#Pentameron

[maimoncat]

Another old sketch for #orctober

Back then I wanted to draw the ogre from the first story of Basile‘s “Tale of Tales” in this pose: “… where, at the entrance of a pumice cave, sitting on the root of a poplar tree, he found an ogre, and goodness gracious. Was he ugly! His head was larger than an Indian gourd, his forehead full of bumps, his eyebrows united, his eyes crooked, his nose flat, with nostrils like a forge, his mouth like an oven, from which protruded two tusks like unto a boar's ; a hairy breast had he, and arms like reels ; and bandy-legged was he, and flat-footed like a goose; briefly he was an hideous monster, frightful to behold, who would have made a Roland smile, and would have frightened a Scannarebecco ;” -Giambattista Basile, “The Tale of Tales”, translation based on that of sir Richard Francis Burton

Allora volevo provare a disegnare in questa posizione con la descrizione dell‘orco nella prima fiaba de “Lo cunto de li cunti” di Basile:

“Colà, sulla radice di un pioppo, presso una grotta lavorata di pietra pomice, era seduto un orco: o mamma mia, quanto era brutto! Era nano e sconcio di corpo, aveva il capo più grosso d’una zucca d’india, la fronte bernoccoluta, le soprac- ciglia congiunte, gli occhi stravolti, il naso schiacciato, con due narici che parevano due chiaviche maestre; una bocca quanto un palmento, dalla quale uscivano due zanne che gli giungevano ai malleoli; il petto peloso, le braccia di aspo, le gambe piegate a vòlta, e i piedi larghi di papera. Insomma, pareva un diavolo, un parasacco, un brutto pezzente e una mal’ombra spiccicata, che avrebbe sbigottito un Orlando, atterrito uno Scannarebecco, e fatto cadere in deliquio il più abile schermitore.”             -Giambattista Basile, “Il Pentamerone ossia La Fiaba delle Fiabe”, traduzione di Benedetto Croce

Damals wollte ich versuchen, den Wilden Mann aus Basiles „Märchen der Märchen“ in dieser Position zu zeichnen: „Hier sah er auf dem Stumpf einer Pappel neben einer Grotte aus Bimsstein einen wilden Mann sitzen. O steh mir bei, wie häßlich sah der aus! Er war ein ganz kleiner Knirps und nicht größer als ein Zwerg; er hatte aber einen Kopf, dicker als ein indischer Kürbis, eine blättrige Stirn, die Augenbrauen zusammengewachsen, verdrehte Augen, eine platte Nase mit zwei Nasenlöchern, die zwei Kloaken schienen, einen Mund so groß wie eine Kelter, aus welchem zwei Hauer hervorragten, die ihm bis an die Fußspitzen gingen, eine zottige Brust, Arme wie eine Garnwinde, Beine wie eine Bogenwölbung und Füße so flach wie die einer Gans; mit einem Wort, er schien ein Popanz, ein Teufel, ein häßliches Fratzengesicht und ein wahres Schreckgespenst, das selbst einen Roland hätte in Angst setzen, einem Achilles den Mut rauben und einen Bettelbruder abschrecken können.„ - Giambattista Basile, „Das Pentameron”, übersetzt von Felix Liebrecht

[maimoncat]

I was watching Roberto de Simone's musical from 1976 with my mum, which adapts Basile's La gatta Cenerentola (the cinderella cat), from the Pentameron; and we came to the song of the six sisters, so I tried to see the meaning of their names, since the play kept them mostly the same as the tale:

Patrizia: "noble". Her name was changed from Colommina, a neapolitan form of Colombina, meaning "little dove". De Simone likely changed it due to Colombina being the mask of the witty servant girl in the Commedia dell'arte.

'Mperia: a dialectal form of Imperia, meaning "empire"

Calamita: "magnet"

Diamante: "diamond"

Sciurella (Shiorella in the Pentameron): a dialectal form of Fiorella, meaning "little flower"

Pascarella: a dialectal form of Pasqualina, meaning "of Easter", often used for girls born on Easter.

(I wrote them down here in the order that the stepmother calls them in the play. In Basile's fairy tale the order is ’Mperia Calamita Shiorella Diamante Colommina Pascarella)

This… out of curiosity

Do you know the different meanings of the name of Cinderella's Stepsisters?

Charles Perrault's Cendrillon

Javotte: A nickname for Geneviève, which means "of the race of woman," "woman of the family," or "white wave."

(Perrault only reveals the older stepsister's name in one scene, not the younger one's.)

Rossini's opera La Cenerentola

Clorinda: “Youthful” or “greenery.”

Tisbe: Unknown; it’s a name from Greek mythology.

Massenet's opera Cendrillon

Noémie: “Pleasantness.”

Dorothée: “Gift from God.”

The 1947 Russian film

Anna: “Grace” or “favor.”

Marianna: A cross between Mary, meaning “bitter,” “drop of the sea,” or “beloved,” and Anna (see above).

The Let's Pretend radio adaptation

Flora: “Flower.”

