341 A Canterbury Tale

[Matango]

did anyone else pick up on the exploding milk bottle and the name 'Cummings' while the land girl was discussing the issue with Sheila Sim? Or is it just me?

I noticed this too, and I had the same thought without having read your post. Not likely an accident, considering the general air of repressed sexuality in the film.

I loved this film and need to see it again. IKWIG yielded many rewards with repeated viewing, and I suspect this one will as well. My wife, however, couldn't get past the annoying (Oregonian?) drawl of Sgt. Johnson.

Further evidence along this line of investigation can be found at the 21 minute point in the film: the pub sign - name and symbol. Dennis Price telling Eric Portman specifically that he has never had the chance to get his hands on "a big organ" is less compelling, but perhaps worthy of note

[alandau]

It was Himmler's aim for young SS recruits "to relinquish the moral decay of city life" and embrace a pure patoral existence. The lebensraum in the East was to create living space for a pastoral existence.

[Napoleon]

I think a rural existence gives a better quality of life than an urban one, as studies repeatedly show, and the film reflects this.

Anyway it takes a pretty big leap to equate the portrayal of such an existence to the director being in any way a fascist. Especially when the screenwriter was a Jew who had been displaced by the Nazis in the years leading up to the war!


David I almost always agree with you, so I think I must be missing something in The Small Black Room. I find A Canterbury Tale to be in a totally different higher class.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I thought alandau's observations were both provocative and interesting. Remember Powell was really a Tory, which of course doesn't equate to fascism, but the prewar British Right Wing and the some members of the Royal Family were dangerously close to the Nazis. Powell's version of Toryism is more more small-l-"Liberal" and it's clearly evinced throughout Blimp, in parallel with a superb evocation of "Englishness" which, as the film observes, is fast disappearing with the course of the war.

Powell was a "High Tory". That is to say someone able to balance quite avant garde artisitic leanings whilst being rooted in a firm belief in a benevolent and paternalistic hierarchy.
This is far different from the dalliance of the Cliveden set, The Duke of Windsor or even Lord Beaverbrook and their admiration for Hitler.
Anone can be "provocative" by shooting from the hip at imaginary targets,but I defy anyone to listen to Anton Wallbrook's speech to the immigration officer in Blimp and attribute that to Fascistic film makers.
If they do I will eat my Jackboo t!!!!

[ellipsis7]

Actually BLIMP and CANTERBURY TALE as stories are actually largely Pressburger's creations, so the high Tory label doesn't fit... ( check out Kevin MacDonald's Pressburger bio and re. BLIMP especially the Faber published script edited by Ian Christie)

Really if you want to view Powell's work through a series of critical framings - class, gender, politics, sexuality, national identity, collaborations - see bfi's recent THE CINEMA OF MICHAEL POWELL edited by Ian Christie and Andrew Moor, in which a series of excellent essays address the issues...

Just heard from the bfi that they have a CANTERBURY TALE script, which they can't photocopy but can be inspected in situ...

[ellipsis7]

Absolutely gross - looking forward to Stephen Frears' upcoming THE QUEEN with Helen Mirren as the eponymous Brenda. Wonder if they can ask for the Dame-ship back?...

Talking of Helen M, Powell's AGE OF CONSENT makes for an interesting late career curio from down under - an expatriot period also given a chapter in the bfi book...

I've just remembered a delightful recent TV docu featuring Rolf Harris painting a portrait of aforesaid Brenda, who sat barely tolerating the colonial, and making forced and patronising conversation... I think he caught the likeness...

[Matt]

I've just remembered a delightful recent TV docu featuring Rolf Harris painting a portrait of aforesaid Brenda, who sat barely tolerating the colonial, and making forced and patronising conversation... I think he caught the likeness...

And then there's Lucian Freud's portrait.

[Tommaso]

I think I must be missing something in The Small Black Room. I find A Canterbury Tale to be in a totally different higher class.

