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| Chaucer as a Pilgrim from the Ellesmere manuscript. |
According to scholars, today in 1387, Chaucer's characters began their pilgrimage to Canterbury. It was a milestone in English literary history as it was written in the language of England at the time and not Latin, French or Italian.
I had a look at Google maps to see how long it would take to go from London to Canterbury on foot.
And here are a couple of films which were made based on Chaucer's work.
A Canterbury Tale film is a 1944 British film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price and Sgt. John Sweet; Esmond Knight provided narration and played several small roles. For the postwar American release, Raymond Massey narrated and Kim Hunter was added to the film. The film was made in black and white, and was the first of two collaborations between Powell and Pressburger and cinematographer Erwin Hillier.
The Canterbury Tales film - The Canterbury Tales (Italian: I racconti di Canterbury) is a 1972 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini and based on the medieval narrative poem The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is the second film in Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life", the others being The Decameron and Arabian Nights. I understand this one was - as we used to say - kind of raunchy.
I think the reason this one caught my eye was that our lives these days don't feel real. I have said to friends (on the phone) that it feels like we are living in a movie. Tales of the Virus that Ate the World or something.
Onwards!
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