2015 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 2: Lots to Munch on in “Tale of Tales”

Marking another strong year for Italian cinema vying for the Palme d’Or, Matteo Garrone is the first out of the gates for the green, white, and red with his eighth feature film. Making his, no less, third straight trip in the Main Comp, there are lofty expectations for Tale of Tales, this is of course due to his back to back “silver” 2nd place wins, landing the Grand Prix for Gomarrah in 2008, and Reality in 2012. In the context of this year’s Cannes, this is one among several auteur-driven (Yorgos Lanthimos, Joachim Trier, Michel Franco) Main Comp films to have made the leap to English language film territory and was a top seeded contender for Palme.

Starring Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones, Tale of Tales found both friends and foes among our panel with an average of 2.9. As indicted prior to Cannes with its heavily appetizing trailer, this works with lush, eat your heart out visuals but is being mentioned by several as an unbalanced fairy tale triptych with our Blake Williams perhaps describing it best: “Tale of Tales is out and out ridiculous. And for most of the time, it gets by on the sheer amusement involved in waiting to see what sort of crazy development will pop up next. Entertainment value, it does not lack.”

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