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Tale of Tales Movie Review

Tale of Tales is a 2015 European dark fantasy film directed by Matteo Garrone and starring Salma Hayek and Vincent Cassel. It’s a memorably grotesque movie.

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“I want to be with my sister“

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Three rulers in neighboring kingdoms deal with their obsessions: one king is a fornicating libertine, another is captivated by a strange animal, and a queen is consumed by her wish for a child. So this is an anthology of three stories, but they are actually better connected than most with the theme of obsession ranging through every story. The editing is also very smooth for the most part as every story feels like a part of this same universe/kingdom.

It was wonderful seeing this director tackle fairy tales as they truly were back in the seventeenth century – dark, brutal and even grotesque in imagery. All three stories verge at horror in their very dark elements, but nothing is done for the shock value, but it all felt real and seamless, for this world at least.

With that being said, the mileage that I took from these segments ranged wildly from weak to great. The Flea to me was the most subpar of the three. The giant monster flea was memorable, but everything else not so much. The drama with Toby Jones’ character and his daughter was uninteresting to me, though Jones is definitely terrific here.

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The Enchanted Doe is better, but that storyline started off strong, but did not go anywhere later down the line. The drama with these oddly conceived siblings was very intriguing and Salma Hayek is well utilized here. The beginning with the aquatic monster was great and I wish that it was prolonged as this was the most fantastical part of the entire movie.

The Flayed Old Lady is clearly the best of the bunch. Everything here worked. The theme of obsession is very well realized with the king character being delightfully performed by Vincent Cassel. His almost unhinged perversion and horniness were hilarious. But these sisters were the heart of the story and the theme of plastic surgery is touched upon through fantastical means in such a smartly timely fashion. I loved it all here and I wish that the other two stories were as strong as this great one.

All three were based on the tales of Giambattista Basile and they are adapted very well for this modern movie that is old-fashioned, but actually rather relevant in its themes. The dialogue is excellent throughout with some excellent lines while the humor is surprisingly solid at times. The movie favors dark and horrific over light and fantastical and I did not mind that as it gave this film an edge over other fairy tale movies, and the execution is so good without ever feeling like a gimmick.

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Tale of Tales is also visually arresting and it looks surprisingly sumptuous for a rather small budget. The costumes are beautiful and the sets are gorgeous. The movie was actually filmed on location in Italy and that effort paid off in terms of authenticity. The direction is strong, but the pacing is all over the place and the second half lost its steam quite a bit in comparison to the stellar first one.