On Wednesday, students in Carolina Ciampaglia’s Italian Cinema class watched a film by Matteo Garrone called Tale of Tales, which narrated a series of stories that were originally written by poet Giambattista Basile. The stories- The Enchanted Doe, The Flea, and the Flayed Old Lady were in fact created before those of the Grimm Brothers, and thus even more disturbing. The fairytales, unlike the typical happy-ending cartoons, were more serious and grotesque, focusing on things that actually happened instead of what should have happened. The grotesqueness of the movie, however, was neither overwhelming nor overdone, highlighting the notion of the harsh realities of life instead of the idealized notion of the human existence, such as in the case of the King and his daughter, where the daughter was given to a suitor regardless of her obvious distaste for him. Yet although the film had its unexpected startling moments, it functioned beautifully as an artistic work, both visually and conceptually.
After the film was finished, students were given the opportunity to speak to Garrone himself, asking him about his practice as a director and the concept behind the film. Garrone revealed that he was formerly a painter, thereby explaining the emphasis on the contrast and color scheme in the film. Yet his transition from a painter to a director was not an easy one, especially because he worked as an individual when he was a painter, and then transitioned to working with hundreds of people for the film, including celebrities such as Salma Hayek.
In the end, when asked about what he was aiming for with the film, Garrone simply stated that he did what he loves- telling a story that he wants to share with the world.
