I have never seen such an interpretation of fairy tales as Matteo Garrone's "Tale of Tales". We are well acquainted with the production of Disney 's constantly rising factory. Their adaptations are indecisely decent in their desire to please the viewers from a young to old age, depriving them of the ingredients with which the first stories were created: sexual, bloody, repulsive to tolerance, but also gratifying and melancholy. The characters in them are not good or evil. Fruit of the author's design, they walk in outlined paths, demonstrating the moral truth, but are far from elemental and boring images. There is no room for sentimentality and saccharal hependen. "Tale of Tales" is constructed from three stories taken from the Fairy Tales collection of the late 16th-century Neapolitan writer Jambatist Basile. Since I had not heard of him, I was surprised to learn what a huge influence he had on the formation and development of the fairy form in Europe and the world. Charles Pero, the Grim and Andersen brothers, mention him as an inspiration, and the first versions of Cinderella, Boat in Boots and Rapunzel leave from it.
The first footage follows a circus artist who walks along a dusty (almost west) street while watching his colleagues preparing for execution in front of the king and the queen. Stuffed fabrics, colorful suits, bell hats, torches, rope ladders and wagons. First indication of the influence of Pasolini (especially his trilogy of life). These traveling artists are the link between the three stories in the film. Traveling between the castles of the kings, they create the important feeling that everything is happening in the same land. The first story begins with the performance of circus artists in King's Court (John K. Riley) and Queen (Salma Hayek). The king is visibly entertained, but the queen is unhappy because she can not have a son. One night a mysterious man arrives in the palace, wrapped in a black cloak that seems to have the answer to the problem. The king should dive underwater and kill a sea dragon, after which the queen will eat the heart cooked by a virgin maid. In one of the most memorable and fantastic scenes, the king kills the dragon, but dies from his wounds. Apart from the child (which is born as soon as the queen has eaten her heart), another child is born in the palace - that of the maid. The two boys grow up like twins of albinos, who secretly meet, hiding from the jealousy of the queen. But when the mother desires something, she can hardly escape the power of her will.
The second story begins shortly after the first and evolves into the neighboring kingdom, where King (Vansan Kassel) is bored with his lust. All his lovers are tired of the tumultuous night and have no strength to satisfy his wishes. As he walks through the walls of his palace, he accidentally hears the beautiful voice of an unknown girl singing in the slum of the city. Obsessed with the stranger, the king begins to knock at her door and fill her with gifts, longing to see the girl's face. Then the camera shows what's going on in the house and the problems of those living inside two ugly sisters who will need to quickly figure out a way to keep his attention.
The third story is about another king (Toby Jones), who at first glance does not suffer from the previous two. Good father, he raised his daughter as an exemplary and talented girl. But during one of her guitar performances, the King notices a flea that jumps from one hand to another. This is the beginning, so to speak, of a long friendship. Captivated by his new friend, the king begins to take care of him while the animal reach incredible size. His daughter's fate will suffer from neglecting her father's duties. When there is such a plot of fragmentation, the thematic uniformity (or at least the closeness) of the episodes is obligatory in order to obtain a good overall picture. All the main characters are selfish and in pursuit of their goals they are willing to sacrifice the most important, even the person who loves them. There is a lesson to learn the end and the balance to be preserved. That's what the mysterious black-haired man says at the beginning of the movie. This theme is well illustrated with the duality theme. Two Albanian brothers in the first tale, two ugly sisters in the second and two monsters (I will not explain for the second because it appears late in the movie goes for a spoiler) in the third.
If one can talk about a problem, it appears mostly in the imbalance (in spite of the main theme) between the three stories. This may be different from person to person, but to me the story with the twins seems to me the richest and most interestingly built. Vincent Kassel, on the other hand, was the simplest, conflict-free, typical fairy-tale archetype that had no progress. Toby Jones gives the best performance in the movie, showing his character at the same time as soft, pitiful, funny, good, curious, even sweet. It is a pity that the story itself becomes boring. And to that, we have to add the 125 minute duration, which (even to the end) begins to feel as excessive. But even in its boring moments the film offers such a wealth of details that re-viewing is more than a must. Costumes, Décor, Operations and Music (Alexander Desplay) ... This is really a visual feast, as the critics like to say. When the sea monster lies dead when the Queen eats the heart (modeled as true even from inside), no comparison comes to my mind, which is indicative that Garrone's imagination has created a new universe.
