Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1944 • United Kingdom
Starring Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s beloved classic A CANTERBURY TALE is a profoundly personal journey to Powell’s bucolic birthplace of Kent, England. Set amid the tumult of the Second World War, yet with a rhythm as delicate as a lullaby, the film follows three modern-day incarnations of Chaucer’s pilgrims—a melancholy “landgirl,” a plainspoken American GI, and a resourceful British sergeant—who are waylaid in the English countryside en route to the mythical town and forced to solve a bizarre village crime. Building to a majestic climax that ranks as one of the filmmaking duo’s finest achievements, the dazzling A CANTERBURY TALE has acquired a following of devotees passionate enough to qualify as pilgrims themselves.
A CANTERBURY TALE was considered a failure after its initial U.K. release, and Michael Powell agreed to reedit it for the American market. In addition to cutting the film by over twenty minutes and reordering scenes, he shot a new prologue and a scene near the end of the film that cast the main s...
A CANTERBURY TALE was considered a failure after its initial U.K. release, and Michael Powell agreed to reedit it for the American market. In addition to cutting the film by over twenty minutes and reordering scenes, he shot a new prologue and a scene near the end of the film that cast the main s...
The following video interview with actress Sheila Sim (Lady Attenborough) was taped in London in February 2006.