Isabella: A form of Elizabeth, meaning “My God is an oath.”

The Disney version, animated and live action

Anastasia: “Resurrection.”

Drizella: Probably a variant of Drusilla, meaning “little strong one.”

The 1955 film The Glass Slipper

Birdena: “Little bird.”

Serafina: “Fiery one.”

The 1957 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical

Portia: “Pig.”

Joy: Self-evident.

The 1965 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical

Prunella: “Little plum.”

Esmeralda: “Emerald.”

The Muppets' Hey, Cinderella!

Mona: “My lady.”

Lisa: Derived from Elizabeth, meaning “my God is an oath.”

Rankin/Bass's Festival of Family Classics

Fatima: “To abstain” (though it serves as a play on “fat,” because she is fat)

Leania: Probably derived from Helen, meaning “light” (though it serves as a play on “lean” because she’s scrawny)

The 1969 Czech film

Katerina: “Far off” or “pure.”

Dorota: "Gift from God."

The 1973 Czech film Three Wishes for Cinderella

Dora: “Gift.”

The 1976 film The Slipper and the Rose

Isobella: “My God is an oath” (see above).

Palatine: “Of the palace.”

The 1978 African-American adaptation Cindy

Olive: "Olive," of course.

Venus: "Love."

The Faerie Tale Theatre adaptation

Arlene: “Honor” or “eagle.”

Bertha: “Bright.”

The Grimm's Faerie Tale Classics adaptation (English dub)

Phoebe: “Bright.”

Griselda: “Gray battle.”

Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods

Florinda: "Flower."

Lucinda: "Light."

The Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child adaptation

Margarita: “Pearl” or “daisy flower.”

Esmeralda: “Emerald” (see above).

The musical A Tale of Cinderella

Moltovoce: “Much voice.”

Seppia: “Squid.”

The 1996 Burbank Animation version

Nellie: A nickname for Ellen or Helen, meaning “torch” or “light.”

Melba: Derived from Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne means “mill stream.”

(Their names are inspired by the famous Australian opera singer Nellie Melba, whose birth name was Helen Mitchell and who took her stage name from her home city of Melbourne.)

The anime series Cinderella Monogatari

Catherine: “Far off” or “pure.”

Jeanne: “God is gracious.”

The 1997 version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical

Minerva: “Intellect.”

Calliope: “Beautiful voice.”

The 1998 film Ever After: A Cinderella Story

Marguerite: “Pearl” or “daisy flower.”

Jacqueline: “Heel-grabber” or “supplanter."

Gregory Maguire's novel Confession of an Ugly Stepsister

Iris: "Rainbow" or "iris flower."

Ruth: "Friend."

Margaret Peterson Haddix's novel Just Ella

Griselda: "Gray battle" (see above).

Corimunde: Possibly a variant of "Clarimond," meaning "shining defender."

The Shrek franchise

Doris: "Dorian woman."

Mabel: "Lovable."

The 2000 stage version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical

Grace: Self-evident.

Joy: Self-evident (see above).

The 2000 British TV film

Goneril: Unknown meaning.

Regan: "Little ruler" or "king's child."

(In case anyone didn't know it, their names are taken from the evil sisters in Shakespeare's King Lear.)

The Simsala Grimm adaptation

Agatha: “Good.”

Beatrice: "One who blesses.”

The novel and film Ella Enchanted

Hattie: A nickname for Harriet, meaning “home ruler.”

Olive: Self-evident (see above).

The 2004 film A Cinderella Story

Brianna: "High" or "noble."

Gabriella: "God is my strength."

Malinda Lo's novel Ash

Ana: "Grace" or "favor" (see above).

Clara: "Clear" or "bright.

The 2010 Märchenperlen adaptation

Clothilde: “Glorious battle.”

The 2011 Sechs auf einen Streich adaptation

Annabella: "Grace and beauty."

The 2013 stage version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical

Gabrielle: “God is my strength” (see above).

Charlotte: “Free woman.”

Alma Deutscher's opera

Griselda: “Gray battle” (see above).

Zibaldona: Possibly derived from Zebada, which is derived from Zebadiah, meaning “God has bestowed.”

Betsy Cornwell's novel Mechanica

Piety: Self-evident.

Chastity: Self-evident.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Bad Cinderella

Adéle: “Noble.”

Marie: “Bitter,” “drop of the sea,” or “beloved.”

The 2021 Sony/Amazon film

Narissa: “Sea nymph.”

Malvolia: “Ill will.”

[laurasimonsdaughter]

What are your thoughts on "The Young Slave" from The Pentamerone?

Ah, the same way I feel about most stories from the Pentamerone: very grateful that we still have it, as a part of fairy tale history, without exactly liking it.

The Pentamerone (by Giambattista Basile, published posthumously in 1634/1636) is an incredibly important collection, but the tales are rather brutal. "The Young Slave" is no different. Basile's collection of Neapolitan fairy tales contains the oldest known literary version of many very well-known fairy tales. In the case of "The Young Slave" the story of Snow White. While it also contains elements that are more well-known for showing up in different fairy tales. For example:

• The beautiful protagonist, Lisa, was born because her mother swallowed a rose petal. This motif shows up in various Spanish, Portugese and Scandinavian folktales.

