Subversive, sexy, sumptuous and surprising, Matteo Garrone’s visually glorious, psychologically complex and fantastically carnivalesque Tale Of Tales is the perfect antidote to both desexualised traditional fairy-tales and their moralistic and feel-good modern interpretations. No, Tale Of Tales is for adults, adults who are ready to enter a world that thrives on sexuality, the grotesque, the beautiful and the bloody.
Influenced by the work of Giambattista Basile, the 17th century Neapolitan poet whose fables centred on cursed maidens, magical creatures and a constant abandoning of morals and decorum, Garrone’s film tells three tales that all revolve around the carnal and bestial.
Salma Hayek stars as a queen so desperate for a child that she devours the bloody beating heart of a sea monster as a cure to her fertility issues; French actor Vincent Cassel plays a sexually insatiable king who becomes obsessed by the seductive tones of an old witch; while dim-witted royal Toby Jones creates a test that involves the skin of a dog-sized flea and his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Nothing goes to plan.
Garrone’s film is an erotic nightmare: a sex and violence-fuelled fever-dream painted with the care of a Dutch master. Peter Suschitsky’s cinematography and Alessia Anfuso’s set-design create visuals of swoon-worthy splendour, filled with embodied metaphor and details that transform the gothic romance aesthetic into something unique and singular.
As baroque, burlesque and body-horror combine, Tale Of Tales is a unique and stunning beast – one you’ll want to devour with your hands until the blood of a sea monster’s heart is dripping from your mouth.
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Rating: 4/5