Tale of Tales Reviews

(MU) Underrated non Hollywood non Del Toro fantasy, 3 great stories, melodrama with fantastic touches (the giant bug, the twins, the ugly husband), Garrone hisees any arty asporation behind the action...nice cast...moving non gore bloody woman....

To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, I was surprised to discover afterwards that it was directed by the same guy who made 'Gomorra' and, this time, Matteo Garrone went for something completely different. At least, the whole thing was visually quite impressive. I also enjoyed the fact that they kept the dark aspect of traditional fairy tales, instead of the mushy approach we have been used to get from Disney which has forever clouded our judgement on the genre. Concerning the three stories developed in this movie, even though they were all intriguing and entertaining enough, I think they still missed something though. Maybe they all missed a stronger conclusion or maybe they should have been better linked with each other but, in my opinion, the biggest issue was that none of the characters were developed enough. As a result, I never really cared for them and what they were going through. There was also a lack of focus. Indeed, was the first tale actually about the queen or her son? The second tale about the horny king or about the two sisters? The third tale about yet another king or about his daughter? It seemed as if each tale started with a specific idea which was then lost along the way. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

For a while Tale of Tales plays out with the free-associative logic of a fairy tale and provides sequences that in an American film would lead to bombast with quiet emotional urgency. This is when the film is operating at its best, but then a certain thinness begins to undermine the film’s triptych of stories and their corresponding images. That is, the film runs out of gas long before the final credits are rolling.

 

The three tales told here are eventually revealed as being interwoven in intimate and unique ways, but the crosscutting between them feels arbitrary at best. At its worst, the stories intrude all over each other’s emotional rhythms and textures, and I wonder if this could be reedited to have the films work more in concert with each other. There are clear parallels in story beats or characters dropping in to work as a smoother connective tissue.

 

Eventually the blood splattering and bare breasts, the aggressive carnality and contrasting imagery begins to feel repetitive instead of how invigorating and unique it was in the opening scenes. After all, casting Vincent Cassel as a randy king that blasts through all of the maidens in his kingdom is a bit of type-casting begging for a reframing, but that never happens here. While Salma Hayek’s queen with baby-fever is one of the better, more realized creations in the film. Hayek’s fantastic in the role even if the eventual story beats squander her investment and misguided maternal instincts.

 

There’s still plenty to celebrate about Tale of Tales, especially its masterful first half, and it’s great to see a fairy-tale film that doesn’t want to wrap its fantastical elements around big CGI battles and frantic editing in the final act. There are several unique ideas about patriarchy, femininity and neurotic relationships between royals and their subjects to chew on, mainly the tale of two sisters obsessed with regaining their youth. The horror and sexuality of fairy tales is alive and well in Tale of Tales even if it can’t stick the landing.  

"Ogni nuova vita richiede la perdita di una vita. L'equilibrio del mondo deve essere mantenuto. Siete disposti ad accettare questo rischio?"
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Garrone's film is a feast for the eyes and mind. It draws liberally from the tradition of ancient fairy Basile and proposes a translation blazing, made solemn landscapes and disturbing, kings and courts who are living with the misery of the people, crenellated castles that stand out on the slopes oblivious of the course of time and a set of -draghi mythological creatures, orcs, witches, fleas Giants- that look like the materialization of instincts and fears of human -desideri possession, power, maternity, fear of old age, death, solitudine-. Environments that host three events -a queen sterile willing to do anything to have a child, a king obsessed with sex that falls in love with a crone of which only listens to the voice, a ruler who organizes a contest whose winner will marry his daughter- are extraordinary and so evocative that, while watching the film, I thought they were digital effects products to the computer. Instead, the film was shot between the Alcantara Gorges (a Sicilian river flowing between high walls smoothed by water), the Castle of Donnafugata in the province of Ragusa, the forest Sasseto in northern Lazio, Castel del Monte and Gioia del Colle in Puglia. In the film Garrone, beyond the grandeur of the exterior, there is nothing ethereal and metaphysical: the stories - along with the facility of the fairy tale anticachectic are carnal, raw, essential in expressing drives that dominate humans, life and death chase, touch, is with / merge, there rises to a privileged condition suddenly or lose everything. There is no sign of intent to moralizzatore- Fortuna-, but even willingness exposing the vices of the weak and the powerful. The introduction of elements of "fantasy" seems well integrated in the work of the director Roman. The opening sequence of the king who plunges nell'acque torrent armor diving in search of the sea dragon appears not only credible, but also engaging and beautiful. As well as several other passages of the film that I will not spoil. The merit of "The Tale of Tales" consists in integrated visually stunning work (with a pictorial taste and exquisite frame) with a narrative that recovers the allegorical dimension of the work of Basile and proposes an excavation on the archetypal dimensions of human nature. Daring operation, similar to that of a tightrope walker who crosses a precipice walking on a rope. An operation, in my opinion, that makes success Matteo Garrone one of the most talented Italian authors in the current landscape.