TALE OF TALES
Italy, 2016, 133 minutes, Colour.
Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, John C.Reiley, Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael, Bebe Cave, Stacey Martin, Christian Lees, Jonah Lees.
Directed by Matteo Garrone.
Tale of Tables is rather exotic filmmaking, all the more surprising because it comes from Matteo Got on a who made such an impact with his Mafia drama, Gomorrah, and followed it up with the effective small film, Reality.
The tales are from a 17th century Italian writer, Giambattista Basile. Audiences will be reminded of Pasolini’s trilogy, especially the Decameron, Boccaccio’s stories, many and interwoven.
Here there are three principal stories, each concerning a King. Interestingly, the film has been made in English with an international cast, Italians in supporting roles.
John C. Reilley portrays a King whose wife, Salma Hayek, wants a child. A seer appears offering a solution but indicating that there has to be a balance in the world and that a new life means a death. The king has to fight a sea beast, take its heart, give it to a virgin to cook and for the Queen to eat the heart – and she instantly becomes pregnant, as does the virgin. But the king dies in the attempt.
Vincent Cassel also appears as a lascivious King and Toby Jones is a King playful with his young daughter.
The film then moves on 16 years, the Queen happy with her adolescent son, albino, but very unhappy with his friendship with the son of the virgin, also albino, the two young men played by the twins Christian and Jonah Lees. The story shows the possessiveness of the Queen, the seer coming again, the Prince running away to search for the son of the virgin.
Vincent Cassel’s king is still lascivious, charmed by a voice, assuming the voice comes from a beautiful young woman but actually comes from an old crone who lives with her sister, decides to deceive the king, sleep with him – but he discovers the truth and commands her to be thrown out of the castle window – she survives. She is transformed into her younger self and marries the king.
The third king listens to his daughter’s song but is more interested in a flea which he catches, helps grow, with it becoming monstrous and then dying. His daughter wants to leave the palace, to marry, the king decides to hold a competition where suitors will guess the origin of the hide on display – with the big and threatening giant getting the correct answer and taking away the Princess.
Perhaps for an Italian audience, the film will be entertaining and interesting, but it is probably not to the taste of many audiences worldwide.
1. Exotic Italian storytelling? The origin of the stories in the 17th century? The touches of Boccaccio? Film tradition, the touches of Pasolini?
2. The colour photography and style, costumes and decor, realistic and stylised? The countryside, the castles, the hovels, the streets? The interiors, palaces, homes? The musical score?
3. The intertwining of stories? The interlinking?
4. The story of the queen wanting to have a child? The circus performance and buffoonery, the king amused, the Queen not amused, the joke about pregnancy, her leaving the circus, the apology of the King?
5. The tall seer? Appearance, clothes, interpretation of the future, the command to the Queen, to kill the sea beast, to take its heart, boil it, the role of the virgin, eat the heart, instant pregnancy? The balance of the universe, a birth and death? The King, donning the underwater gear, the underwater photography, his fighting the monster, killing it, his own injuries? His death? The pomp of the funeral after the birth of the child? Cutting out the heart, the virgin chosen to cook it, her own pregnancy, the Queen eating the heart, her pregnancy, the birth of the child? Her happiness? The funeral?
6. The story of the lascivious King, in the coach, his women, the procession?
7. The third story, the king, in the coach, playing with his daughter?
8. 16 years later: the Queen, the possessiveness with her son, the virgin’s son, looking alike, the twins playing the boys, the Queen forbidding their playing together, the sequence of her being lost in the maze and their getting over the wall, the Queen demanding an apology from her son? Overhearing him talk about the other boy deceiving the Queen about identity? Their plans, becoming king, taking it in turns, the whims? The virgin’s son running away, the grief of the Prince, his going in pursuit? The Queen searching? The second visit of the seer? Balance and loss? Underground, the abattoir atmosphere? The virgin’s son, being well received, a future? His injury, the Prince rescuing him? The future for the Prince?
9. The story of the lascivious King, the two old crones, his hearing the voice, his assumption about beauty, courting, knocking at the door, the reaction of the two old women, one flattered, the other anxious? The plan, offering the finger? The pursuit by the King, the sisters and their plan, the breasts, deceiving the King, going to the palace, the king discovering the truth, having the old woman thrown out the window, the cloth stranded in the tree, the old crone, reviving the old woman and her becoming young and beautiful? Married to the king? Her sister in attendance?
10. The King with his daughter, her growing up, composing the song for her father, his preoccupation with the flea, keeping it, in his room, attending it, it growing to monstrous proportions? Illness, the doctor, the death of the flea? Daughter wanting to leave the palace? Wanting to marry? Her father promising to choose a husband? The hide of the flea, the various suitors, their failing the guess as to what the animal was with the hide? The giant man, the correct guess, taking the Princess, in the cave, her unhappiness, escape? The return to rule the country?
11. The background, the circus performers, people in the street, the atmosphere of the kingdom?
12. The final credits and the vast tapestry with all the characters?
