A Canterbury Tale (1944 UK / 1949 USA, MGM? / Eagle Lion / Criterion / Archers /Independent Artists, dir. and wr. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, adapted loosely from Geoffrey Chaucer (around 1390), original music by Allan Gray, UK, G) is a rhapsodic film, very much like a dream into a parallel (black and white) universe, as it mixes eras and fantasy, driven along by a passionate orchestra score that sort or resembles Malcolm Arnold. (One sequence works in the Bach Toccata in d minor.) Besides the humors Chaucer epic poem, the film has elements of Hitchcock, Clive Barker, Stephen King, and Tolkien rolled into one, and yet is gentle and was rated in the UK for all audiences. The basic story is a search for the "glue man" who pours epoxy into women's hair at night, including Alison Smith (Sheila Sim) one night when escorted by men who get off a train at a wrong stop, thinking they are in Canterbury. They are led gradually to a mysterious magistrate (Eric Portman) as they go along "The Pilgrim's Way" and approach the Cathedral as the tide of World War II turns and Britain prepares for victory. One of the characters is very curious about what his "blessing" could be if he reaches the Cathedral, and it will not be an indulgence. (It can be something as simple as a letter from a WAC.) Rather than solving the identity of the glue attacker, the "pilgrims" keep finding more mysteries that connect to one another, each little stories like the Tales. The themes of the tales -- like personal and religious exploitation, the meaning of feeling attractions, and the validity of the priesthood all wind around one another -- all connected by this Village Idiot or cobbler. In the middle of the film, there is a curious "Al Gore-like" lecture on serendipity with the shades drawn for blackout. It's easy to imagine an English teacher in AP showing the film and then asking for an essay analyzing the movie in detail with respect to the original tales (by thinking of this film as a "tale" -- especially the American version, that has a prologue to encapsulate the story; the British version starts by showing the Old English verse; the British version has a short epilogue that shows boys playing soccer as the music (by Allan Gray) comes to a triumphant symphonic close). This style of epic filmmaking (particularly British) has almost been forgotten -- where you become interested in characters through the eyes of others who must interact with them. Review of the play based on Chaucer, here. This film might be an effective arthouse re-release from MGM or United Artists, with the music score (sometimes using standard classical works like the Bach d minor Toccata, as well as original music than resembles Harvergal Brian or maybe Patrick Doyle today) restored with Dolby Digital (perhaps performed again).
The music score in the movie ends with a singing of "Onward Christian Soldiers" (a touchy subject now) and then during the closing credits a musical epilogue that the very end resembles the conclusion of Havergal Brian's Symphony #3 in C# Minor (the scherzo of this work is pure Mahler). The KlausHaus recording on YouTube offers Stanley Pope and the New Philharmonia. I have a Chandos CD, as I recall.
Related to this: A drama performance review I saw in 2006. Remember English literature, from being a senior in high school and then as an undergraduate in college (GWU).
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer, adapted by Mike Poulton
Title: Canterbury Tales, part II (1387-1392)
Where seen: Washington, Kennedy Center, Eisenhower Theater, 4/27/2006
Director: Gregory Doran, Rebecca Gatwald, Jonathan Munby
Performance time: 160 min + 20 min intermission
Cast: Royal Shakespeare Company, including Nick Barber, Claire Benedict, Dylan Charles, Daon Broni, Christopher Godwin, Michael Matus, Mark Hadfield, Joshua Richards
Music composed by: Adrian Lee
Recording available:
Relevance to DOASKDOTELL: gays in older literature
Review : This is probably the oldest literary work discussed on this site (except for Homer’s Iliad). The five plus hours are split into two shows that may be seen in any order. At least half of it is accompanied by music and sung, so the effect is that of comic light opera with simple and boxy but clever sets.
High school students usually read some of Canterbury Tales in senior English, and much more of it is read in college introductory English literature courses. This is indeed a matter then of “appreciation of literature.” We all know the form: a frame story of religious pilgrims to Canterbury, and each one is invited to tell a story. The stories are partly narrated and partly acted out on stage, dogma style (like a Lars Von Tier film). Part II begins with the Pardoner’s Tale, which for many people is the most famous. When I took English Lit in the fall of 1962 at George Washington University in Monroe Hall on G Street, I still remember the professor’s partial embarrassment in characterizing the Pardoner as Chaucer’s idea of “a homosexual.” There are the lines about gelding and mare, and some commentators claim that he is a eunuch. The story, of course, involves the selling of indulgences, simony, and the authority of a man, distant from marriage by church law and probably personal inclination, over ordinary people. Chaucer probably saw this as ironic, if common, even in his day. The tales tend to have prologues and rather intricate plotting, and the Pardoner’s is typical, as he lectures the crowd on sin, and then has three revelers plot against each other, all to do themselves in as in a Hitchcock movie. The characters represent all walks of life in English society at the time, and their social and gender roles match up with social expectations, just as in our society, at least until recently – and this all makes good satire. There is plenty of visual material in the presentation: a fruit tree was often present, with various backdrops of the sea and heavens. In the Physician’s Tale a man is decapitated. The Wife of Bath is funny and has the longest tale, with a great deal of irony in which a man is forced to sleep with a hag to whom he is not attracted before he can have the woman he wants. There is a lot of talk about maidenheads (PG-13 style) and the desirability of having a virgin, and about What Women Want (the title of a modern movie, literally, around 2000). The Manciple has angles hanging from the chandeliers, literally. The Summoner acts like a debt collector in the days before the FCPCA and fair dunning of debtors. (I guess they had collection agencies back then, too.) The Parson has the last word in a candlelight devotional. The whole presentation is a bit like a modern art film composed of short stories (like “Nine Lives” perhaps). Maybe this would be a good project for a larger art film. (There was a BBC TV series in 1969).
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