Undaunted Tales
Can eating a sea monster's heart help you get pregnant? How to sleep with Vincent Cassel when you're over 70? What happens if you get carried away by communicating with a friendly flea? The answers to these burning questions can be found in the fantasy film Matteo Garrone Scary Tales .The original English title of the film is Tale of tales , and this is no coincidence. The tape is based on the collection of folk legends of the same name, created in the 17th century by the Neapolitan Giambattista Basile. The brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen were inspired by bloody, absurd, dirty and at the same time incredibly catchy stories. Through these authors the stories collected by Basile have come down to us. True, they were thoroughly retouched, removing cruelty, sex, dirt and adding Christian morality. Garrone decided to return fairy tales to their glorious past with a decent film adaptation. Did it work? ..  " Scary Tales " is an atypical work for the director of "Gomorrah" and "Taxidermist". And although the picture did not receive an award at the last spring Cannes Film Festival , it was recognized as a national treasure of Italy. This is not surprising, because “ Fairy Tales ” are insanely beautiful: emerald green forests with lush flora and fauna; mountains, the height of which is breathtaking; the depths of the sea, where mysterious creatures live; castles that are inhabited by powerful kings and queens. Garrone used a minimum of computer graphics - magical landscapes and palaces were found in the vastness of his native Italy. The fabulous images that cascade down on the viewer are perfectly worked out. The uncouth ogre (Guillaume Delaunay) and the young princess Violetta (Bebe Cave), married to him against her will, pale-skinned twins (Christian and Jonah Lees), conceived by magic and able to breathe underwater, an old woman possessed desire to rejuvenate (Hayley Carmichael) ... Acting, costumes and make-up are excellent.  From the collection Basile , the director chose three fairy tales, the events of which unfold simultaneously in neighboring kingdoms.The Ruler of the Valley of the Mists (Salma Hayek) dreams of a child, so her husband (John S. Reilly) sets out to hunt for the heart of the sea monster. The voluptuous king of Lonely Cliff ( Vincent Cassel ) is fascinated by a stranger with a beautiful voice, but does not know that she has a stunning secret. Well, the lord of the Wild Mountains (Toby Jones) is so concerned with raising a gigantic flea that sometimes he forgets about the existence of his own daughter Violetta . Kings and queens are blatantly selfish and don't care about other people's feelings and pain. If any of them are punished for their sins, then it happens absolutely by accident. The main idea of the film-fairy tale "Cinderella", released in the same year by Kenneth Brana, fits into the phrase"Become strong and kind, then everything will be fine". The painting Garrone tells us:“Strength, power and wealth, of course, rule the world, but the world itself is absurd and ridiculous. A lot of things in it are solved by blind chance ”.  It is foolish to argue about which point of view is more correct. The " Scary Tales " problem is not cynical or lacking in morality, but it definitely exists. Otherwise, why does the refined Disney movie “ Cinderella ” evoke more empathy for her characters than atmospheric cinema based on archetypal plots, which, in theory, should reveal themselves to the viewer? The fact is that Matteo Garrone tried to combine the incompatible. On the one hand, he wanted to show the medieval cruelty characteristic of the era of Basile . On the other hand, the director decided to save the viewer from unpleasant details, hiding especially nasty moments. Death looks like an aesthetic dream, cruelty is served in small portions, sex and violence mostly remain behind the scenes.  Of course, it is the director's right to do so. And not every viewer wants to watch the intercourse between the king and the old woman or the scene of the rape of a huge young girl. But it is the absence of these eerie details that separates the film from folk legends. Life in Naples in the 17th century was fundamentally different from what we are used to. Basile fairy tales reflected her harsh realities, complementing them with magic and humor. However, Garrone was afraid or for some reason did not want to show the archetypal stories in their true form, and they lost their essence. Nevertheless, the tape is worth seeing in cinemas. Even a few days after watching, you will still be captivated by the beauty that has spilled on you from the screen. For her sake, you can endure the absurd and practically not evoking an emotional response plot " Scary Tales ", which, alas, are not capable of scaring anyone. The Topic of Article: Undaunted Tales. |
