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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
A Canterbury Tale (1944)

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

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Released 2-Mar-2011

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Audio Commentary-Feature length by film critic,Thomas Caldwell.
Booklet-16 pages, with 4 pics.
Notes-On dual filmmakers, plus filmography.
Theatrical Trailer-Mr Hulot's Holiday
Theatrical Trailer-Ohayo - Good Morning
Theatrical Trailer-Playtime
Theatrical Trailer-Russian Ark
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1944
Running Time 119:25
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (69:51) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Studio
Distributor
The Archers
Madman Entertainment
Starring Eric Portman
Sheila Sim
Dennis Price
John Sweet
Esmond Knight
Charles Hawtrey
Hay Petrie
George Merritt
Edward Rigby
Freda Jackson
Betty Jardine
Eliot Makeham
Harvey Golden
Case Amaray-Opaque
RPI $34.95 Music Allan Gray


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures Yes
Subtitles None Smoking Yes, Frequent and lighting utilises the smoke.
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have an extremely important place in the history of English cinema. The duo had already collaborated on three projects before the first film under their The Archers production banner, One of Our Aircraft is Missing, appeared. There followed another sixteen Archer films which remain some of the most admired and controversial films of all time, including The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp (1943), I Know Where I'm Going (1945), Black Narcissus (1946), The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). A Canterbury Tale, released in England in August, 1944, debuted to critical and public rejection. As a result its United States release was delayed until January 1949, with a shortened running time, despite the addition of U.S. friendly book-ending sequences featuring the very fine Kim Hunter. Madman are now giving us the opportunity to familiarise ourselves with this neglected work in a release restored to its original Hunter-less form.

     The film begins with a prologue which takes us back to the times of Chaucer and we are briefly with a band of pilgrims en route to Canterbury. By virtue of brilliant film editing, an overhead falcon becomes an aircraft - a forerunner of Kubrick's famous time shift in 2001 A Space Odyssey - and we find ourselves in the same countryside during World War II. The idyllic countryside is invaded by the menacing machinery of war as tanks rumble along the way taken centuries ago by the pilgrims. A train stops at the town of Chillingbourne, ten minutes train ride from Canterbury. The town is in wartime blackout and two passengers alight. There is a young girl, Alison (Sheila Sim), arriving to take up employment on a rural property and a rather cynical and effete army sergeant, Peter (Dennis Price), who is stationed close to the town. A third passenger, an American sergeant Bob Johnson (John Sweet), is en route to Canterbury. The American hears the stationmaster call out "Next stop Canterbury", and mistakenly thinks he is announcing the train's arrival in Canterbury. He rushes off the already moving train and, realising his mistake too late, is stuck in Chillingbourne until the next train the following morning. The trio are advised by the station attendant (Charles Hawtrey) where to take lodging in the town and as they walk through the dark streets Alison is the victim of the town night-time terrorist, "The Glueman". She has glue poured over her head, her assailant running off into the night. The weird nature of these attacks has been the subject of much adverse commentary, but it seems that Powell and Pressburger wanted to avoid a more overtly threatening attack, such as a garment slashing, and settled on the glue in the hair. The possibility of this being a semen substitute would not have entered audience's heads back in 1944, but there are strong sexual symbols lurking in other films by this duo.

     Thus begins this particular Canterbury tale, as the three characters seek to uncover the mystery of "The Glueman", and ultimately wend their way to the cathedral in Canterbury. Their investigations lead them to the town magistrate Colpepper (Eric Portman), the gentleman Alison has arrived to work for. He turns her down, claiming that he needs a male farm labourer. Colpepper espouses the spiritual life of the English countryside and the significance of the Pilgrims' Way. His initial attempts to preach to the nearby stationed soldiers had been rejected in favour of the young men's more earthy pursuits with the local girls. Since the glue attacks the women of the town have been fearful to venture into the night and Colpepper has found a more receptive audience amongst the young servicemen.

