The adaptation covers eight of the 24 tales and contains abundant nudity, sex, and slapstick humor. Many of these scenes are present or at least alluded to in the original as well, but some are Pier Paolo Pasolini's own additions.
The Canterbury Tales (1972) (Italian: I recconti di Canterbury) is a 1972 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on the medieval narrative poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. The second film in Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life," preceded by The Decameron (1971) (The Decameron) and followed by Arabian Nights (1974) (Arabian Nights), it won the Golden Bear at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.
The line spoken by the angel in the last segment, "Vuolsi così colà dove si puote ciò che si vuole e più non dimandare" ("'It's will'd, where will and power are one. Ask thou no more"), is a quotation from Dante Alighieri's Inferno.
Pier Paolo Pasolini later disowned his Trilogy of Life, feeling their commercial success betrayed his artistic vision.