The ingredients are three tales, an Italian director, Matteo Garrone, Salma Hayek, a bitter queen on a quest, and Vincent Cassel who plays a king. We are talking about David di Donatello awarded Tale of Tales that will be screened on Wednesday 1 June at Curzon Cinema in Mayfair.
The film is a screen adaption based on collections of tales by tales by Neapolitan courtier Giambattista Basile: Pentamerone or Lo cunto de li cunti (Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones), which contains the earliest versions of famous fables like Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.
The result is three folk tales inspired by a gothic imagination: La Cerva Fatata (The Enchanted Doe), La Pulce (The Flea), La Vecchia Scorticata (The Flayed Old Lady), that have been freely adapted with elements of other tales by Basile.
Garrone is best known for employing a naturalist style in films such as Gomorrah and Reality, but argued that all his previous films also have a fairy tale aspect to their narratives.
The fantasy horror film competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Tale of Tales is also a good showcase of Italian beauties. In fact, it was shot entirely on location in various parts of Italy, including among many others Naples (Royal Palace, Palace of Capodimonte and its gardens); Apulia’s Castel del Monte (the octagonal castle); Sicily’s Donnafugata Castle (gothic castle, stone labyrinth and gardens) and Gole dell’Alcantara in Alcantara; Abruzzo’s Castle of Roccascalegna; Tuscany’s Moorish castle of Sammezzano.
The UK premiere of the film will be followed by Q&A with director Matteo Garrone and actors Salma Hayek, Toby Jones and Shirley Henderson.
To book your tickets please visit this page.