• Lisa is blessed by two fairies and cursed by a third to die prematurely, similar to Sleeping Beauty. (Though the fairy is not an unwanted guest, or inherently evil, she speaks in anger because she twists her ankle.)

• Because of the curse Lisa gets a comb stuck in her hair, which poisons her, and is put in seven crystal coffins and hidden away. While there is no evil queen, this does have similarities with Snow White.

• Lisa's mother firbids her brother, the baron, to open the room with the coffin and dies. Years later his wife discovers the coffin, however, and Lisa has by then aged into a beautiful young woman. The jealous woman drags her out by her hair, knocking the comb loose and waking her up. This reminds me more of Gold Tree and Silver Tree which is itself often named as a Snow White variant.

• Lisa's jealous aunt now takes the role of evil stepmother, dresses and treats her as a slave and abuses her. Much like various versions of Snow White.

• One day the baron goes to a country fair and asks everyone his household what thing they would like him to bring for them, even the slave girl, despite his wife's anger. Lisa asks for a doll, a knife, and some pumice-stone, and adds that if he forgets to bring them, he will not be able to cross the river. This reminds me of some versions of Beauty and the Beast and Russian tales like Finist the Falcon, where a merchant father brings the youngest daughter an inexpensive but very significant gift.

• Lisa can make the doll talk to her by threatening self harm and tells it her sad life story. (I mostly know magical dolls from Slavic and Chinese fairy tales, but that might be lack of further reading on my part). The baron overhears her talking and realises what his wife has done. The motif of telling your misfortune to an object and being overheard shows up in tales like the Goose Girl, The Ghoulish Schoolmaster and the Stone of Pity, and more notably The Maiden with the Rose on her Forehead (which is likely a more direct descendant of The Young Slave than Snow White is.)

• The baron sends Lisa to relatives to recover and then invites her back home for a splendid banquet, where she tells everyone how she was treated by the baroness. The baron banishes his wife (which is surprisingly merciful) and finds a worthy husband for Lisa whom she loves. This big reveal at a banquet shows up in various stories, like true bride/forsaken fiancée stories, or variations on The Cruel Sister.

To me the most interesting element of this story, apart from it's very different beginning, is that Lisa's uncle is so instrumental, while her future husband is only mentioned in the very last line. In most folktales with an abusive wife, the husband is notably bad at doing anyting about her cruelty. So this makes a nice change!

[wiggybe]

A birthday gift I did for @ilpentamerone of a couple of some very in-love OC's together. I'm really pleased how this turned out, particularly the shading/colours.

(I take OC commissions, hmu if you're interested.)

[delightful-mirth]

༻✦༺ Petrosinello ༻✦༺

A gay reimagining of "Petrosinella" (a Rapunzel's variant) featuring Emanuele Mariotti as Petrosinello (Rapunzel's counterpart), Alberto Malanchino as the Prince and Pierfrancesco Favino as the Ogre (Mother Gothel, basically).

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧ :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ

"Petrosinella" (Little Parsley) was written in Neapolitan by Giambattista Basile and he included it in his 1634 collection of fairy tales "The Tale of Tales." It is an Aarne–Thompson type 310 "the Maiden in the Tower" tale, as well as the earliest recorded variant of "Rapunzel." The Brothers Grimm's more famous version was published almost two centuries later, in 1812.

You can read an English translation of "Petrosinella" here.

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧ :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ

Here you can find the whole list of my Gay Tales!

[maimoncat]

I really liked this series of reviews, so I wanted to add something: there is actually an earlier attempt of adapting the Pentameron into film. It's the 1967 movie "C'era una volta" by director Francesco Rosi. This one's important to me, since it was one of my first encounters with Basile's work.

It was released in France as "la belle et le cavalier", in Germany as "Schöne Isabella" and in english speaking countries as "More than a miracle", "Cinderella italian style" and "Happily ever after", and starred Omar Sharif as Prince Rodrigo and Sophia Loren as isabella da Candeloro. The movie did not get that much success, partly also because italian cinema was very adverse to the fantastical. Producer Carlo Ponti's modifications to what Rosi and the writers had in mind have also been accused of damaging the final product.

Rather than trying to adapt one or more tales from the Pentameron, Rosi tried to invoke this book's style of humour (though it has less enjoyment of the grotesque), while writing it's own, (somewhat) original story. The plot follows the two leads meeting per chance, bickering their way into falling in love and face hardships in trying to get together. It features elements from various tales of the Cunto de li Cunti, like the gold-shitting donkey from "the Ogre", the punishment of the barrel from "the three cedars" and the wine fountain, as a twist on the introductory tale, but it adds pieces from other south-italian folk tales and legends, like the witches' sabbath under the Nuttree of Benevento and the life of st. Joseph of Copertina.

