Okay, back in the blogging saddle!
The Tale of Tales! Matteo Garrone’s 2015 film inspired by
stories from Giambattista Basile’s fairy tale collection of the same name. The film stars such talents as Salma Hayek,
Toby Jones, John C. Reilly and Vincent Cassel (huh. Cassel was in a surprising number of European
fairy tale movies around that time).
While Basile’s book was a much longer, more complicated
affair featuring a framing structure and five days of stories being told,
Garrone’s film is just three tales that sort of touch alone the edges. The first story is about a queen who is so
desperate to have a child that she resorts to eating the heart of a giant sea
serpent to get it. The second story is
about a bored king who becomes preoccupied with raising a flea until it’s the
size of a calf. The third story is about
a lecherous king and two elderly sisters who will go to great lengths to become
his next conquests.
This movie is not like most other fairy tale films you’ll
see out there. First of all, it’s rated
R. In fact, it’s the first R-rated fairy
tale movie I’ve ever reviewed/reacted to on Fairy Tale Fandom. And as this is a fairy tale film aimed
squarely at adults, he expects the audience to do more work in figuring out
what the whole thing is about. In family
fairy tale films, the themes are usually outright stated or even sung. However, if you ask me, what Garrone has put
together is a fantasy film about the costs of obsession. The obsession with having a child. The obsession with sating one’s own
lust. Even the obsession with raising a
giant flea. It’s a very different
approach for a fairy tale film, focusing instead on characters’ faults and
failings rather than on their triumphant “happily ever after”. All of the characters in question make
choices related to their obsessions that have unexpected negative consequences
for those around them.
I’d like to say this movie is a good representation of
Basile’s book, but I’m not sure I can.
Like I said, the movie cherry-picks certain stories that fit a specific
theme. The essence of Basile’s book came
through in its framing story and the power of the storytelling depicted
therein. Also, Basile’s book had a kind
of bawdy, rustic sense of humor to it (I mentioned the use of toilet humor in
another post). The movie plays everything
about as seriously as a heart attack.
Though, the sight of the giant flea is funny in kind of a strange way.
The movie itself is fine.
The stories are faithful to the originals in content if not always in
tone. The actors do a fine job playing
their roles. I liked the creature
effects for the sea serpent and the giant flea, though I think they could
perhaps have been more creative with the ogre they had in one of the
stories. I will say that the way the
stories changed from scene to scene could leave you a little lost, but maybe
the director was just trying to make sure you were paying attention.
The Tale of Tales is
not a fun movie. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend
this for a fun Friday night on the couch.
However, it’s also not really a bad movie. It was good enough and interesting enough and
different enough that I thought it would be a shame not to have a copy for my
own movie collection, if just to use as a reference for future posts. Whether any of you, my faithful readers, will
like it is down to personal taste.
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