Tale of Tales (2015)

Horror, Fantasy, Romance

Director: Matteo Garrone
Writers: Giambattista Basile, Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Chiti, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso
Starring: Vincent Cassel, John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek, Toby Jones

"A feast for the imagination"

Loosely based on a 17th-Century Italian fairy tale collection, Tale of Tales is not your regular Hollywood fairy tale movie. It blends the real, the surreal and the philosophical, in a series of stories that tell about a queen who is willing to do everything it takes to have a child, a king who has a flea for a pet and gives his daughter in marriage to an ogre, or two elderly sisters who turn to magic to seduce their lustful king.

With director Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah) at the helm, top-notch acting from its ensemble cast that includes Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones, an impressive lush cinematography, and some pretty shocking turns, Il racconto dei racconti is one of the most faithful and creatively rendered fairy tale adaptations, bizarrely satisfying and totally worth a patient, focused viewing, especially for fans of non-Hollywood cinema.

Plot summary from IMDb: The film serves as Garrone's English-language debut and will interweave three separate story strands bookended by brief bits in which Italians Alba Rohrwacher and Massimo Ceccherini will play a street circus family. In one tale Salma Hayek will play a jealous queen who forfeits her husband's life. In another, Vincent Cassel plays a king whose passion is stoked by two mysterious sisters.

Awards: 3 wins & 8 nominations.
Runtime: 125 min
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