We finally got the chance to watch The Ribald Tales of Canterbury on Saturday night (Dave had just got back from overseas for work, I had managed to park the kids with my Mum for a couple of nights), so yahoo! free time to watch porn unhindered!
This movie was made quite some time ago (1985 according to IMDB), but I'm guessing hasn't been out on DVD for all that long. Because of when it was made, there were things which we haven't seen for quite some time. Like full bush and real boobs - both astonishing in the fact that they were there. The sets and costumes were amazing, as was the actual picture. I think this must have been shot on film - it was a much better quality picture than you see these days. A little point, but one that I notice - no bad frosting, perms or visible roots, or talons on the ends of fingers. All in all, it seemed that they'd put a lot of effort into this movie.
Some of the acting was a little wooden when the actors were saying their lines, and I don't know whether it was that they were out of their comfort zones with the lines, or whether they were more used to not having any lines to say (apart from "Ooh, yeah, baby")!
There were lots of faces that we thought "Oh, I know I've seen that person in something else" - checking IMDB, there were men who had extensive careers after this - Mike Horner and Marc Wallice to name but two. Apart from Hyapatia Lee, the women weren't as familiar - a couple whose faces were vaguely familiar, but nothing definite.
Now to the important stuff - the sex! It started quickly, so that by the time we were 15 minutes in, we were onto the 3rd coupling. Having said that, nothing was out of context, nor inappropriate to the story. Most of the scenes were pretty good, although this was the time when cheesy "porn music" was still in place, so the backing track is annoying to say the least for some scenes. (And one where the track was assorted nursery rhymes was downright disturbing!)
The women look good, so do the men (pre-Viagra days) and the cum shots are tastefully done - no cum in the eyes (which hurts BTW!). I really only have one criticism of the sex - apart from the Wife of Bath (Colleen Brennan), none of the women play with themselves while having penetrative sex, so their orgasms are supposed to be internal. That's damned difficult to achieve, and some of them were not convincing.
The oral scenes were good, and the scene of Colleen B and Hyapatia in a girl-girl was really well done.
The absolute stand-out scene was right at the end between Hyapatia and Mike Horner - it was great sex and she really enjoyed it! It was the first scene in this movie (and now I think about it, the first I've seen in anything for ages) where the actress really seemed to cum on penetrative sex alone - from the way her body was shuddering, I don't think she faked it.
I have three small complaints about the transfer to DVD - there was a really bad layer change about 40 minutes in, and the timer on the player actually reset itself at that point. I am wondering whether that was where it was originally cut to go over 2 video tapes. The was one section later on in the movie where the image had horizontal distortion for a few seconds (like it had been taken from a video tape which had stretched at that point). And there was one brief (1-2 seconds) section where the picture was very pixelated and blocky.
All in all, it was a really good movie, the sex was good and I enjoyed watching it. This is one I would keep to watch again sometime.
If you'd like to read Dave's review of The Ribald Tales Of Canterbury, click here.
You can buy The Ribald Tales Of Canterbury here through Uncut DVDs in Australia.