Beside the general style, "More than a Miracle" differentiates itself from "Tale of tales" with its local nature. I already mentioned how it fishes from south italian folk lore for plot points, but the story really is set in that region. The spanish rule over the South is brought up again and again: the heir to the Kingdom of Naples is pressured into marrying a spanish princess and Isabella has to hide him when he gets lost in the countryside, since her fellow villagers would want to take him out [EDIT: I misremembered that scene. She hides him because she thinks he stole the prince's horse ("so you really are a thief, just like all you spaniards!") and fears the retaliation of the spanish guards]; Most characters speak with thick neapolitan accents; the giant omelette for the feast is based on a real event that happened in 1535 in one of the castles used to shoot the film. Garrone's movie is very international, the settings are Basile's imaginary kingdoms, the characters speak italian correctly (in the italian dub) and Violet listens to the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, which is and arthurian plot point enjoyed throughout most of Europe. The south-italian locations don't have the same involvement as in "More than a miracle". Rosi's wanted to even cast the iconic italian comedian Totò as Joseph of Copertina, but Carlo Ponti refused because he wasn't famous enough abroad.

There is so much to be said about thus film, and it is one of my favourites, but it is better if I stop here.

Good night!

The Tale of Tale movie analysis (1)

It has been a long time since I did a fairytale movie analysis, and for this month I want to take a look at a movie that has been asked of me before, a long time ago: "Tale of Tales".

For those of you who do not know about this movie, "Tale of Tales" is a 2015 movie, a "European production" (it is an Italian movie, but it received help and collaboration from France and England, hence the "European" etiquette) that is to this day (and to my knowledge) the only movie that adapts Basile's Pentamerone, the titular "Tale of Tales".

The Pentamerone being one of the two foundational works when it comes to literary fairytales, and one of the two great books of classical Italian literary fairytales alongside Straparole's Facetious Nights. Basile's book is very famous for containing some of the earlier literary records of fairytale types such as Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, The Girl Without Hands, and more.

The book contains a total of fifty stories, and of course the movie couldn't adapt them all, so it was decided to only adapt three in total. The three chosen are usually considered emblematic stories of the Pentamerone - but they were also selected because they do not echo the more well known Grimm stories. The three selected were, The Flea, The Enchanted Doe, and The Flayed Old Lady - all taken from the first part of the book.

Note that this movie was greatly acclaimed for its extensive use of practical special effects - and there is one thing you cannot deny this movie, it looks absolutely incredible. There is a great effort on the visuals ranging from selected architecture and landscape to careful costume crafting and delightful monsters on screen.

Before going into the analysis of each of the fairytales of the movie, I wanted to point out a few things covering the entirety of the movie. Three details to be exact.

Matteo Garrone, when doing this movie, didn't just randomly selected three stories that were to his fancy. He chose three specific stories that he then tied together with cohesive themes and motifs. The first of which, the most prominent, being "obsession". Each segment is about presenting the obsessions of specific characters, and the bad outcomes of it.

The other shared motif between the three fairytales is "the ages of a woman". Despite the movie having as much male as female characters, Garrone explained very clearly that this movie was about the women, not the men, and that each fairytale represented one of the traditional three "ages of woman". "The Flea" becomes the Maiden story, focusing on the young princess ; "The Enchanted Doe" becomes the Mother story, with an exploration of the character of the queen, while "The Flayed Old Lady" is of course the Crone tale.

But much more importantly for us to understand this movie: Matteo Garrone did one very heavy and important change compared to the original material. The tone. The tone is radically different. Basile's original book, just like Straparole's fairytales, worked by the specific nature of these Italian literary fairytales of the time: they were grotesque farces, and vulgar jokes. In my last post about the Pentamerone I compared these stories to a Brandon Rogers video, because Basile's stories, despite being the ancestors of the Grimm or Perrault fairytales, are nothing like the modern fairytales we are today. They are sex stories filled with caricatures, they are gruesome, gory stories filled with morally-gray characters, they are one huge dark joke filled with poop and farts and vulgar allusions. They are much closer to medieval tales and to the tone of a Reynard the Fox story or some Rabelais books than any other fairytales we know today. But Garrone decided to apply a principle that you can see explored in series such as "Horace and Pete" or "Kevin can fuck himself". Take a sitcom, remove the laugh-track, you have a tragedy. Garrone's movie is still as grotesque as the original stories - but now the jokes are put aside, the most vulgar parts removed, the sex and the gore examined for what it is under a realistic eye. This "realistic", and "non-comical" treatment of the stories make this world of grotesque caricatures and senseless violence and depraved debauchery one not of marvels and fairies, but one of tragedies, of abuse, of horror. But, tragedies with magic, abuse with beauty, horror with happy and hopeful endings - because they stay fairytales after all, no matter how dark they are. Mean, cruel, sad fairytales, but fairytales nonetheless.

