The Canterbury Tales (DVD + Blu-ray) [1972]

Product Description

THE CANTERBURY TALES (DVD + BLU-RAY)

A film by Pier Paolo Pasolini

The second part of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life plunges with gusto into dark and bawdy tales which celebrate almost every conceivable form of sexual act with a rich, earthy humour. Pasolini himself has a cameo appearance in this playful film, presented here in a new High-Definition restoration.

Special Features

• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
• Alternative English-language version presented with English version inserts
• Original Italian trailer
• Exclusive new documentary exploring Pasolini's significance on the Italian genre film
• Fully illustrated booklet including essays, reviews and biography

Disc 1: BD50 /1080p /24fps /PCM mono audio (48k/24-bit)

Disc 2: DVD9 /PAL /Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps)

From Amazon.co.uk

Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini's film of The Canterbury Tales was one of a trilogy from the early 1970s that, like its companions The Decameron and the Arabian Nights, was an international box-office hit playing for long runs in mainstream cinemas. All of them adapt a masterpiece of literature where man becomes the moral catalyst for his own destiny. Chaucer's ribald sense of humour was a natural outlet for Pasolini's own desire to throw caution to the wind on screen, causing controversy at the time by displaying all facets of the male and female body unadorned. (Although it all looks pretty tame now, the Italian authorities were a threatening presence to Pasolini at the time.) Produced by Alberto Grimaldi with a large budget, the location scenes were filmed in many historic sites in England, notably Wells Cathedral, its crypt, and the surrounding flatlands leading toward Glastonbury, captured in early spring by Tonino Delli Colli's cinematography. The cast with Italian and English actors dubbed into Italian with English subtitles is a mixed blessing. Hugh Griffith as Sir January is one Anglo-Saxon recognisable from his role as the lecherous squire in Tom Jones, and overacts like the rest of the cast. Pasolini himself appears briefly as Chaucer in a non-speaking role that one regrets he didn't enlarge for himself in this sprawling tableaux of pilgrim's tales (Ken Russell's excesses from the same period come to mind). The musical score, an adaptation by Ennio Morricone of some traditional indigenous melodies, prefigures the early music revival by a few years and provides a stimulating soundtrack. --Adrian Edwards --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.