This is true, of course, but "The Small Back Room" clearly was a 'small', in-between kind of film, intentionally, and should be judged not for what it lacks compared to "Canterbury" or "Red Shoes", but what it actually HAS. Fo example, it has a rare (for the time) sort of intelligent and self-assured female protagonist who obviously is NOT married or engaged to the man she lives with. The David Farrar character also is very unusual for being almost a sort of anti-hero with his psychic problems and drink addiction. And it has all the extraordinary feats of Powell's films of the time: that dream sequence, or the baffling scene of Stonehenge being used by the military forces. This latter scene I see as almost inperceptibly criticizing the profanation of a once 'holy' or mystical/mythical place (which might then be a sort of recapitulation of some of "Canterbury Tale"'s themes, that mystical 'Englishness' that was mentioned here). "The Small Back Room" is a film that only hints at many things instead of presenting them at the forefront, and perhaps it takes repeated viewings to grasp all that's in it (whereas "The Red Shoes" makes all its points perfectly clear right from the beginning)

As to Powell's politics: despite of the 'propagandistic' works I think his works are basically 'unpolitic' in the narrower sense of the word. He was much more addressing a certain 'metaphysical' reality which shines THROUGH the overt plot of the films. It is true, he might have believed in a certain 'hierarchy', as some have said here, but this hierarchy is grounded in more deeper considerations than in plain party politics (that's why I wouldn't call him a High Tory, although it may appear so). Conservatism in a broader sense is not at all unusual in many of the leading 20th century modernists, and if I should compare Powell's approach to things to anyone elses, somehow I'm reminded of the later works of W.B.Yeats, who also combined an overtly elitist and even anti-democratic approach with a total belief in art and of course, metaphysics, plus admiration for the simple life style of the 'peasants' or 'country people' And not to forget the surprisingly frank portrayal of love and sexuality (not to be confused with actual sex scenes, which of course are not there) and their importance as a positive 'force'. I see something like this as pretty evident not just in "Canterbury Tale", but already in "The Edge of the World", and perhaps most clearly in "Gone to Earth" (and how I LOVE that film, although it's clearly not his best....). And honestly: no Tory conservative in the usual sense of the word could have made a film like "Peeping Tom" in my view.

[filmnoir1]

I just got my copy of this today and I had to wait all day to watch it, but it was definitely worth the wait. This is one of the greatest of the films made between Powell and Pressburger. There is a sense of reverence and awareness that England and the world will be completely altered by the war and that one of the qualities of humanity that will be lost is an ability to believe in anything no matter how great or small.
This film also demonstrates the sheer power of black and white film to capture the essence of the actor and as John Sweet says in the special features, the ability of film to capture the soul through the eyes.
I now longingly await the release of A Matter of Life and Death

[Scharphedin2]

Somewhere on one of the Powell & Pressburger releases that I own, there are a series of excerpts from home movies that Michael Powell took while wandering in the English countryside. In A Canterbury Tale, this love of walking in nature, and all that comes of it, is very apparent, and I think it is one key to the film.

I do not often have the privilege of walking in nature myself, but seeing the sequences of Alison walking amongst the trees early on in the film, following the Pilgrims' path out into the hills and heaths that surround Chillingbourne, I think I know what Powell was trying to do in these sequences (and I say Powell, because I am sure that even in his close partnership with Pressburger, these sequences must have been more his contribution). When walking for extended periods of time in nature, I (and I am sure this is a very commonplace experience, not at all unique on my part) have experienced this sense of leaving myself; of all the things that usually occupy my mind with respect to my daily responsibilities and doings evaporating, and of being just a part or continuation of something much larger and more permanent than what I am, and as a result feeling a real clarity of mind and openness to new thoughts. Something close to this sensation was one that struck me several times during this film, most significantly in the scenes taking place in the countryside, but also at times during the parts of the film taking place in the town, and certainly the latter part of the film in Canterbury. Many films, if not most, are composed at a brisk walking pace, and there are some that are told from a seated position, or, even one of standing still, but this one is a quiet walk or stroll akin to a long days wandering in hilly country.

In a sense, I think the “meaningâ€

[Lino]

Scharph, I think you have hit the nail on its head about what makes this film so great and enduring both as a work of art and a work of heart. And yes, it all does come together in that magnificent last half hour. Suddenly, it all makes sense. Just like in life, one has to learn how to appreciate the journey and try not to think so much about one's destination or destiny. Once you learn how to do that, life turns into something grander and better. It's the little things, isn't it?

