Tale of Tales is a beautiful triptych of stories set in a rich medieval fantasy world. First is the story of the Queen of Longtrellis (Salma Hayek). She is despondent because she is unable to have a child and the King (John C. Reilly) can do nothing to lift her spirits. One night, a stranger appears with a dark remedy; if they cut out the heart of a sea monster and have it prepared by a lone virgin for the Queen to eat, she will become instantly pregnant. In her desperation for a child the Queen orders it at once and at great cost. While the spell is successful, it comes with side effects and most unexpected consequences.
The second tale occurs in a neighboring kingdom where the King (Toby Jones) idly watches his daughter’s recital. During the performance a small flea lands on his hand. The king becomes quite obsessed with it, making it a pet and feeding it till it grows to the size of a dog. When it dies the king has it skinned and offers the princesses hand in marriage to the man who can guess the origin of the leather. This plan backfires when the origin is solved by a giant, menacing ogre and the King is obliged to honor the deal.
Finally, in a third kingdom, the King (Vincent Cassel) is sleeping with his many beautiful subjects. One day, he hears the most miraculous singing and spots what he believes to be a young maiden out the window. He attempts to woo her; unaware that she is not a young maiden at all, but Dora, one of two elderly sisters who live as shut-ins. Dora finally succumbs to the King’s efforts to bed her, using trickery by way of demanding total darkness. This deception fails and sets off a chance encounter with a witch that transforms Dora into a beautiful young woman.
Tale of Tales is an extraordinarily beautiful and lush production. Every single shot is a work of art, astoundingly ornate castles, realistic creatures, and costuming worthy of the highest praise. The two hour plus runtime of the film just blows by while you’re lost in this cacophony of images. Perfectly paired with the visual is the kind of adult fairy-tales as inspired by the works of Giambattista Basile. Much like the original Grimm’s tales, this film does not shy aware from the gore, the gruesome, and the bizarre. The film is rated ‘R’ but frankly the kids should be okay to watch it anyway, just watch it with them and maybe cover their eyes if you’re offended by breasts or murder or whatever. The stories are distinct but all take place within a common group of people, giving Tale a truly epic proportion.
It is lucky that the movie is so excellent because the disc is pretty bare bones otherwise. There is no director’s commentary or interviews. All that is included on the disc besides the film is a making of featurette, theatrical trailer, and some TV spots.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.