I Racconti di Canterbury AKA The Canterbury Tales

Title: The Canterbury Tales
AKA:
Year: 1972.
Original title: I Racconti di Canterbury
Runtime: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Country: Italy | France.
Language: Italian | English.
Subtitles: English (.srt format).
Genre: Comedy | Drama.

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Cast

Hugh Griffith ... Sir January
Laura Betti ... The Wife from Bath
Ninetto Davoli ... Perkin
Franco Citti ... The Devil
Josephine Chaplin ... May
Alan Webb ... Old Man
Pier Paolo Pasolini ... Geoffrey Chaucer
J.P. Van Dyne ... The Cook
Vernon Dobtcheff ... The Franklin
Adrian Street ... Fighter
O.T. ... Chief Witch-Hunter (as OT)
Derek Deadman ... The Pardoner (as Derek Deadmin)
Nicholas Smith ... Friar
George Bethell Datch ... Host of the Tabard (as George B. Datch)
Dan Thomas ... Nicholas
Michael Balfour ... John the carpenter
Jenny Runacre ... Alison
Peter Cain ... Absalom
Daniele Buckler ... Witch Hunter (as Daniel Buckler)
John Francis Lane ... Greedy friar
Settimo Castagna ... Angel (as Settimio Castagna)
Athol Coats ... Rich homosexual
Judy Stewart-Murray ... Alice
Tom Baker ... Jenkin
Oscar Fochetti ... Damian
Willoughby Goddard ... Placebo
Peter Stephens ... Justinus
Giuseppe Arrigio ... Pluto (as Giuseppe Arrigo)
Elisabetta Genovese ... Prosperine
Gordon King ... Chancellor
Patrick Duffett ... Alan
Eamann Howell ... John
Tiziano Longo ... Simkin the miller (as Albert King)
Eileen King ... Simkin's wife
Heather Johnson ... Molly
Robin Askwith ... Rufus (as Robin Asquith)
Martin Whelar ... Jack the Justice
John McLaren ... Johnny the Grace
Edward Monteith ... Dick the Sparrow
Kervin Breen
Franca Sciutto
Vittorio Fanfoni
Leonard S. Brooks ... Businessman (uncredited)
Stephen Calcutt ... The Groom (uncredited)
Philip Davis ... 2nd homosexual lover (uncredited)
Charles De la Tour ... Inn-keeper (uncredited)
Francis De Wolff ... The Bride's father (uncredited)
Michael Derrek ... Robin (uncredited)
Andrew Dymock ... Bill (uncredited)
V. Edwards ... The Old Woman (uncredited)
Dorothy Everall ... Perkin's mother (uncredited)
Diana Fisher ... The Bride (uncredited)
Chris Greener ... Sir Elephant (uncredited)
David Hatton ... Poor homosexual (uncredited)
Judo Al Hayes ... Fighter (uncredited)
Terry Hooper ... L'allodoliere (uncredited)
Robert Brook Howard ... Vicar of the Monestary (uncredited)
Karl Howman ... 1st homosexual lover (uncredited)
Richard Hughes ... Administrator (uncredited)
Laurie Inch ... Mary (uncredited)
Charlotte Kell ... The Prioress (uncredited)
Pinky Martin ... The Nun (uncredited)
Alan McConnell ... Master Gervaso (uncredited)
Norman McGlen ... Perkin's father (uncredited)
Peter McGregor ... The Merchant (uncredited)
Hugh McKenzie-Bailey ... Thomas (uncredited)
Roderick McLeod ... Knight's Attendant (uncredited)
Anthony Moore ... The Spy (uncredited)
Ken Muggleston ... Doctor (uncredited)
Patrick Newell ... Prior (uncredited)
Ray Parks ... Sergeant (uncredited)
Martin Philips ... Martin (uncredited)
Selwyn Roberts ... The Knight (uncredited)
Anita Sanders ... Thomas' wife (uncredited)
Mary Stuart ... Priest (uncredited)
Reg Stuart ... 4th Husband (uncredited)
Steve Whitton ... Youth Without Name (uncredited)

Plot / Synopsis

From sun-sparkled Naples to muddy medieval England for chapter two of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Trilogy of Life -- and with all the corn-holing, golden showers, and silent-movie mugging Chaucer left out. The most amorphously anecdotal of the three, it's also the one where the discrepancy between the movies' notional life-affirmation and the brackish despairing of their execution emerges most grotesquely, every stab at "joyous" sexuality followed by the self-reflex of grotty degradation.
The catalogue of romping, cuckolding, trickery and flatulence is X-rated Monty Python, scribbled by Chaucer (Pasolini, of course) while chortling at a copy of The Decameron -- indeed, the Merchant's Tale concludes with the husband's (Hugh Griffith, in full, cawing Tom Jones mode) sight restored by the porchside lovebirds from the Boccaccio adaptation, just in time to see his wife (Josephine Chaplin) being felt up.
Pasolini pays tedious tribute to Josephine's dad by turning the Cook's Tale into a one-reeler with Ninetto Davoli in Little Tramp bowler; Dan Thomas is interrupted mid-grope with Jenny Runacre and resumes praying with his pants bulging, before the Miller's Tale wraps with her giving her young suitor a face-full of fart and him getting a smoldering iron up his ass. Later, the Wife from Bath (Laura Betti), here a hennish nympho, gives Tom Baker a picnic hand job, while the Pardoner's Tale is delayed long enough for a tavern interlude for some blithe buggering and water sports.
Not all is fun and games, though, and the Friar's Tale spots a found sodomite, not rich enough to bribe his way out, publicly roasted as the Devil (Franco Citti) hawks bagels for the crowd -- that the sequence remains the most vivid episode points to the desolation behind Pasolini's own self-portrait of happy serenity. Souls shooting out of Satan's rectum in a mock-Bosch coda? Tales "told for the mere pleasure of their telling," indeed. Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli.