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REVIEWS DRAWING ON THE RICH AND UNTIL-NOW UNEXPLORED vein of Neapolitan fairy tales written by Giambattista Basile in the early 17th century, Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales combines the wildly imaginative world of kings, queens and ogres with the kind of lush production values Italian cinema was once famous for. The result is a dreamy, fresh take on the kind of dark and gory yarns that have come down to us from the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault — only here, they’re pleasingly new and unfamiliar. Starring Salma Hayek as a childless queen who is willing to do anything — absolutely anything — to conceive, it also features Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones and John C. Reilly as three troubled kings. An English-language cast spits out their lines in a variety of accents, but the real question is whether the Italo-French co-production has enough name branding and modern appeal to leap wide. These fairy tales are certainly not aimed at children, though they will light the fire of many teens. Apart from a few moments of eros — a shot of two court ladies consumed with passion for each other in a carriage; a post-orgy scene laced with naked, Fellini-esque bodies — there is an underlying horror that is unnerving even for adults. The compendium of interwoven stories is lensed with flair and wit by Garrone, the Italian director who followed up his icy and original mob expose Gomorrah with the slightly insipid dramedy Reality, about the evils of reality shows (both won the Grand Prize here at Cannes). While all three films have Naples as a common thread, the striking difference lies in how Tale of Tales sets aside the strong social themes of Garrone’s earlier work. On closer inspection, however, there is a great deal of sympathy for the common folk here, particularly in the story Hayek devours a monster’s heart in Garrone’s competition entry. Tale of Tales Salma Hayek and Vincent Cassel headline Italian director Matteo Garrone’s lush, imaginative interweaving of Neapolitan fairy tales BY DEBORAH YOUNG of a prince and his pauper twin, and a heart-wrenching tale about two poor old sisters torn apart by the king’s lust and their own illusions. In contrast, there’s little good to be said about most of the royals, though they have their own twisted motivations that make them a bit more human. Take the all-consuming maternal desire of Hayek’s lovely, pearl-covered queen, who sends her doting husband on a suicide mission to kill a sea monster. Devoted to her, he performs this feat in a wondrous diving suit straight out of Jules Verne. By ravenously consuming the monster’s giant heart, she instantly conceives and gives birth the very next day. But so does the virgin cook who inhales the cooking fumes, and their two albino sons (played as young men by the excellent Christian and Jonas Lees) feel bound by a fraternal bond stronger than blood. The queen’s meeting with an eerie sorcerer and her unwise decision to follow his advice lead to a nasty but satisfying final metamorphosis. More visual effects are conjured up in the terrible yet funny account of how another king (Jones), who lives with his beloved daughter (Bebe Cave), becomes obsessed with a flea. He raises it to monstrous size by nourishing it with his own blood, and eventually uses it — strangely — in a contest that will decide who is to marry his daughter. The grotesqueness of all this peaks when a fearsome ogre played by Guillaume Delaunay demands to take part in the contest, occasioning several edge-of-seat chase scenes. Even darker is the third story, which revolves a lecherous king (Cassel) who courts a woman with a beautiful singing voice. Without glimpsing her face, he doesn’t realize Dora (Hayley Carmichael) is a gnarled old lady twisted by age and a lifetime of hard labor. A magical spell will turn the tables on the king, but will also affect Dora’s frail old sister Imma (a fine Shirley Henderson). The final scenes of Imma’s lonely madness explore desperate depths of the human psyche and send a shiver down the spine. Doused in luxuriant colors, elaborate costumes and fantasy decor, the movie’s scenes are wonderfully integrated into the Baroque architecture of Sicily, Apulia and Lazio, though some of the Escher-like castles clinging to hillsides look like CGI work. Peter Suschitzky’s cinematography ably creates a world of the imagination by blending astonishing (and real) Italian baroque interiors with Dimitri Capuani’s outstanding production design and Massimo Cantini Parrini’s eccentric and amusing period costumes (some from the Tirelli collection). Underlining the poetic dimension of the film is a haunting original score by composer Alexandre Desplat. In Competition // Cast Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, John C. Reilly // Director Matteo Garrone // 125 minutes THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 41
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