Tale of Tales

Dir: Matteo Garrone

2015

*****

Matteo Garrone's 2015 fairy tale fantasy Tale of Tales is almost certainly the most beautiful film of 2015. It is based on the work of Giambattista Basile (1566-1632), who collected a series of Neapolitan fairy tales known as Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattenemiento de peccerille, which is Neapolitan for The Tale of Tales or entertainment for Little Ones. It is also known as II Pentamerone and was published under the pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbatutis after his death by his sister who lived in Naples. It was overlooked an forgotten about for well over a hundred years until The Brothers' Grimm celebrated it as being the first collection of tales of its kind to have been written. It included the earliest recorded versions of stories such as Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella and they are quite different from the Disney-type versions we used to today. It is incredible that such dark and terrifying tales would be intended for children but then these were as much a collection of warnings than they were for entertainment but that said, the adults do suffer for their bad parenting which I'm sure is a timeless enjoyment for kids. Matteo Garrone's vision goes right back to the source material in all its dark and beautiful glory. This isn't a futuristic interpretation or modern adaptation either, it is said at the time that these tales would have been told. It's not all dark though, I found the whimsical humour to be quite appealing too and how the film leaps from comedy to horror so quickly makes it quite refreshing in a quirky sort of way. It looks utterly gorgeous throughout, each shot looking like an oil painting. The entire film was shot on location in some of the most beautiful parts of Italy, including the Royal Palace and the Palace of Capodimonte in Naples, the stunning Castel del Monte in Apulia and the Castello di Roccascalegna in the province of Chieti which would have been around at the time the tales were written and may well have been an influence on the stories. There are three main stories in the film; The Queen, The Flea and The Two Old Women. The characters from all three stories meet in the first chapter at the funeral of the King, they then meet again at the ending of the film for the Princesses wedding. This frames the stories perfectly, everything in between is almost chaotic in its bizarre and surreal turn of events. Salma Hayek is brilliant as the dark Queen of Longtrellis who eats the heart of an aquatic dragon (cooked by a virgin) in order to bear a child. Toby Jones is hilarious as the King of Highhills who neglects his daughter (the scene stealing Bebe Cave), keeps a pet flea who grows to an enormous size and marries his only child to an ogre by mistake and Vincent Cassel is superb as the hedonistic King of Strongcliff who marries an old women based on her voice alone (and throws her out the window when he realizes his mistake). Each actor is brilliant in their role, indeed, everyone seems to relish the rare opportunity to star in such a production. Matteo Garrone is generally known for his naturalistic approach in film but he has argued that there is plenty of fantasy in his past work too and Tale of Tales does have an element of realism about, which I believe is why it works so well. There is something very different to this fantasy then we're used to within the genre, it does make you wonder why it is that no one has thought to take the same approach before. One of the best films of 2015 and certainly the most beautiful.