Tale of Tales

Set in a world of castles and kingdoms, Tale of Tales weaves together three stories whose rulers are each consumed by a different obsession. The Queen of Longtrellis longs desperately for a child and will go to extreme lengths to have one. The King of Strongcliff becomes infatuated with a mysterious woman whose voice he hears, while the King of Highhills devotes himself to an unusual creature he keeps, at the cost of his relationship with his daughter. The film is a loose adaptation of seventeenth-century fairy tales by Giambattista Basile, staged against a Baroque backdrop and mixing fantasy with darker, grotesque elements.

Matteo Garrone directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Ugo Chiti and Massimo Gaudioso. It followed Gomorrah and Reality in his filmography and came before Dogman and Pinocchio. The cast includes Salma Hayek Pinault as the Queen of Longtrellis, Vincent Cassel as the King of Strongcliff, Toby Jones as the King of Highhills, and Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael and Bebe Cave. It was produced by Jeremy Thomas, Jean Labadie and Garrone, with a budget of 12 million USD.

The film was released in May 2015. Its worldwide box office of 6 million USD fell short of its production budget, suggesting limited theatrical reach. On IMDb it holds 6.4/10 from around 33,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.4/10 from roughly 1,756 votes. A critics' rating of 7.1/10 from 105 reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores.