The Canterbury Tales (film)

The Canterbury Tales
Directed by	Pier Paolo Pasolini
Written by	Pier Paolo Pasolini
Based on	The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Produced by	Alberto Grimaldi
Starring	Hugh Griffith Laura Betti Ninetto Davoli Franco Citti Josephine Chaplin Alan Webb Jenny Runacre John Francis Lane Athol Coats Tom Baker Oscar Fochetti Robin Askwith
Cinematography	Tonino Delli Colli
Edited by	Nino Baragli
Music by	Ennio Morricone, Carl Hardebeck (uncredited)
Production companies	Les Productions Artistes Associés Produzioni Europee Associate
Distributed by	United Artists Europa Inc.
Release dates	2 July 1972 (1972-07-02) (Berlinale) 2 September 1972 (1972-09-02) (Italy)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	Italy
Languages	English Italian Latin Scottish Gaelic

The Canterbury Tales (Italian: I racconti di Canterbury) is a 1972 Italian medieval erotic black comedy film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on the medieval narrative poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. The second film in Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life", preceded by The Decameron and followed by Arabian Nights, it won the Golden Bear at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.^[1]

With the "Trilogy of Life", Pasolini sought to adapt vibrant, erotic tales from classical literature. With The Decameron, Pasolini adapted an important work from the early era of the Italian language. With The Canterbury Tales he set his sights to the earthy Middle English tales of Chaucer.

The film came after a string of movies of the late 1960s in which Pasolini had a major ideological bent. Though this film is much more light-hearted in nature Pasolini nonetheless considered it among his most "ideological".^[2] The film can be seen as an attack on the stiff sexual mores of both Chaucer and Pasolini's times.^{[citation needed]}