AIFF 2015: "Tale of Tales" Review

Matteo Garrone [Gomorra (2008)]'s film is a peculiar movie that consists of three parallel stories which have little to do with each other.

The first story is that of a king [John C.Reilly (Chicago (2002), Magnolia (1999))] and a queen [Salma Hayek (Frida (2002))] who cannot have a baby. One day, a strange man approaches them and tells them that in order to acquire their heart's desire they have to kill a beast and eat its heart (this pun was honestly unintented). But as with every magic, miracles come with a cost and death compensates for life. Not long after, the couple pays the debt but nonetheless the baby arrives.

In the second story, another king [Toby Jones (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002))] who has an only daughter (Bebe Cave) but seems quite uninterested in her adopts a small flee which he treats like a child. His daughter, feeling quite bored with the life in the castle, asks him to find her a husband so that she can leave the family nest, so the king arranges a test for all the candidates who come to ask her hand in marriage,

The protagonist of the third story is yet another king [Vincent Cassel (La Haine (1995))] who is trully a ladies' man. This king falls in love with the singing voice of a girl he's never seen and he tries to persuade her to spend a night with him. However, the girl is not a girl at all, but an old ugly woman that lives with her sister. Soon, she tells the king that she'll do him the favour of sharing his bed but that this must only happen in the dark so he will not be able to see her.

All these stories seem rather strange and completely different from what we've been used to when it comes to fairy tales. But these are not your ordinary fairy tales after all. They are all based on the Pentamerone (Tale of Tales) a collection of 17th-century tales written by poet and courtier Giambattista Basile (and even if you have never heard of him before, have in mind that the Grimm Brothers were immense fans of his.) When the film started it took me by surprise as I couldn't see how it could work with three independent tales but soon I was engrossed both by the originality of it all and by the beautiful scenes that reminded me of paintings from the Renaissance. Garrone has made a film that is a feast for the eyes and the ears as Alexandre Desplat's score is excellent.

This is one of the greatest examples of how one should give a chance to a film before they judge it prematurely. After all, how often do we get the chance to watch a fairytale of which we do not know the end? That alone should be a reason for you to check this film out.

Tale of Tales was shown on the 7th day of the AIFF, Wednesday, September 30th.