Movies like Tales of Canterbury (1973)
The best movies like Tales of Canterbury (1973) are Goltzius & the Pelican Company (2012), Napoleon and Me (2006) and The Voyage of Captain Fracassa (1990). If Tales of Canterbury hooked you with its history and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNothing Left to Do But Cry (1984)7.7/10 from 1,203 votes
- NewestCastration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianNapoleon and Me (2006)Also in Italian
Goltzius & the Pelican Company (2012)
Hendrik Goltzius, a late-16th-century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNapoleon and Me (2006)
Elba island, 1814. Martino is a young teacher, idealist and strongly anti Napoleon, in love with the beautiful and noble Baroness Emily. The young man finds himself serving as librarian to the Great Emperor in exile, whom he deeply hates, yet soon begins recording Napoleon's memoirs, getting to know and learning to value the man behind the myth. Among seductions and affairs, expectations and fears, he will craft a precise portrait that nevertheless will not manage to hide a final, inevitable, disappointment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Voyage of Captain Fracassa (1990)
In the French countryside, circa the 17th-century, Serafina, Pulcinella and Isabella are three lusty, beautiful members of a travelling theatrical troupe, leaving in their wake a crop of broken hearts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackadder: Back & Forth (1999)
What was a cunning plan from Lord Edmund Blackadder V to fake a time machine on his gullibly incompetent friends, turns out to be the real thing and hurls him and his imbecile underling, Baldrick, through the course of human history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOcchio, malocchio, prezzemolo e finocchio (1983)
The film is divided into two episodes, The Hair of Disgrace and The Magician, both focusing on the theme of the occult and beliefs. The title translates as "Eye, Evil Eye, Parsley and Fennel".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisGoodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen (1976)
An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966)
An anthology presents three storylines, all set in the Italian town of Treviso: A husband pretends to be impotent as a cover for having an affair; a bank clerk abandons his wife for his mistress, but the rest of the town's husbands become jealous and unite to conspire against them; and local men all seduce a promiscuous young woman, but when her father eventually reveals that she is underage, they all face prosecution for statutory rape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEverything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)
A collection of seven vignettes, which each address a question concerning human sexuality. From aphrodisiacs to sexual perversion to the mystery of the male orgasm, characters like a court jester, a doctor, a queen and a journalist adventure through lab experiments and game shows, all seeking answers to common questions that many would never ask.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe New Monsters (1977)
A collection of dark-humoured vignettes, including tales of a cardinal with a liberal congregation, a motorist and a hitchhiker, mentally challenged tramps, parents contemplating their daughter's participation in a pornographic film, and a conniving husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFun Is Beautiful (1980)
Three characters' misadventures in semi-deserted, summertime Rome: a dim-witted mama's boy falls for a tourist; a would-be womanizer struggles to find company for his sex tourism trip to Kraków; a hippie is drawn into his father's schemes to bring him back into polite society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHard to Die (1990)
While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorized by a series of bizarre killings. They suspect that the strange janitor, who witnessed another series of killings six months previously, is at the bottom of the whole thing. Little do they know the real horror that they face in the end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisP.O. Box Tinto Brass (1995)
A successful erotic film producer from Rome regularly receives letters from female fans seeking his advice on how to spice up their sex lives. Thanks to his years of experience in both the film business and the sex industry, he has all sorts of tips at the ready and, in an emergency, is happy to make a house call himself to demonstrate his qualities in person.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sunday Woman (1975)
Police commissioner Santamaria is investigating the murder of the ambiguous architect Mr. Garrone. The investigations soon drive him into the Torino's high society. Santamaria suspect Anna Carla and at the same time falls in love for her. Lello is the lover of Massimo, Anna Carla’s gay friend. He is following another direction in order to find out the truth, and his results are confusing the Policeman. But another murder happens...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNothing Left to Do But Cry (1984)
Two 20th-century friends accidentally stumble into the year 1492, where they meet a charming teen and try to alter history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoris: The Film (2011)
A director and his crew attempt to make the transition from the small to the big screen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKings of the Sun (1963)