     Each of these four principal characters carries some pain in his or her life. Alison's fiancée is missing-in-action and she is journeying to Canterbury to check on the garaged caravan in which the two young lovers had spent "thirteen perfect days" before the war. Bob has been deserted by his "girl back home", not having received any mail from her for months. Peter is a London cynic whose goal in life was to be a fine classical organist but who has ended up as a cinema organist. Colpepper's burden is left more for us to decipher. He has a number of misogynist traits which could be clues to a deeper unresolved emotional conflict. By journey's end these pilgrims find resolution, three receiving blessings and one serving some form of penance.

     There is much more to the plot and the characters of this remarkable film, but to say more here would be to spoil a rare cinematic experience. Contributing to the experience is the original music of Allan Gray (The African Queen), the sublime cinematography of Erwin Hillier (The Quiller Memorandum) and the editing of John Seabourne (The Wooden Horse).These talented artists help to take the audience, along with the on-screen characters, on a spiritual journey. I was moved in a way I was not expecting. The power of the film comes not just from the characters and their stories, but from the setting, the minor characters and the magnificent use of cinematic art, in vision and sound. The English countryside is glowing in the black and white photography and the townspeople are believable and vibrant. Bob's meeting with the town blacksmith is one of the most humanly touching I've seen. Even the children are great. The principals are perfectly cast. In her screen debut, the future wife of Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, is lovely and luminous. Dennis Price, in his first major role, has more depth and warmth than in later years when his screen persona became extremely "stiff upper lip". Eric Portman combines passion and wisdom with just the right hint of mystery and menace. The contentious performance is that of non-professional John Sweet. Elsewhere you will find criticism of his gaucheness and have the blame shifted to the poor handling of actors by Powell and Pressburger. In this case I totally disagree. John Sweet's non-actor naturalness rooted the film in a reality that it would have not had otherwise. There are a number of American actors who could have played this role, but it would have been just another "Yank in Britain" stereotype. Powell and Pressburger have totally avoided that with Sweet as the open and honest alien.

     I could say much more about this film but if you are an admirer of the more widely known films from The Archers I wholeheartedly urge you to discover A Canterbury Tale. This is a film of themes and images. There is the theme of understanding, between Americans and the English and between individuals. There is the theme of the clash between preservation of the past and progression into the future. There is the theme of city sophistication versus country simplicity, and much, much more. We hear an awful lot about "the golden years of Hollywood". These surely were the golden years of British cinema.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     One of the joys of the DVD age is that these older films are being released looking better than ever seen previously. From the information in small print on the back of the slick, this release utilises the same print as used for the Region 2 Carlton release. I have read a review which compares the image of this Carlton release unfavourably with the U.S. Criterion release. All I can say is that the Criterion image must be out of this world.

     The original 1.37:1 image is here presented at 1.33:1 in a transfer that is glorious in almost every frame. The image is crystal clear and sharp, with great detail. There is moderate grain and the grey scale is magnificent, and blacks are deep and dark with very fine shadow detail. There is one early shot which seems to have some light damage on the original negative. This however is very brief, and is instantly forgotten surrounded by magnificent dark shots, such as the one of the steam engine coming to rest at the station near the start of the film.

     I was not aware of any low level noise, and there was extremely slight aliasing on some of the finely detailed wardrobe. An example occurs at around eighteen minutes on Sheila Sim's top. Apart from these minor blemishes I was not aware of any MPEG artefacts. Film artefacts were almost exclusively very minor, with only slight vertical scratches here and there, and minor speckling. There was a slight blurring shudder on one of the children in a particular scene, which I suspect may have been due to sprocket damage for a couple of frames. There also was a rather odd freeze on an actor less shot for a couple of seconds while the sound continued, possibly covering the loss of a few frames. Beside these very particular instances the image is always beautiful and on many occasions jaw dropping. This film is a shining example of the art of black and white cinematography.

     This is a dual layered disc, with the change marked by a momentary freeze on the exterior of Eric Portman's home after Dennis Price has entered (69:51).

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     There are two audio streams, the main default soundtrack and the commentary. Both are Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 224 Kbps.