[Trivia: The fact that Basile's work was a very rude, crude and vulgar piece of sex-and-violence that can only be compared to Rabelais meeting Punch & Judy, is something many people in the English-speaking world completely missed because the first real popular and widespread translations of the text in English, in the... I think it was the 19th century or maybe a bit earlier ; but these versions were heavily censored. Trying to make the story more like a Perrault or d'Aulnoy tale, they removed many sex references, remove all the poop jokes, and even cut off some stories deemed too vulgar ot gruesome, so that for a very long time people thought they were supposed to be... regular fairytales. This is especially relevant with "Thalia, the Sun and the Moon", Basile's "Sleeping Beauty" variant. Many people point out that the girl in this story gets raped by the prince and that this shows how the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty was built on a glorification of rape, because it is treated as ormal or as some romance. But... no. This rape is treated as a rape and the prince is very clearly a lustful asshole who is taking advantage of the girl - because it is a dark sex-tale. Princes in the Pentamerone are almost all lustful rapists, violent murderers or complete helpless idiots, because the Pentamerone does not work on a "prince charming" logic. Take "The Golden Root" - the handsome, kind, gentle, good prince that seems to fit the bill of the Prince Charming... is part of a family of ogres, and ends up murdering in rage his intended fiancée just to be married to the heroine of the tale. And that's something that many people missed for a very long time - the prince charming archetype is from the French tales of the 17th and 18th century, not before.]

[spending-life-pretending]

having an absolutely normal day at work where I’m “supervising” aka getting paid more money than usual to sit in the back and exchange giddy infodumps about fairytales, opera, and overlooked 90s female fantasy authors with my older sister

[italiabenetti-allyoucanitaly]

Se vuoi leggere l'intera trascrizione della storia e scaricarla in formato PDF vieni a far parte dei nostri Patreon dal livello Cappuccino: https://www.patreon.com/AllyoucanItaly Chi inciampa ma non cade, prosegue nel suo cammino. IL PENTAMERONE DI GIAMBATTISTA BASILE LA COLOMBA Un principe ne passa di cotte e di crude a causa di una maledizione lanciata da una vecchia. Oltre a queste sofferenze, deve affrontare ulteriori problemi a causa di un'altra maledizione lanciatagli da un'orca.  Alla fine, però, grazie all'ingegno della figlia dell'orca, riesce a superare tutti i pericoli e sposa la giovane di cui si è innamorato.

[catladychronicles]

Warwick Goble Lacquer Box

[adarkrainbow]

I do love how the Pentamerone was originally such a crass and violent work - and yet thanks to the spread of censored version in England we end up with such beautiful and delicate illustrations

Illustrations from The Pentamerone by Warwick Goble (1911)

[librinudi]

(a cura di) Antonella Castello L'ALTRA META' DELLE FIABE 2016 ABEditore

[seleuss]

SELEUSS - L’amour des Trois Oranges

JANUARY 9TH, 2023, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

We are delighted to announce that our L’amour des Trois Oranges (The Love for 3 Oranges) Chocolate Truffle has been granted the Superior Taste Award with 2-Stars by the International Taste Institute in Brussels for 2023.

The Love for Three Oranges:

Our interpretation of Sergei Prokofiev’s opera; L’amour des Trois Oranges, based on the Italian fairytale by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone (Rapunzel, Cinderella...). Made with Clementine, Bergamot and Tangerine, along with organic cream, our favorite honeys and a 53% REGINA™ dark milk chocolate. This batch is enrobed in our MORETTA™ dark chocolate at 76%+ and topped with either granulated Lemon peels, Lemon Ginger Honey Crystals, or occasionally a foot of Chocolate Pailletés Fins.

[adarkrainbow]

Spooky season fairytales (5)

We have looked at movies (or additional material) exploring individual fairytales that could fit the spooky season. For the candy and the witchy, we looked at Hansel and Gretel. For the apples and the disguises, Snow White. For the monsters and horror, Little Red Riding Hood. But now let's take a look at those stories that are definitively dark, spooky, horrifying stories... But that use several fairytales together at once.

Let's start with...

Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm.

Aka probably the most disturbing fairytale movie you will have ever seen. And not even fully disturbing on purpose... I mean, there are many moments intended to be disturbing, but there's just as many that were disturbing by accident. But this movie marked an entire generation and gave nightmares to many, many people. Be ready... for disturbing stuff.

The plot of the story is quite simple to explain, but it hides deeper things. The story is basically an alternative history exploring a different incarnation of the brothers Grimm, now poor crooks trying to make a life in a Germany ravaged by the Napoleonian wars by being fake "ghost/witch/goblin" hunters, using their folkloric knowledge to play on the terror of villagers. It all backfires on them, however, when the French authorities send them to "investigate" a problem of missing girls in a remote village - a series of mysterious disappearances the villagers explain with a bunch of superstitions and folktales. The two brothers will then discover that some fairytales are real, and evil lurks within the woods...

