Tale of Tales (2015)
Fairy tale royalty face bizarre challenges: motherhood, romance, and obsession. Fans of dark fantasy like Pan’s Labyrinth will enjoy.
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Horror
Cast
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Tale of Tales(2015)
Overview
The Queen of Selvascura risks everything to be a mother; the King of Roccaforte falls in love with the voice of a mysterious girl; the King of Altomonte becomes obsessed with a flea and neglects his daughter.
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Cast
Full Cast & Crew
Salma Hayek Pinault
Queen of Longtrellis

Vincent Cassel
King of Strongcliff

Toby Jones
King of Highhills

Shirley Henderson
Imma

Hayley Carmichael
Dora

Bebe Cave
Violet

Stacy Martin
Young Dora

Christian Lees
Elias

Jonah Lees
Jonah

Guillaume Delaunay
Ogre

Alba Rohrwacher
Mother Circus Performer

Massimo Ceccherini
Father Circus Performer

John C. Reilly
King of Longtrellis

Laura Pizzirani
Jonah's Mother

Franco Pistoni
Necromancer

Jessie Cave
Fenizia

Michael Martini
1st Circus Boy

Alessandro Campagna
2nd Circus Boy

Lorenzo Bernardi
Contortionist

Giselda Volodi
Lady-in-Waiting
Featured Comments/Tips
This is a great little movie that is weird and odd enough to keep you engaged. The beginning is a bit slow but if you stick with it, it begins to pick up. Amazing performance from Bebe Cave. I recommend this if you like a bit of twisted awkwardness in your movie.
The first breath of fresh air in cinematography in years... It'#39;s a combination between brothers Grimm (writings, not series) and Sopor Aeternus. Amazing!
Beautifully shot and acted, but [spoiler] I expected the stories to connect to a crescendo at some point. The ending was very underwhelming. [/spoiler]
Great tale I fell instantly in love with.
Each tale is engagingly told, elevated by the luscious cinematography and the accomplished playing of the cast. A sequel with more of Basile'#39;s tales would not be unwelcome.
Very confused why this has such a high rating. It’s slow and boring and I have no clue what part of it was supposed to be “horror.” Really disappointing because the description of this and genre it’s listed under sounds like it would be right up my alley. But it’s just.. not very good. And definitely not horror.
It’s beautifully done and the stories are what they are but it’s a little spotty in narrative. The story doesn’t make sense until you read the plot.
Wow, so I watched part of this based on the reviews below. What a steaming pile of crap! 25 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. The costumes and sets were kind of cool but the story was disjointed and stupid. Maybe I’m not sophisticated enough to get it.
Level '#34;Interesting'#34; • 7 :heart: • Entertaining and Good.
Definitely a bad movie. Excellent photography but nothing else. Garrone is overrated as director.
The two stars are for the beautiful images, effects and costumes. It'#39;s bubble gum for the eyes. Nice, but it brings you nothing. Think of man walking so slow you can'#39;t tell if he'#39;s going forward or backward of standing still. If you like to watch that for three hours, this movie is definately for you. If you don'#39;t, skip it.
This is not a Disney fairytale, but is reminiscent of that mixture of innocence and horror from the Grimm'#39;s tales. This twisted short story collection is a feast for the eyes. I found the stories themselves to be somewhat unsatisfying. The tales are fragmented and instead of a single climax, each has a '#39;point of no return'#39;, where a character makes a choice and everything goes horribly wrong. The cast, however, was excellent and clearly worked hard to not let their characters become the one-dimensional caricatures seen in story books. The real stars, however, are the Italian castles and caves. This film might be tourism propaganda, and I'#39;m not even mad. Seriously, even if you skip the film go check out the screenshots and film posters on Imdb, they'#39;re a treat.
Matteo Garrone'#39;s revisiting of three obscure seventeenth-century fairy tales rejects the conventions of mainstream fantasy films, and instead goes for an austere, almost neorealist approach. The film is mostly shot in Italy using real locations over CGI, and the photography is mainly minimal with natural lighting and little visual effects. The supernatural elements and fantastic creatures are finely designed and meld with the semi-realistic setting beautifully. The intention is clearly to tell '#34;dark'#34; fairytales to a grown-up audience, but actually there is nothing as edgy as one would think: just some mild violence and quite a lot of boobs. Each tale'#39;s outcome is also quite underwhelming despite the intriguing premises. It'#39;s definitely better than most of your average fantasy films, but at the same time, I can'#39;t help feeling like more risks could have been taken.
Featured User Reviews