I do have a favorite moment in the film: it's when we enter the Canterbury Cathedral. I have visited quite a few in my life and it always leaves me in a state of quiet awe about it all. I don't know if it's the architecture or the silence or even the gravity and austerity of the religious life as opposed to a secular one. Either way, I'm always very humble when I enter such a space. In my view, Powell and Pressburger have captured that very elusive feeling to perfection.

[porcupine2]

alandau's questions are extreme, but as such they provoke milder questions too -

the glueman's silliness is in distracting soldiers so they attend his lecture - but the behaviour might also serve to maintain a village/countryside purity? It isn't particularly a sinister attempt at imposing purity (by sticky methods) but I think it is one nevertheless.

EDIT: we feel ambivalent about Colpeper - ducking chair & glue the darker side of his High Tory view, but ecology and historical sense the optimistic side - and in Canterbury he does penance for the crimes, and realises - as his hopes of a relationship with Alison are frustrated - that women are not alien to his vision...

From a different tack, it's interesting to compare this film to Rohmer's Winter Tale - both feature cathedral visits/ revelations, and lovers who come back unexpectedly, because the hope that they would was maintained.

[nyasa]

The BBC in Southeast England have just done a feature on A Canterbury Tale.

Loads of interesting stuff has been posted on the website, including video interviews with Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker.

[Svevan]

Just picked this up thanks to Amazon's screw up. No comments of note, other than a response to this:

My wife, however, couldn't get past the annoying (Oregonian?) drawl of Sgt. Johnson.

Yeah, that isn't what Oregonians sound like.

[denti alligator]

I just wanted to say that once I watched this film about two months ago (or so) for the first time, it instantly became one of my all time favorites, eclipsing even P&P's IKWIG.

I am in awe of this masterpiece. It seems so perfect, so right, but still has all the strange elements that "don't fit" completely, making it fully satisfying in being so elusive and poignant at the same time. I'm not making any sense (I never do talking about the films I love), but this one is trascendent. Utterly brilliant. (I'm hoping these superlatives will get some of the fence sitters to give it a try.)

[Via_Chicago]

I just wanted to say that once I watched this film about two months ago (or so) for the first time, it instantly became one of my all time favorites, eclipsing even P&P's IKWIG.

I am in awe of this masterpiece. It seems so perfect, so right, but still has all the strange elements that "don't fit" completely, making it fully satisfying in being so elusive and poignant at the same time. I'm not making any sense (I never do talking about the films I love), but this one is trascendent. Utterly brilliant. (I'm hoping these superlatives will get some of the fence sitters to give it a try.)

Whoa! How odd! I was actually browsing this thread not but ten minutes ago, since I had just seen this film today. And to be honest, this was the first Powell and Pressburger film I've seen (a glaring weakness, I'm well aware), but it shan't be the last.

What a great fucking movie this is though. I don't know how exactly Powell and Pressburger did it, but this film has such a delicate, beautifully crafted rhythm (akin, in some ways I feel, to that of an Ozu) that it literally sucks in the viewer. It makes us feel the countryside and the leisurely rhythms of life therin. I think this rhythm is what makes the film work the way that it does. Sure, there are rapid changes in tone, but everything always feels so right. There is never a false note. Some talk at length about "realism" in the cinema, but this film embodied this concept in so many ways: the interaction between Bob and the local lumberman, Alison's thinly veiled grief and her stiff London upper lip, etc.

I agree with you Denti, this is an extremely difficult film to discuss if you love it. The elements shouldn't work, but they do. I've never, ever seen a film that captured the absolute awe of seeing a medieval cathedral for the first time like this film does. Bob's reaction and the cut to the high-vaulted ceiling says everything. Poetic and simple. A beautiful, beautiful movie.

Oh, and I was really skeptical in the opening minutes when Bob first opens his mouth. But what a loveable character he becomes! Even the cadence of his speech feels perfect when you hear him interact with the native English folk (and especially in comparison to his obnoxious military buddy!).

