International Trailer for "Tale Of Tales" Released (Embedded video NSFW)

It's here, it's beautiful, it's NOT for kids (but hopefully you knew that already). Expect both lush, gorgeous scenes and also a good serving of gruesome - still beautifully shot but it's intended to remind you we are dealing with fairly primal fears and desires as well. There's dirt, blood, sex, beauty, beasts and the fantastic all rolled together. Even with all this, it's still clear this is a fairy tale - or a small collection of them put together. It's just for adults.

News you may have seen the last week is that the film is an initial selection for the Cannes festival competition this year too. And I tracked down the Italian poster (as you can see at the top of the post). I don't know what I was expecting but this is wonderfully intriguing and I can see how it reflects the film - and the source - already.

This reminds me of an Annie Leibovitz shoot from a few years ago, but I think she was referencing classic paintings herself so it's not too surprising

International distribution is apparently still under negotiation so no word yet on when it will be seen outside Italy but it will be.

Here's a summary for "Il racconto dei racconti - Tale of Tales":

Inspired and loosely based on Giambattista Basile’s Pentamerone, a 17th-century fairytale collection compiled by the Italian poet, Tale of Tales tells the stories of king and queens, princes and princesses, woods and castles, ogres and fantastic beasts, dragons, witches, elderly laundresses and circus performers. 

The cast features Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael, Bebe Cave, Stacy Martin, Christian Lees and Jonah Lees, Guillaume Delaunay, Alba Rohrwacher, Massimo Ceccherini and John C. Reilly.

The trailer is mostly without dialogue and instead has a lovely soundtrack but the visuals are mildly not safe for work (and definitely not for kids) - please consider yourself cautioned:

(In case you're wondering, the lovely music is Fauré Pavane - Op 50.)

And now we wait and see what the reaction is. Outside the US, people seem excited and thrilled but then they're probably more familiar with Giambattista Basile's Il Pentamerone and know what sort of range of themes to expect, especially in combination with Matteo Garrone's directing sensibilities.

To me this is reminiscent of Pan's Labyrinth in some ways but also completely different. What do you think?