Cannes 2015: Tale Of Tales Review - An Eccentric Game Of Thrones
Reclaims the fairytale from Disney.
For the first thirty minutes or so of its runtime, Tale Of Tales is a film nigh on impossible to crack. What is this bizarre low-budget fantasy and what is it doing In Competition at Cannes?
Is it an eccentric take on Game Of Thrones, complete with a morbid disregard for its own characters? Is it a Guillermo del Toro aping yarn of weird happenings and gruesome practical creatures? Is it a reclaiming of Grimms Fairytales from the simplistic child joys of Disney? In that opening half hour, it comes across as all and none, a film of far-reaching, yet totally vague, aims.
And then Vincent Cassel turns to the camera after a particularly noteworthy point of ridiculousness and the whole thing becomes clear. The actor, here playing a King smitten by a smooth-singing but haggard maiden, is in on the joke, and has just realised its about time the audience were too.
So, with Cassel kindly filling us in on the tone of (this part) of the film, then what is Tale Of Tales?
A broad deconstruction of the three-act structure, the film tells three stories in three parts; a Queen fearful of her sons inexplicable doppelgänger following the spiritual cause of his birth; Cassels shallow king, who rejects his love once discovering her true appearance; a third royal family, whose patriarch becomes obsessed with an ever-growing flea. Each part of these three works as a standalone vignette as well as part of a traditional narrative, just as the three stories themselves eventually tie together, complete with a brief crossover prologue and epilogue.
The manner in which the film handles these different threads, told in a simple 1-2-3 structure, is commendable. Theres no fancy crosscutting between tales. In fact, the oft-used fade-to-black which signals the passage of time within individual stories and would have so easily been capable of signalling a changing yarn, is kept well away from the jumps; its all sudden cuts, with the shift in narrative focus given (at least initially) by the mis en scene.
Its here the balance of those original calling points becomes clear. The Grimm comparison above has the biggest bearing on the plot - everything from the fantastical medieval setting to the moral driven story tinged with a malicious streak screams Wilhelm and Jacob - but the Thrones and del Toro links are no less potent from a stylistic level. The films budget may limit the quality of some effects, but theres a visual shorthand here that punctuates the jumps and lends each tale a distinct flavour.
Also important in that regard are the actors. Salma Hayek (the envious Queen), Cassel and Toby Jones (the flea-obsessed King) all lend a suitable theatricality to the stories, a smart tonal move that lends a timeless sheen. A few lines are woodenly delivered, but that stems from the way theyre written, a likely intentional nod to the legacies the film is invoking.
All of that, then, comes together to make Tale Of Tales a subversive-yet-traditionalist fantasy, an ambitious film that makes the most of its vast, weird sandpit. It doesnt always hit its targets and at points can seem a bit aimless, but that doesnt stop it being a wholly creative treat.