Backdrop fallback

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales

Share

The Canterbury Tales

"From the team that gave you "Decameron", Geoffrey Chaucer's Lustiest Tales of Merrie Olde England!"

1972

1h 51m

6.1(237 votes)

Comedy

History

Drama

Overview

Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Hugh Griffith

Hugh Griffith

Sir January

Laura Betti

Laura Betti

The Wife from Bath

Ninetto Davoli

Ninetto Davoli

Perkin

Franco Citti

Franco Citti

Devil

Josephine Chaplin

Josephine Chaplin

May

Alan Webb

Alan Webb

Old Man

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Geoffrey Chaucer

Vernon Dobtcheff

Vernon Dobtcheff

The Franklin

Jenny Runacre

Jenny Runacre

Alison

Adrian Street

Fighter

Creative team

Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Written by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Produced by: Alberto Grimaldi

Similar Movies

Rhapsody

Rhapsody

Peter, a gay cabaret pianist, falls in love with Bill, a construction worker with intimacy issues. When Peter discovers Bill's secret, he is determined to set him on a straight path, and when a shy young woman moves in across the hall, he puts his plan in motion, even as Bill seeks to strengthen his ties to Peter. This gay romantic drama was filmed in Chicago in 1992 where it had its premiere before it was thought to be lost. Now, recently re-discovered, the film has been remastered from the best source materials and presented now for your enjoyment!

American Beauty

American Beauty

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Tales of The Kama Sutra: The Perfumed Garden

Tales of The Kama Sutra: The Perfumed Garden

Imagine a world of pleasure, where passion is the ultimate obsession. When Michael and Lisa travel to India to restore an erotic sculpture, they are immediately acquainted with the Kama Sutra and introduced to the skills of seduction. But when forbidden desires are revealed, vows can be broken. Now, sexual desires are about to be reawakened and fantasies are about to come true. What you desire you cannot resist. Experience it for yourself.

Walk on Water

Walk on Water

Eyal, an Israeli Mossad agent, is given the mission to track down and kill the very old Alfred Himmelman, an ex-Nazi officer, who might still be alive. Pretending to be a tourist guide, he befriends his grandson Axel, in Israel to visit his sister Pia. The two men set out on a tour of the country, during which Axel challenges Eyal's values.

A History of Violence

A History of Violence

An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.

Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners

Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.

Match Point

Match Point

Chris, a former tennis pro, takes a job as an instructor and befriends his wealthy young student, Tom. After being introduced to his family, Chris is soon engaged to Tom's sister, Chloe. Despite the professional and financial advantages that this relationship affords him, Chris becomes obsessed with Tom's fiancee, American actress Nola.

Short Sharp Shock

Short Sharp Shock

Gabriel, Bobby and Costa are old friends from Altona, a multicultural hood in Hamburg. Just out of prison, Gabriel wants to turn his back on crime, but the others continue to operate as petty criminals. Friendships are tested as the trio navigate a dark world of mafia bosses and deals gone wrong.

8½

Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.

One, Two, Three

One, Two, Three

In Cold War-era West Berlin, American Coca-Cola executive C.R. 'Mac' MacNamara is tasked with playing babysitter to his boss' spoiled 17-year-old daughter Scarlett, who proves more difficult than anticipated when she reveals that she is pregnant by a Communist.

Camping

Camping

Seon-yeong, who works as a copywriter, go on a camping trip with her friend Eun-mi and Yeong-sik, a prosecutor, who is in love with her. The group meets a mysterious looking man, Tae-ho, while they hike up to their camping ground on the mountain. Tae-ho, a freakish murderer who grow poppies, destroy their innocent hope to have a great time camping. And to make things worse, a group of unknown people who chase down Tae-ho is after them as well. The two women, Seon-yeong and Eun-mi are left in the midst of mayhem where they have to fight against the bloody rampage of murder and sex. Will the two women be able to go back to their normal daily life?

Miracolo a Palermo!

Miracolo a Palermo!

One day in Palermo and in the life of young boy Toto who is madly in love with the beautiful teenager Lina.

Five Blessings in a Row

Law Hing is forced by her stepmother to marry the dumb son of the Tang family. Another girl Au To is forced to marry Ma Siu-fuk, son of the rich Ma family, to pay off her father's debts. On the wedding day, To's lover See Fuk-chau returns from Vietnam. Deeply in love with Fuk-chau, To decides to go to the Ma family to decline the arranged marriage. To avoid the Ma elders and her father from losing face, she begs Siu-fuk to stage a pretended marriage. As the wedding ceremonies proceed, To's bridal sedan collides with Hing's in the street. The carriers lock in a row and a confusion reigns in which the brides take the wrong sedans. To is mistakenly taken to the Tang family, while Hing is sent to the Ma family. Although Siu-fuk is attracted to Hing, he agrees to send her home. The four families attempt to settle the case in court. The judge rules that the previous arrangements are but trades and declares them null and void. Fuk-chau and To can now fulfill their wish.

Sissi

Sissi

The young Bavarian princess Elisabeth, who all call Sissi, goes with her mother and older sister Néné to Austria where Néné will be wed to an emperor named Franz Joseph, Yet unexpectedly Franz runs into Sissi while out fishing and they fall in love.