Now, there is ONE thing, one VERY important thing to know to understand the nature of this movie. This movie was the result of a sterile and useless war that disappointed everyone - and this is why you have in effect a movie that could have been great, but is just... okay, alright, with some very good, some very bad... and a LOT of disturbingness. This movie is a Terry Gilliam product, a Terry Gilliam fantasy film, and if you know his other works, you'll recognize his brand. His exploration of the themes of dreams, belief, escapism, hope in front of corruption, despair, the death of the imagination and tyranny ; his style of oniric, surrealistic fantasy superposing creepy and dark creatures with extravagant and comical characters resulting in disturbing comedy and absurd horror and unsettling wonders. We are talking of the man behind Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchaunsen, Time Badits, The Zero Theorem, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, etc etc... And this movie still bears the mark of his imagination, mind and style, and you can see how he twisted fairytales into a horrifying nightmare. But it is only half of a Gilliam film.

Because the other half was the result of another man imposing with brute power, a lot of anger, and a lot of money, his own ideas upon the piece. Bob Weinstein, yes, of the Weinstein brothers. He was a producer of the movie, and the kind of producer that was going to direct, write and do everything with the movie. Weinstein's idea of the piece was basically what would later be known as "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters". This movie was that Weinstein wanted "The Brothers Grimm" to be. While Gilliam wanted a movie in line with his "Time Bandits", his "Brazil", his "Fisher King" and... well his Gilliam brand. But Weinstein wanted more action, more battle scenes, only big-name actors, he wanted all the women to be sexy... Heck, Bob Weinstein refused to have Gilliam's choice of Johnny Depp playing William Grimm, because he wasn't "commercial" enough, and when he was replaced by Matt Damon, Gilliam wanted Damon to wear a prosthetic nose so he looked more like the historical Grimm, only for Weinstein to refuse again because it would have ruined his "good looks". Similarly, for the main female role of Angelika Gilliam wanted Samantha Morton, but the Weinstein brothers (yes both of them) refused because she wasn't sexy, and insisted on having a sexy actress - in this case Lena Headey.

This movie was a constant, constant battle, feuds and struggles with no end - and it was so frustating that Terry Gilliam, out of spite and despair at seeing his project ruined, went on to make a separate movie while "The Brothers Grimm" was done (and this movie was the very disturbing and unfamous "Tideland", which is a good reflection of what Gilliam's state of mind was at the time). In the end, in Gilliam's own word, he managed to make a movie that wasn't what the Weinstein brothers wanted, and in such a way it was good... but he also couldn't make the movie he wanted either, and so nobody won here. And you can feel that indeed this movie is tugged between two directions, stuck between two roads, halfway between "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" and "The Company of Wolves", a monstrous hybrid between "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Pan's Labyrinth".

But it still has its own horror, its own charm, you can see the movie that was intended to be made, that was half-made - and it still marked the history of fairytale cinematic adaptatons with some of the creepiest, most nightmarish ideas and imageries that ever were. This movie is probably the most disturbed adaptation of "The Gingerbread Man" you'll have ever seen, and the HORSE! By all gosh, you think Little Red Riding Hood's wolf was bad, WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE BIG BAD HORSE! This is a nightmare-fuel movie, people. And I do not sugar-coat this.

Next on our list would be the 2015's "Tale of Tales" movie, an Italian product (with French and British help and participation). This movie is, to my knowledge, the only movie adaptation of Basile's Pentamerone, and since it couldn't possibly cover the hundred and so stories, three were selected and readapted to fit into a greater ensemble: The Enchanted Doe, The Flea, and The Flayed Old Lady.

Together, these three stories were reinterpreted and woven to focus on the Maiden-Mother-Crone archetype (the girl-princess in The Flea, the mother-queen in The Enchanted Doe, the old women of The Flayed Old Lady), and thus explore women's relationships to men in their most negative lights ; but moreso, the movie was designed around the themes of extreme and dangerous desires - the theme of obsession.

This movie is beautifully shot and designed, with incredible sets, excellent practical special effects and gorgeous costumes - but this movie is also very mature, very sad and very dark. One thing that needs to be known is that the original Pentamerone is a comedic work. Its fairytales are all pieces of vulgar humor and extravagant farces, filled with slapstick-gore scenes and lots of sexual jokes. It wasn't the oniric folk-wonder of the Grimms, it wasn't the refined and elegant terror interwoven with modern and delicate miracles of Perrault and d'Aulnoy - these were "laugh-out-loud" and "burst-your-gut" stories of old women pissing and ogres farting loudly and husbands cheating on their wives and bad people scamming idiots before being strongly beaten up...

What this movie did was take back the stories, and remove all the humor and extravagance of it. And as the saying goes, when you remove the laugh track of a sitcom, you get an uncomfortable tragedy. This movie still has the gore, the sex, the crazy or foolish characters, the caricatures and the bizarre... But without the humor and the jokes, it all becomes sadness and horror, it becomes distubring and grotesque. In a way, this movie at the same time works as the antithesis of Basile's original work, and yet as a very faithful adaptation since, while it betrays the original intentions, it brings to light what the stories are fundamentaly made of and the themes it was driven by.

It also helps understanding the aesthetic of the movie to know that one of the main inspirations for this piece were the drawings and paintings of Goya.

And the final piece of this post would be Adam Gidwitz's "A Tale Dark and Grimm".