[denti alligator]

Only hearing the beginning of Chaucer's prologue in modern English and the scene with the village idiot were disappointing. Everything else was magical, and so utterly strange, too! I mean, the glue-throwing villain, complete with grotesque sexual overtones--wow. The scenes with the children were nearly perfect -- an also an odd commentary on the war. The mixing of genres and tones; the acting (non actors and actors alike mixing sometimes noticeably, sometimes not); the stunning beautiful Sheila Sim; the hauntingly beautiful countryside and cathedral....

[Tommaso]

Needless to say that I agree with everything in the above posts, but I would really defend the Chaucer prologue being delivered in modern English. If it was middle English, P&P wouldn't have been able to make their point that "different pilgrims now roam the countryside" (can't remember the exact words), i.e. the soldiers and tanks, in other words: the connection, perhaps identity between past and present despite all the changes. The way it is done here, it works very smoothly.
The village idiot might seem appalling to more modern, 'politically correct' sensitivies, but still it's handled in a sympathetic, never degrading way, and the scene perhaps indicates that in that still 'intact' society there is a place for people like him, too. And it's a truly nice little part for Esmond Knight.

[ellipsis7]

Just checked the original script and the film... The Narrator actually starts with Chaucer's verses in Mediaeval English, but then switches to Modern English after the hawk to spitfire/period to present transition...

[Tommaso]

Yes, the verses are the original ones by Chaucer, as printed on the manuscript that we see first in the film. But I thought that denti was objecting against them being pronounced in modern English, for example "sweet" instead of "soote" as is written in Chaucer's text.

[ellipsis7]

I have a copy of the original Archers' typescript screenplay of A CANTERBURY TALE from bfi Special Collections... Is written as

NARRATOR: When that Aprille with his shoures sweet
The drought of Marche have perced to the root,
And bathed every vein in suche licour,
From which virtue engendered is the flower;
When Sephirus eke with his swete breath
Enspired hath in every holt and heath
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half-course runne,...

etc.

Then later (over the contemporary action) the style changes (except in line 2)...

NARRATOR: Six hundred years have passed. What would they see
Don Chaucer and his goodlye companye
Today? The hills and valleys are the same;
Gone are the forests, since the enclosures came;
Hedgerows have sprung, the land is under plough,
And orchards bloom with blossom on the bough...

This is verbatim how P&P wrote it, and I think the Narrator's reading follows this, and indeed P&P use the word 'sweet' in the script, instead of 'soote'... There is a distinct change of gear, although the Old English does not completely follow Chaucer's, rather it has also been rewritten slightly by P&P, contrasting which Modern English section, which has been more comprehensively rewritten...

[zedz]

I have a copy of the original Archers' typescript screenplay of A CANTERBURY TALE from bfi Special Collections... Is written as

NARRATOR: When that Aprille with his shoures sweet
The drought of Marche have perced to the root,
And bathed every vein in suche licour,
From which virtue engendered is the flower;
When Sephirus eke with his swete breath
Enspired hath in every holt and heath
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half-course runne,...

That's some weird mongrel English there. Why preserve "sonne" and not "roote"? Why "shoures" but not "flour"? Why change "yronne" to "runne" and not "run"? Oh well. I guess I need to listen to it again. I'd always, like Denti, heard this as a modern paraphrase, and didn't notice any of the archaicisms seemingly preserved in the script.

Not that you need any excuse to watch this film. My favourite P&P too.

(By the way, Denti - are those the Shaggs I spy?)

[denti alligator]

(By the way, Denti - are those the Shaggs I spy?)

Indeed. Best band ever (methinks everytime I listen to them).

[zedz]

(By the way, Denti - are those the Shaggs I spy?)

Indeed. Best band ever (methinks everytime I listen to them).

I'm sure Powell and Pressburger would have appreciated their Philosophy of the World.

[colinr0380]

Just found a page from the Britmovie.co.uk forum on the film with some posts from one of the organisers of the guided walk shown in the Canterbury Trail featurette (They've linked to us so it seems fitting we should link back to them!)