My Own Private Idaho

My Own Private Idaho

In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.

Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding

A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.

7 Virgins

7 Virgins

It is summertime in a blue-collar, marginal district of a city in the South of Spain. Tano, a teenager currently serving a sentence in a juvenile reform center, is given a 48-hour leave to attend his brother’s wedding.

The Promised Land

The Promised Land

At the turn of the century, Lodz, Poland, was a quick-paced manufacturing center for textiles, replete with cutthroat industrialists and unsafe working conditions. Three young friends, a Pole, a Jew, and a German, pool their money together to build a factory.

Dial M for Murder

Dial M for Murder

When her American lover visits London, a wealthy woman’s jealous husband hatches a plan to murder her and inherit her fortune.

Recommended Movies

The Decameron

The Decameron

A young Sicilian is swindled twice, but ends up rich; a man poses as a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns; a woman must hide her lover when her husband comes home early; a scoundrel fools a priest on his deathbed; three brothers take revenge on their sister's lover; a young girl sleeps on the roof to meet her boyfriend at night; a group of painters wait for inspiration; a crafty priest attempts to seduce his friend's wife; and two friends make a pact to find out what happens after death.

Paprika

Paprika

In 1957 Trieste, a few months before the general ban on brothels, inexperienced country girl Mimma becomes Paprika to finance her useless boyfriend as a prostitute. Amid the hustle and bustle of Rome, Paprika drifts from one brothel to another as she learns the ropes and works her way up one client at a time. However, as Paprika embarks on a stormy journey of self-discovery and sexual liberation, the sense that something is missing haunts her. Is Paprika meant to experience a passionate romance and solve the great mystery of true love?

The Daytrippers

The Daytrippers

Eliza D'Amico thinks her marriage to Louis is going great until she finds a mysterious love note to her husband. Concerned, she goes to her mother for advice. Eliza, her parents, her sister Jo, and Jo's boyfriend all pile into the station wagon and go to the city to confront Louis with the letter. On the way, the five explore their relations with each other and meet many interesting people.

Hallam Foe

Hallam Foe

Hallam's talent for spying on people reveals his darkest fears-and his most peculiar desires. Driven to expose the true cause of his mother's death, he instead finds himself searching the rooftops of the city for love.

The Witches

The Witches

Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

Ro.Go.Pa.G.

Ro.Go.Pa.G.

Four short films by four different directors dealing with the principles of modern life. "Illibatezza" (Rossellini): The hostess Anna Maria, to dissuade an aggressive suitor who prefers maternal tendencies, assumes an unscrupulous attitude, obeying the suggestions of her distant boyfriend. "The New World" (Godard): The deflagration of an atomic bomb causes strange effects on the inhabitants of a city. "La ricotta" (Pasolini): During the filming of a film about a religious subject, the extra Stracci dies hanging on the cross due to an indigestion of ricotta. "Il pollo spante" (Gregoretti): While an expert illustrates to a board of merchants the most modern techniques to increase sales through the discovery of the secret self of the average consumer, the human story of a bourgeois who, following these suggestions, focuses on the purchase of a plot of land in the countryside.

Kinds of Kindness

Kinds of Kindness

A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

The Vicious Kind

The Vicious Kind

A man tries to warn his brother away from the new girlfriend he brings home during Thanksgiving, but ends up becoming infatuated with her in the process.

Caligula

Caligula

After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity.

In the Soup

In the Soup

An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.

Somewhere in Queens

Somewhere in Queens

Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son finds success on his high school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.

The War of the Roses

The War of the Roses

Barbara and Oliver Rose live happily as a married couple. When Barbara starts to wonder what life would be like without Oliver and likes what she sees, the two begin a campaign to force each other to leave their house, with their divorce lawyer D'Amato caught in the middle.

Titus

Titus

Titus Andronicus returns from the wars and sees his sons and daughters taken from him, one by one. Shakespeare's goriest and earliest tragedy.

Happiness

Happiness

The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.

Class

Class

Naive Midwestern prep student Jonathan bonds with his more worldly roommate, Skip, who takes the small-town boy under his wing. At Skip's urging, the inexperienced Jonathan is emboldened to seek out older women in the cocktail lounges of nearby Chicago, where he meets and beds the alluring Ellen, who unfortunately turns out to be Skip's mother. The division between the friends is further deepened when a cheating scandal engulfs the school.

The House of Tomorrow

The House of Tomorrow

The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.

The Predators

The Predators

This is the story of two completely opposite households: the Pavone are intellectual and bourgeois, the Vismara are proletarian and fascists. They are two tribes sharing the same jungle: Rome. A trivial accident brings these two poles together. The madness of a 25-year old youth will set them on a collision course, discovering the cards to reveal that everyone has a secret. People are never what they seem – but we are all predators in the end.

The Secrets We Keep

The Secrets We Keep

In post-World War II America, a woman, rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her husband, kidnaps her neighbor and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her.

Code 3

Code 3

A burned-out paramedic tries to survive his last 24 hours on the job while training a new recruit.