The Canterbury Tales is a book that I have a background in. I was an English major when I was in college after changing my mind from Mass Communication after too long. One of the classes I took was Chaucer and Medieval Literature, not because I necessarily loved that era, but because it was either a requirement for the degree and/or a bunch of my friends were taking it. At this point, I don’t know which happened first. The person leading the class was the head of our English department as well as one of the best teachers on campus; by the end, he had me hooked on it all. Every student had to stand up in front of everyone at least once during semester and recite General Prologue (first 18 lines) from Canterbury Tales to pass.
I have never been good at memorizing and reciting; but this teacher, seeing a major component of an English literature education in it, thought otherwise. I also took him for English Renaissance where I learnt by rote Sonnet 18 of Shakespeare (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?) It was at least some kind of English that I understood. Chaucer’s Middle English as he calls it might as well be another language altogether. The goal was achieved and, just as the professor had said, once you got it right in your head, you would never forget it. That was twenty years ago and still today if you give me a minute to remember or recall what it is then my mind will just return to these words. Once given the chance to shake off the dust, I can still rattle off the twenty lines from two decades ago. The most memorable presentation had to be when a girl on the volleyball team did gymnastics mid-air while reciting along with the entire class. Who can top that? She received applause from her classmates who stood up for her performance.
After the Decameron, Pasolini made this movie which was the second in his Trilogy of Life. The reason for making these films was that the filmmaker had realized he had spent most of the past decade producing rather desolate and dismal works. More than anybody else, Pasolini wanted to be reminded about joyfulness that still existed in life. He therefore went backwards yet he was a modern person; being queer, atheist and a communist. In doing so, he envisioned a simpler world that spoke truths to man’s nature before it became industrialized. Sex is one of those truths because it can provide pleasure but also helps creating communities and consolidating power.
Pasolini directed this film in English language for the first time ever. It seemed fitting that Chaucer’s work should be presented in its original language since he is considered to be the father of English literature. Dubbing all the dialogue into Italian after filming were normal practice at this time, but dozens of British actors were hired instead of Italians. The cast includes Geraldine Chaplin who is Charlie Chaplin’s daughter; Tom Baker, pre-Doctor Who star are also here among others. Hence if you’ve always desired seeing Dr. Who’s penis number four, then well… you have your chance now!
Pasolini picked England for scenery while a handful of interior shots were made in Italy.
This time around Pasolini also puts himself in the movie as the storyteller and plays Chaucer. The director, who is an artist at heart refers to a number of works from that period without making it obvious. It’s impossible not to notice that Kubrick borrows so much from 18th-century paintings when you watch Barry Lyndon or that Peter Greenway clearly quotes Dutch art in his film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Its references are not totally clear about what they refer to since Pasolini isn’t quite explicit. But his grand finale in Hell involving the Devil comes straight from Hieronymous Bosch; there’s no doubt about that.
The Decameron, by Chaucer, has been reduced to eight tales in Pasolini’s version of the stories. These tales were chosen because they were both offensive and terrible. In one of them, Franco Citti takes on the role of the Devil who comes to Earth to cause trouble. He does this through manipulating three boys into fighting over a treasure only for their money-minded nature to take over them. Another was just like Chaucer was definitely stealing from The Decameron one in which a woman tricked her husband into locking himself up while she slept with her lover only for her ex-lover to show up. There is some Wife of Bath but not much comes out of it. It did not feel as cohesive as The Decameron at large; this makes sense because that text has very strong ties to Pasolini’s culture while this one is more loosely so.
So two standout sequences exist here. The initial one has the filmmaker’s muse, Ninetto Davoli, looking a lot like Charlie Chaplin. The same actor also played a teenager in The Decameron who was slow-witted and seemed to create messes wherever he went. Dialogue is very limited here which reinforces the homage to silent film era also as an indicator that Pasolini doesn’t make exact adaptations. This implies that text is merely the beginning of something else but not an ultimate work of art; rather it is a starting point for artist who reshapes these ingredients into something new and combines them with other concepts.
This is different from the finale I brought up earlier, The Summoner’s Tale. An angel makes a churchman obsessed with wealth witness what happens when religious people betray God’s will. In this wasteland setting found by Pasolini’s crew of production designers are his naked male actors daubed with primary colors and adorned with wings and horns. Here we see some tortures both scary and absurd ones. Yet more shocking is yet to come when an extremely crude puppet representing devil spreads its legs and starts defecating priests who used to be good.
It is not the best of Pasolini’s films, but it is obvious that he enjoyed himself while making it. It will be difficult to top the previous story which has perfectly captured Chaucer’s salacious content. They remind us that despite constant panic about vulgarization of culture and “decay of morality” we witness today humor always involves something dirty. In fact, when you come to think of it, sex and crap jokes are some of the most elemental elements to our sense of humor at least in Western civilization; I suspect this is also true for other species within our genus. Ozu even featured fart gags in one of his movies!
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