This year I visited Canterbury for the first time, a
pilgrimage as much for Powell and Pressburger as the Cathedral or Chaucer but
it’s impossible, as The Archers suggested, to separate the latter two elements
of this historic city. Pier Paolo Pasolini was drawn to Geoffrey Chaucer’s most
English of tales as part of his exploration of early literature, having just
filmed The Decameron (1971) based on the tales of 14th-century Italian
author Giovanni Boccaccio. The director was fascinated by the relationship of
the medieval mindset to contemporary society and duly completed his “trilogy of
life” with The Thousand and One Nights (1974). All three are now presented
in crisp restoration on this BFI three-disc Blu-ray set together with all the
trimmings you’d expect and they still startle.
Watching The Canterbury Tales you see an
alarmingly frank approach to sexuality and human nature that Pasolini wanted to
unsettle his complacently civilized audience; we may dress well, drive expensive
cars and live longer but we don’t live that differently. These tales of bawdy
romance, cuckolded husbands, murderers and thieves still represent humanity in
the raw, creatures of desire and cunning.
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| Them and us |
The director appears as Chaucer in the film, writing down
his tales in response to the events around him which are “told only for the
pleasure of telling them”; his own phrase and not Chaucer’s. He presents the
tales for his audience to interpret and to make their own judgements which will
inevitably ensnare the unwary.
First up is The Merchant's Tale in which an
elderly merchant Sir January (Hugh Griffith looking like the most febrile of
old farts) marries a beautiful young woman called May (Josephine Chaplin,
daughter of Charlie and sister of Geraldine). The old fella goes blind and May eventually
arranges a tryst with a man of her age… the gods intervene and Pluto (Giuseppe
Arrigio) restores his sight, Prosperine (Elisabetta Genovese) gives May the
voice with which to talk her self out of the compromising situation his newly
opened eyes reveal.
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| Josephine Chaplin and Hugh Griffith |
And the moral of this story is? Good on May for her quick
thinking and for grabbing what happiness the need to marry money has robbed
her? The Tales may have the look and feel of censor-free 70s sex-comedies but
there’s a robust honesty drawing our sympathy.
So too with The Bishop’s Tale in which a man (Franco
Citti) is rewarded for spying on homosexual acts. The richer of the two men
caught in flagrante delicto buys his way out but the poorer – who was
with a very young Phil Davies – has not the money. He is burned at a public
execution where the peeping Tom sells refreshments as the public awaits the
entertainment… This is very much from the heart for Pasolini and the man later
reveals himself as the Devil, highly mobile if not omnipotent as Peter
Cook said.
There’s a full-blooded humour to the tales, even in their
darkest moments, and so, in addition to an actual Chaplin, we even get a Chaplin-esque Perkin (Ninetto Davoli, who
featured so much in Pasolini’s life and films) in The Cook’s Tale; a
cheeky clown who just about gets away with everything but for whom the stocks
await. He’ll even take the rotting food with a smile, knowing he’ll live again
to gamble, cheat and otherwise cock a snook…
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| Tom Baker gets ready for his Bath |
There’s also a ton of British talent in this film and if
you really don’t want to see the mighty Tom Baker playing the Wife of Bath’s
fifth husband then I can only pity you. There’s also Jenny Runacre, one of the
most distinctive screen presences in British cinema, as Alison the wife of John
the Carpenter played by Michael Balfour who has one of the most rustic and “lived-in”
faces of all time; Pasolini cast for character as well as looks and the film is
rich in details of both.
Robin Asquith interviewed here about his experience with
Pasolini on The Canterbury Tales (1972) is an amusing raconteur and not
quite what you’d expect; he’s from Southport and attended Merchant Taylors in
Crosby before Bristol University. So, what we get is a kind of Confessions
of a Chaucerian Scholar as well as an actor known for his parts as well as
his, erm, parts.
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| The ageless Mr Asquith |
He may seem atypical casting for the esteemed Italian
but, Robin knew his stuff both as an actor and film maker and he was already
versed in Italian cinema having worked with Franco Zeffirelli and been an
admirer of Theorem and other Pasolini films. At his casting interview
for Canterbury Tales, Pier Paolo said that he looked like a man who used his
penis a lot whereupon Robin dropped his trousers to show his manhood and ask if
he still thought so? From that point the two became friends and the result
included a strong performance from Asquith as Rufus in The Pardoner's Tale
which featured a surprise shower for some of the unexpectant extras below.
Rufus is one of many casualties in a film that shows how
fleeting life is and how we should take what comfort we can from its living.
The closing sequence shows a Hell that would almost make Derek Jarman blush as
the hypocrites and the pompous get their just deserts. The camera cuts to
Pasolini/Chaucer smiling as he contemplates his closing arguments.
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