In order to flee from powerful enemies, young Mayan king Balam leads his people north across the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of what will become the United States. They build a home in the new land but come into conflict with a tribe of Native Americans led by their chief, Black Eagle, while both Balam and Black Eagle fall in love the beautiful Mayan princess Ixchel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuch Ado About Nothing (2013)
A modern retelling of Shakespeare's classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance and a way with words.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerica: The Motion Picture (2021)
A chainsaw-wielding George Washington teams with beer-loving bro Sam Adams to take down the Brits in a tongue-in-cheek riff on the American Revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisStewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)
The maniacal baby of the Griffin family, Stewie, meets his future self. In doing this he discovers that his future image is not what he has anticipated because of a near death experience.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman (2012)
John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam pay tribute to their late Monty Python colleague Graham Chapman in this hilarious, 3-D animated adaptation of Chapman's brazenly fictionalized life story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisTokyo! (2008)
Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCOOL (News from Belarus) (2023)
In this cinematic zine, directors scattered all over the world adapt to screen hilarious and poignant Belarusian news stories. Featuring phone thieves, TikTok storks, the tiniest castle in the world, and victims of the depression epidemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Castration Movie Anthology I. Traps (2024)
Michaela 'Traps' Sinclair is a trans sex worker trying to get by in Vancouver while also mentoring her recently-out friend Adeline and making an attempt at pursuing actual motherhood. Meanwhile, lowly production assistant Turner finds himself dangerously spiraling into inceldom as his current relationship implodes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026)
Izzy does everything in her power to stop her partner from transitioning.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing (2019)
Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
A Memory of Last Summer (2013)
Warsaw, mid-1980s. When it seemed that the Christmas party with her parents could not be more boring, Basia unexpectedly meets someone very familiar...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Vernos Juntos (TBA)
Eleven vignettes from the vision of different writers and directors who depict Venezuelan culture very subtly through different genres.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
01:00 A.M. (1995)
A film that foretells three modern-day ghost stories, set in the City of Hong Kong. The first segment deals with a popular singer that mysteriously falls into a deep coma, and the public is unaware that his spirit is detained by the ghost of an obsessed fan of his. His plea for help is only recognized by his nurse. In the second segment, four college girls are assigned an unusual project, and their selected-topic is to "interview" the ghost of the "Braided Woman." When they encounter the streets where the ghost was claimed to roam, they find themselves in a mist of terror. In the third segment, two night-duty police officers stumble upon a mysterious crisis when their speed-tracking camera detects a image of an old woman. After the woman's first sighting, the officers encounter her in every place they go, and their only solution is to find out what she wants.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
History of the World: Part I (1981)
An uproarious version of history that proves nothing is sacred – not even the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and the Spanish Inquisition.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRomance of the West Chamber (1997)
Cheung, a 23-year-old unmarried travelling scholar, stops by the monastery, where he sees a beautiful woman. Against the rules, Monk Faben allows Cheung to stay and woo the girl, Ann-Ann. She is shy, and also the Prime Minister's daughter, so the wooing is arranged by Ann-Ann's maid Hung.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Like Tales of Canterbury and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tales of Canterbury?
The closest matches to Tales of Canterbury are Goltzius & the Pelican Company (2012), Napoleon and Me (2006) and The Voyage of Captain Fracassa (1990). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tales of Canterbury?
Start with Goltzius & the Pelican Company (2012), the closest match to Tales of Canterbury.
What is the highest-rated movie like Tales of Canterbury?
Nothing Left to Do But Cry (1984), rated 7.7/10 by 1,203 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tales of Canterbury?
Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Tales of Canterbury?
Yes: Napoleon and Me (2006), The Voyage of Captain Fracassa (1990) and Occhio, malocchio, prezzemolo e finocchio (1983).
How are movies similar to Tales of Canterbury chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tales of Canterbury, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.