Saw A Canterbury Tale, a Powell and Pressburger propaganda film set in WW2 England. It follows two soldiers and a female home-front conscript who are stuck in Kent but who each need to get to Canterbury. While in Kent, they learn about local history and reveal their own pasts to each other and to the colorful townsfolk. To keep them in Kent, the film throws a mad glue-thrower in their way, a mysterious figure who sneaks around at night throwing glue in women's hair. I believe the vague filthiness of this nocturnal emission is in keeping with the original bawdy spirit of the Canterbury Tales, and this makes me happy.
I claim the film is a propaganda film, although they never get very pointed about the evil Germans or the terrible cost of protecting the country. They do however talk at some great length about the grand history of Britain and show, in the closing moments of the film, the pitiful results of the blitz in Canterbury. It's very effective stuff. Very frequently the film has the glorious past and the violent present day collide. The opening shot of the film is of a medieval lord releasing a falcon into the air. Mid-air it transforms into a bomber plane and, bam, we're in modern times.
Half of the film is concerned with solving the mystery of the glue attacks however and I was fairly confused about how this connected to pilgrimages or Chaucer. It's never explained in a very concrete way which I thought was very cool. The film plays its symbolism quite heavy most of the time. It's established that each of the protagonists want to get to Canterbury and one of them remarks "why we're pilgrims in our own way too!" Well duh. That the final connection to the glue attacks is left slightly mysterious is confusing and interesting. There's a subtle, complicated connection but it's not played up for once. Very interesting film.
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