Directed by:
Matteo GarroneCinematography:
Peter SuschitzkyComposer:
Alexandre DesplatCast:
Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, John C. Reilly, Stacy Martin, Shirley Henderson, Toby Jones, Alba Rohrwacher, Guillaume Delaunay, Bebe Cave, Giselda Volodi (more)VOD (2)
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Selected for Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Tale of Tales is an epic vision of cinema from Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah), inspired by the Italian fairytales of medieval Naples. From the bitter quest of a jealous Queen (Salma Hayek) who forfeits the life of her husband, to two mysterious sisters who provoke the passion of a King (Vincent Cassel), to a King obsessed with a giant Flea leading to heartbreak for his young daughter, these stories weave the beautiful with the grotesque, creating a stunning and unique work of gothic imagination. (Madman Entertainment)
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Reviews (8)
Fairy tales your mother never told you.. A great fairy tale three-part anthology with the beautiful exotic setting of Italy, gothic castles, breathtaking costumes, beautiful music, solid actors, but also purely morbid-horror elements that are breathtaking in their uniqueness. All three stories are original and have something to offer. I was most entertained by the crazy, horny Vincent Cassel with his harem and whores rolling around on the floor. Solid stuff. 80%.
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For a first, pretty functional – I laughed and cringed in disgust at the giant flea, slapped my head in amusement at the old man's beauty parlor, and squirmed in disgust at the giant bat. It's just that the film is insanely uncreative. By literally re-writing uncompromising fairy tales with minimal creative input, the entire work makes it impossible to cultivate any empathy for anything in the viewer. In fact, thanks to its static form, it serves exclusively as an illustration, where on the one hand it fascinates with its down-to-earth modern rawness and brutality, while on the other hand it retains its fairy-tale hyperbole in all other respects. It's as if, at the end of Šafránková’s Cinderella, we had close-ups of her stepsisters cutting off their heels and chopping off their toes to fit into the slipper. In other words, this latter-day Pan's Labyrinth just doesn't behave.
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(50th KVIFF) A unique spectacle. A beautifully narrative film with breathtaking visuals, where in one moment you’ll be so surprised and dazzled by the beauty captured on screen that you won’t be able to look away. At times a cracking comedy that made the whole theatre burst in laughter, at times a brutal and scary horror flick. I don’t know which of the three stories I liked best because each one has something going for it. The Neapolitan fairy-tales are quite something. 85 %
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The return of great Italian filmmaking, with some of the most famous faces of world cinema? At first glance, I thought it would be a cheap affair without any originality, but this is beautifully visually executed, with the essence of real fairy tales, or rather horror stories, that people have loved and still love. Quite a surprise!
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The only thing keeping it from perfection is a more expressive musical score and more spectacular set design. Script-wise, it's quite bold and coolly avoids schematic fairy tale narratives, which I definitely applaud. There is some tasteless nudity here and there (slightly evoking East German porn of the 80s), but it's probably worth noting that this depiction actually fits the overall decadent concept quite well. Original and self-conscious, quite non-mainstream, and wacky. Still, quite watchable.
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Gallery (83)
Photo © Le Pacte
![Tale of Tales - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/160/302/160302185_b2eb7a.jpg)
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