Starring: Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson and Hayley Carmichael

Director:
Matteo Garrone

Genre:
Fantasy / Romance / Drama

Screenplay: 
Edoardo Albinati

Once upon a time there was a 16th century Italian novelist called Giambattista Basile who was renowned for writing strange fairy tales with a touch of the perverse and gore.

These stories were not too dissimilar to the two German brothers Grimm who carried on the tradition a century later.

Italian director Matteo Garrone (who came to fame with the Crime drama TV series Gomorrah) has taken three of Basile’s tales and intertwined them into a story of three Kingdoms with Edoardo Albinati drafted in to put the folk-stories on the screen.

The tales have all the right ingredients, with huge fairy tale castles, Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses but don’t expect a cutesy ‘Tangled’, ‘Frozen’ or ‘Cinderella’ in Disney style.

The first tale features the ever youthful looking Salma Hayek as the Queen of Longtrellis, who longs for an heir but is unable to give birth. A strange monk offers her a spell but to make it work her husband (John C. Reilly, Boogie Nights and Wreck-it Ralph) must kill a sea demon and rip out its heart and serve it to his Queen.

Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch (sorry!) and somebody has to pay the consequences.

While this is going on, another King (Toby Jones) who rules the Highhills becomes distracted by a flea while he was supposed to be enjoying a musical recital by his only daughter, Princess Violet (Bebe Cave). The King becomes obsessed with the creature and keeps it as a pet in his chamber and feeds it raw meat. Naturally the flea grows much bigger and becomes the subject of a quest to find a suitor for his daughter.

But being an alternative fairy tale this does not go well and this section involving an Ogre is certainly the most violent of the three tales.

The last tale involves Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) as a young King with a huge libido who rules the Strongcliff Kingdom. On one of his walks through the town he comes across two sisters (Hayley Carmichael and Shirley Henderson) who have locked themselves away in their little house.

The King wants what he can’t have and tries to woo the pair who trick him into believing that one of them is extremely beautiful. Once again this does not turn out well.

There is something that reminded me of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, particularly in its style and structure. With a little bit of Terry Gillingham thrown in for good measure.

It’s not a mainstream movie by any means but it is what I would call a curiosity. Strange, odd and interesting. Certainly worth a viewing with a bottle of wine.

On DVD and Blu ray from August 10

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