rating for sure. I would say its a mild R rated movie. Very humorous and at times strange. I enjoyed the adventurous tales but most of them are ended prematurely and with questions still unanswered. It would have been a better movie if they told 4 tales with more story to them. I never read the actual tales, but if they are anything like whats in the movie, it might be a good read. I have always enjoyed movies from the area depicted in the movie, I just wish that the stories had more content to keep me engaged more. I found myself wondering away from the movie more than once which tells me that the stories just were not interesting enough to spark my interest. That is why I think it would have been a much better movie with each tale telling more of a story then just cutting to one, 10 minutes later your cut to another story wondering what happened. Over all I would still give it a 6 out of 10 for the slapstick English humor.

From where I was sitting - I found viewing the sex scenes in Pasolini's "The Canterbury Tales" to be about as joyful and arousing as watching a filthy street-beggar pick their nose.And, speaking further about these sex scenes - For the most part, they were either focused on grotesque-looking old men screwing virginal, young maidens (or else) pimply faced youths being buggered up the ass.If you ask me - I'd say that this film's story was delivered with the same sort of distasteful enthusiasm as you'd get from a reluctant farm-boy who had been ordered to shovel up a huge, stinking heap of horse manure into a truck.And, speaking about the actors in this film - I swear that the whole, talentless lot of them had been rounded up from the local, skid-row, welfare office line-up.And, finally - If this film's hellish, anally-fixated finale was really supposed to make up for all of its prior short-comings - Well - It sure didn't impress this viewer. No. Not one bit.*Note* - 1972's "The Canterbury Tales" would be director Pablo Pasolini's 3rd-to-last picture. In 1975 Pasolini was brutally murdered by a 17-year-old "rent boy" who repeatedly ran him over with his own car.

This is the second in Pasolini's series of setting classic bawdy tales to film… In this case, he selected eight of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, including the infamous miller's tale and the incident with the red hot poker kiss… The tales revolve around a group of pilgrims who are journeying to the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket of Canterbury… The trip is so boring that they begin telling each other stories that soon get obscene, gory and very sexy… Pasolini adds another motif to his visualization by placing Chaucer himself into the movie, periodically cutting to him writing at his desk...Pasolini inserts pleasure and amusement at social customs, especially marriage… Some of the stories are funny, others are deadly serious… The scene where a young man is burned for making love to another of his own sex, for example, is chilling...In fact, Pasolini's using non professional actors, is more in keeping with the tone of the original than the usual romanticized versions...