     The soundtrack, almost seventy years old, is in excellent shape. I was not aware of one single glitch on the soundtrack - no hiss, no crackle, no pops and no dropouts. Dialogue is crisp and clear with not a single syllable missed.

     There was a very large audio crew on this film, with one team for the interiors and another for the exteriors. The result is magnificent, particularly for an English film of this period. There is some post-dubbing obvious in a couple of minor exterior shots, but apart from these brief seconds there are absolutely no sync problems.

     The film's music varies from charming pastoral themes to majestically thrilling passages towards the film's climax. Complementing Allan Gray's original music are traditional church works such as "Onward Christian Soldiers". Despite the limitations of monaural sound, and the less sophisticated recording techniques, the music is reproduced more than satisfactorily.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

     The number of extras may be small, but the content is weighty.

Audio Commentary

     The feature length commentary is provided by Thomas Caldwell, film critic of Cinema Autopsy, which is found at www.cinemaautopsy.com. This is a lengthy commentary, occupying the full two hour running time without a break. The commentator begins with a basic overview of Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic poem and provides a background understanding of the fourteenth century social significance of a pilgrimage. Unfortunately Caldwell loses steam in the last half hour and becomes a little frivolous - I could well have done without the "Black Adder" reference. I also cringed when he identified Kim Hunter by referring to her as "the love interest" in A Streetcar Named Desire. Nevertheless, the bulk of what he has to say is well worth hearing and is related, for the most part, to the images on the screen. He is best when he is responding directly to what is transpiring before us. His discussion of "the Glue Man" and the sexual significance of the icky substance was - er - refreshing (!). What is happily avoided, with a few exceptions, is to merely give a running commentary on what we are watching. That's the trap that other commentaries in this "Director's Suite" series have fallen into. Caldwell continually returns to the themes of this remarkable film but also gives an honest, emotional response to the performances, particularly that of John Sweet. This combination of intellectual analysis and emotional response is very welcome in a commentary.

Directors' Suite Trailers

     Each of these trailers has English subtitles:

Slick Notes

     The inside of the cover slick contains interesting biographical information on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. There is also a Filmography as Collaborators and a very fine portrait photograph of Dennis Price from the film. One unfortunate, not-so-slick, error is the back cover reference to Chaucer's epic poem as "short stories".

Booklet A Canterbury Tale : A Dream of England

     This excellent 16 page booklet contains an essay by Dr Brian McFarlane, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of English, Communication and Performance Studies, Monash University. Read this and listen to the audio commentary and you will be an expert on A Canterbury Tale. Dr McFarlane retells the plot of the film - so see the film first - and then moves into discussions of wartime England, "The Pastoral Idea", other contemporary wartime movies - Mrs Miniver, Random Harvest, etc., - a potted history of The Archers and an analysis of the techniques of Powell and Pressburger as exhibited in this film. A thoroughly enjoyable, informative and researched piece of writing, with four photographs from the film breaking the text.

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     As stated above, it would appear that the transfer on our Madman release is the same as that used on the Region 2 Carlton release. I cannot establish if there are any extras on the U.K. release, but it sells on Amazon UK at just over three pounds, after removing tax. However, the $34.95 Australian release does have two very worthwhile "local" extras, the commentary and the booklet. If you are a great fan of the film the only slightly more expensive U.S. Criterion release, apart from the reportedly superior image, has extras which sound wonderful. These are :

Summary

     A superb example of inspired filmmaking, this film entertains and charms for two hours while providing food for hours of discussion or reflection afterwards. Visually glorious, this is a film that enriches the viewer who enters its spiritual life. The print is dazzling, with only minor blemishes and the two extras are illuminating and rewarding. A must see and must have.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Garry Armstrong (BioGarry)
Monday, May 30, 2011
Review Equipment
DVDSONY BLU RAY BDP-S350, using HDMI output
DisplaySamsung LA55A950D1F : 55 inch LCD HD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to DVD player. Calibrated with THX Optimizer.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-DS777
SpeakersVAF DC-X fronts; VAF DC-6 center; VAF DC-2 rears; LFE-07subwoofer (80W X 2)

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