**The flea, the flay and an offspring.** It's shocking to find how much this film was underrated. Certainly it is not a fairytale like from the Disney production. That mean not for the children, but for the adults. Based on the collections of tales by some 17th century Italian poet. All the tales blended together so well, You won't even feel the familiarity with the original tale, because the modifications were at its best. So I appreciate the writer first, and then the director, followed by the actors. Since the film has a multiple story narrative layer, like three, the opening and the ending was common to all. But soon after the initiative, the tales go separate ways with its own twists and turns and conclusion, till again falling back in the line to finish it off the film. First a royal couple tend to do anything to have their own child. After many years, having no luck with the pregnancy, they now follow the instruction given by a necromancer. The result is most certain, but not without a negative effect. The desperate couple sacrifices greater to have a child. The remaining story takes place in the few years later where a royal born child and his mother have differences. A fresh complication arises that puts the mother again in a tight spot. How it is going to be solved narrated in the following parts. In the second story, the king of a hill castle is obsessed with his new insect pet. That leads him to neglect his own daughter who is dreaming of getting married and have a great life. But the things are not going well between father and daughter with her mother's absence. When the king comes to realise that, he comes with an agenda to achieve two things in one shot. That does not please his daughter, and soon she ends up in the hands of an ogre. The remaining is to tell us what happens to her in a thrilling way. This is the story of a father's responsibility. If his wife was alive, their daughter would have been taken care at best. Compared to the others, this tale gets more exciting and edgy, even the locations. Of course they have used blue/green screens, but still beautiful like the one from the top of the castle scene. I liked the casting for this, particularly the princess part. > "The equilibrium of the world must be maintained." The third tale is about a lustful king. One day when he hears a woman singing in a beautiful voice, the next minutes he lands on her home's front door, not knowing the woman is aged and has the wrinkle skin. But she and her sisters play along hiding behind the door and asks for a favour in order to win them back, I mean one of them. So how the rest of the story develops and who gets what, followed by a twist, it comes to an end. It is a spectacular film. But not visually as the fairy tales told in the present Hollywood films. Particularly, it minimised the computer related special effects. So it was more realistic, yet you will get that fantasy feel with how the tales shape up. It's a black comedy, and that's an absolutely well done part. You know designing the dark humours are not an easy task and this film has three layers, though not all of them has them. The conclusions were so perfect, reminds us the happy and sad are the parts of our life. Over two hours long film, there's no drag in the narration. The length is because of the three tales and each one was narrated with a pretty good pace. But still it gives the impression the film is slow and that's for being silent like less background score in the most of the parts. From Salma Hayek to Toby Jones, Vincent Cassel, all were so good. The casting was the advantage for the film to shape up well. Since it is an international project, that will help the global audience to their comfort. The director's first English language film and I think I'm going to keep an eye on his future projects. Certainly I have not seen such film like this, not in the todays cinema. The film was like in the old days. It does not deliver a couple of quick jokes and/or breathtaking visual effects, but the depth of the tale was good. The writers, director did not hesitate to add extra minutes to get what they wanted. I would have liked it if another layer of the tale was included and extended for another 30 or more minutes. For the grown ups, I suggest it not to miss, you won' get a film like this often. _8/10_

This is the first English language film by Matteo Garrone whose track record previous to this is very impressive. Interestingly enough Garrone veers of his normal path and has made a version of famous fairy-tales by Giambattista Basile but with the original sensibilities intact. So, you will get violence, sex and gore with not too much holding back. Like most original in their original form they are a lot darker and violent than modern sensibilities are used to, but taking this in account even Basile’s stories were considered nastier and more visceral than most. Certainly, in cinematic form they are definitely not for the kids. For me the fact it was Italian and a minor gore and flesh-fest I was instantly thrown back into the world of 1980s horror films, albeit a fairly high-budgeted well made one, but the feel was there. This is not to criticise the film or the out-standings cast but the further you got into the running time the more the threads you were expecting to tie-up or tangle together did not. I seem to remember a fair few Italian horrors where scenes did not follow any narrative or story and the viewer was quite often left saying ‘what?’ or ‘where did he go?’ or even ‘who was she?...’ Tale of Tales, particularly as the film concludes, definitely does. Many viewers looking for a more traditionally film will be disappointed or frustrated. The feeling that this is ‘Part One’ is certainly part of the experience. This does sound as if I did not like the film but in fact I did enjoy it. With highly skilled actors of the likes Hayed, Cassel, the inimitable Toby Jones alongside John C. Reilly and Shirley Henderson you are going to have to have a special skill to make an entirely bad film. In particular Toby Jones’ skills shine through endowing his character, the King of Highhills, with a depth that in lesser hands would reduce him to unfeeling patriarch. Jones is almost matched in the heavy hitting stakes by the less well-known or experienced Bebe Cave who beautifully portrays his daughter, Violet, and her journey from naivety to iron willed sovereign. The scenery and set pieces are beautiful works of art in their own right with several real Italian castles used that gives the film an authentic and solid feel. The custom work and all other aspects of the settings give the film an impressive period feel, I certainly felt I was taken back into an imaginary part of medieval history. Frustratingly for me, despite these great ingredients, the film dropped ‘good-will points’ by the stories taking too long to reach their respect apexes and then as we finally feel we are coming to some great revealing ending the whole story stumbles, leaves loose ends and finishes with a good few points unresolved or not even near to being resolved. Having said this the man himself, Matteo Garrone, has said that the film should be ‘felt’ and not ‘understood’, perhaps, but by making a film that can be understood and show all human foibles and weaknesses in a clever and artful way then leaves you slightly confused at the conclusion – well to be fair leaves this slightly over-weight comprehensive educated British man confused. Which really isn’t that difficult. Not for all palates but every now and then it does you good to taste something new.
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