Now, you might be aware of a certain Netflix animated adaptation that was released not so long ago. Aka this one:

But it will not appear on this list - or rather I will mention it by extension of the original book, which is the one I wanted featured on this list.

Because very simply - the original novel is actually "darker and grimmer" than the series adaptation. Gidwitz's novel and the Netflix series both begin with a a heavy dose of dark humor, creepy slapstick and child-level jokes - but the novel relied on a progression. Tale after tale, with each new chapter in Hansel and Gretel's life, as they grew from children to adulsts, the stories got gloomier and more serious, and the humor became scarse and more cynical. There was really a neat and clear evolution from a "big laughs" goofy-gory show in the first chapters to a teary tragedy/sinister epic in the end. But with the Netflix series? They decided to emphasize the humor and jokes a lot to give the story a truly "cartoony" feeling, and they kept jokes and humor all throughout stories which originally did not have any...

So overall, while everybody called the show "dark", in truth I found it much more light-hearted and kid-friendly than the original novel X) And for this spooky season, I truly advise you go read the ORIGINAL book.

[EDIT: My friend @lapluieellepleut warned me I might have been a bit misleading with this description so I will insist: the original novel is still aimed at kids and pre-teens. Aka... this is a children's novel. This is not an adult read, not even a full teenager one. It is still a simple, sweet, funny story, though with morbid humor and trying to highlight the brutality and darkness of the Brothers Grimm fairytales. But... don't expect a Stephen King novel or a Shakespearian tragedy. Its still a kid tale. If you want something more adult in tone, go look at The Book of Lost Things - "A Tale Dark and Grimm" would be for the age range below The Book of Lost Things.]

If you have read it already, the book had two sequels to form a trilogy. The first one is "In a Glass Grimmly", which is just as good as the original ; and the second sequel (third part of the trilogy) is "The Grimm Conclusion"... Which I did not read. I heard it isn't as good as the others and the quality drops, but I'll give you more info once I actually read it.

Oh, and if you are ever in France or able to read French, do yourself a favor and pick the French edition of this book, aka, this one:

"The terrifying tale and bloody fate of Hansel and Gretel". On top of having perfectly creepy shadow-puppet silhouettes full page illustrations, it also uses a color-code for the text (mixing night-black and blood-red) similar to what for example The Neverending Story used. Truly emphasizes the creepiness and darkness of the novel - while making it even more obvious the humoristic part and more jarring the jokes.

[alberodelpensiero]

7 - L'orco italiano di Basile

7 – L’orco italiano di Basile

[thebeautifulbook]

STORIES FROM THE PENTAMERONE by Giambattista Basile (1575-1632) (New York/London: Macmillan, 1911). Translated by John Edward Taylor (1847). Dozens of illustrations by Warwick Goble.

source

[princesssarisa]

I'm making my way through the "Donkeyskin" section of Cinderella Tales from Around the World, starting with the versions from Greece, Albania, and Italy.

*In most of these variants, the condition for the father-king's remarriage is either that his bride's finger must fit the late queen's wedding ring or that her foot must fit the queen's shoe. One day, either not knowing about the promise or just not suspecting how far her father will take it, the princess puts on the ring or the shoe and finds that it fits, so her father resolves to marry her.

**As I mentioned in my last post, however, some versions don't have her father want to marry her. In one version, her father is just extremely protective and never lets her leave the castle, so she runs away out of longing for freedom. (Although this is from Andrew Lang's The Grey Fairy Book, so Lang most likely bowdlerized it.) In another, her father betroths her to a rich young man who is really the Devil in disguise, which her fairy governess realizes and alerts her to, but which her father won't believe.

*In different Donkeyskin tales throughout the world, it varies whether the heroine comes up with her gown requests and her disguise by herself or is advised by someone else. These Mediterranean versions tend to give her an advisor: usually her nurse or governess who's secretly a fairy or a good witch, but sometimes a male magician instead, or even the Pope.

*The theme of the three gowns in these variants tends to be this: one gown that looks like the heavens with the sun, the moon, and all the stars on it, one that looks like the sea with all the fishes on it, and one that looks like the earth with every type of flower on it. Several Mediterranean versions of Cinderella also uses this theme for the heroine's gowns.

**Also as in Mediterranean Cinderellas, the heroine sometimes throws coins or jewels behind her when she leaves each ball to distract the prince's servants and prevent them from stopping her.

*Several Italian versions are titled Maria Wood. In some of them, she just wears a wooden dress like the Norwegian Kari Woodencloak. But in others, more interestingly, she encases herself in a full-body suit made of wood, with joints so she can move her limbs, which makes her look like an old woman. Sometimes she sings a funny little rhyme about being "made of wood" when she first introduces herself to the prince or king. This suit also miraculously has room to store her three gowns inside it.

**In other versions, though, she disguises herself in animal skins – e.g. pigskin, rabbit skins, or wolf skin. Sometimes, instead of just passing as a human dressed in skins, she actually masquerades as an animal – a bear, or a horse – although it varies whether she pretends to be an ordinary, non-sapiant animal who stays in the palace yard or a talking animal who works as a scullery maid.

**Giambattista Basile's Il Pentamerone includes a variant, The She-Bear, where the heroine turns herself into a bear by putting a piece of magic wood (given to her by a wise old woman) into her mouth. After she flees, the prince finds her in the forest, and she becomes his pet. The truth is finally revealed when the bear kisses the sick prince, and as she does so, the piece of wood accidentally falls from her lips.

**In another version, called Zuccaccia ("Ugly Gourd"), she disguises herself in a dress covered with strips of dried pumpkin.

**In yet another version, called Pellicotto ("Ugly Skin"), a fairy helps the heroine by magically coating her entire body and face with fur. Then the heroine further disguises herself by putting on male clothes and finds work as the prince's stable-boy. I suspect that "Sapsorrow" from Jim Henson's The Storyteller was partly inspired by this version, since Sapsorrow is likewise completely covered with fur and wears men's breeches in her magical disguise as "the Scraggletag."

*In some versions, she doesn't wear strange clothing or go to work as a servant at all. Instead, she requests a gift of two giant hollow candlesticks or a candelabrum from her father. Then she hides inside one of the candlesticks/the candelabrum, which a servant takes to another kingdom and sells to the prince. Every night when the prince has gone out or is asleep, she emerges and either eats some of his food or tidies his room. This mystifies the prince until he finally spies on the room at night, discovers her, and falls in love. Some similar variants have her hide in a simple wooden chest instead of a candlestick/candelabrum.

*Sometimes she hides her beautiful gowns in a chest, sometimes in three nutshells, or sometimes she has a magic wand with which she makes them appear when she needs them.

*The majority of these versions – and probably the majority from every country, though we'll see if it's true or not – have the prince or king mistreat the disguised heroine. Traditionally, before each of the three balls, she asks to be allowed to go, but he refuses and hits her with an object (often a boot, a shovel, and tongs, though they vary). Then at the ball, when he asks the "beautiful princess" where she comes from, she replies that she's from the land of "Boot," "Shovel," and "Tongs," or whatever the objects were. @adarkrainbow and I have already discussed this recurring theme and how to understand it. In the past, both male-on-female and master-on-servant abuse were more often played for laughs. In this case, assuming that the oral storytellers were mostly commoners, it's arguably social satire at the prince/king's expense (i.e. "Ha ha! Those royals and nobles treat us like dirt, but if we had clothes like theirs they might fall madly in love with us!"), and the princess's trick at the ball can be seen as revenge, sending him on wild goose chases in search of the lands of "Boot," "Shovel," etc. Still, by modern standards, it's not comfortable seeing the heroine treated this way by her future husband.

**Some versions omit this theme, however, and have the prince treat her kindly and see her as a funny little friend. In a few, instead of refusing when she asks to go the three balls, he invites her to the balls, but she pretends to refuse. Zuccaccia is one of these variants: though it keeps the running gag of the prince hitting her with objects, it reimagines them as just light, playful raps amid sibling-like banter.

**One other version has the prince just verbally insult her, and at the balls, when he asks for her name, she replies with the names he called her earlier: "My name is Mud-Scraper," "My name is Blockhead," etc. In yet another, she hits him with the objects each time he refuses to take her to the ball.

*In some versions, at the third ball, the prince/king slips a ring onto the princess's finger, which she later drops into the bread, cake, or soup she sends to him when he becomes sick with love. In others, after the third ball, she sends him food over the course of three days, and each time she drops a golden trinket that she brought from home into the food. Either way, he asks to see the person who made the food, and either she comes undisguised in her beautiful gown, or else he rips off her disguise and reveals the gown underneath it. Or, in a simpler alternative, she asks to take the food to his sickroom herself, and she does so wearing her beautiful gown.

*On her website, though not in this book itself, Heidi Ann Heiner notes that in many Donkeyskin tales (e.g. Perrault's), the father-king gets less blame than he deserves for his incestuous desire and is easily forgiven in the end. That isn't the case in many Italian versions, though: he's clearly portrayed as a villain.

**In several variants, the king is carried away by the Devil as soon as his daughter runs away. In one, he actually sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for the three otherworldly gowns his daughter demands from him, which leads to the Devil claiming his due after the wedding doesn't take place.

**Several other versions follow the heroine's marriage by having the father seek revenge for her refusal to marry him. In an especially grisly literary version, Doralice, the king comes to his daughter's new home in disguise, murders her two children, and then frames her for the crime. For this her husband has her buried up to her chin in the ground to be slowly eaten by worms. But her childhood nurse finally reveals the whole truth to the young king, so Doralice is saved, while her wicked father is tortured to death. In a similar but milder variant, The Deer, the king uses magic to turn his daughter into (of course) a deer; but eventually she meets her husband again during a hunt in the woods and provokes him to shoot her, which breaks the spell. In yet another, the king tries to throw his daughter into a cauldron of boiling oil, only to get caught just in time and be thrown in himself.

@adarkrainbow, @ariel-seagull-wings, @themousefromfantasyland