Tale of Tales (Russian: Сказка сказок, Skazka skazok) is a 1979 Soviet/Russiananimated film directed by Yuri Norstein[1][2] and produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow.[3] Having won numerous awards, acclaimed by both critics and animators, various polls have recognized it as the greatest animated film of all time.[4] The film was analyzed in the 2005 book Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator's Journey by Clare Kitson.
Plot
Tale of Tales, like Andrei Tarkovsky's Mirror,[5] attempts to structure itself like a human memory. Memories are not recalled in neat chronological order; instead, they are recalled by the association of one thing to another, which means that any attempt to put memory on film cannot be told like a conventional narrative. The film is thus made up of a series of related sequences whose scenes are interspersed between each other. One of the primary themes involves war,[6] with particular emphasis on the enormous losses the Soviet Union suffered on the Eastern Front during World War II. Several recurring characters and their interactions make up a large part of the film, such as the poet, the little girl and the bull, the little boy and the crows, the dancers and the soldiers, the train, the apples and especially the little grey wolf (Russian: се́ренький волчо́к, syeryenkiy volchok).[7]
Yuri Norstein wrote in Iskusstvo Kino magazine that the film is "about simple concepts that give you the strength to live."[8][9]
Music and poetry
In addition to the original score composed by Mikhail Meyerovich, this film makes use of several other pieces of music. Excerpts from works by Bach (notably the E flat minor PreludeBWV 853 (from The Well-Tempered Clavier)) and Mozart (the Andante second movement from Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, K41) are used, and the World War II era tangoWeary Sun, written by Jerzy Petersburski, features prominently. However, the most important musical inspiration is the following traditional Russian lullaby, which is included in the film in both instrumental and vocal form.
Russian
Transliteration
English translation
Баю-баюшки-баю,
Не ложися на краю.
Придёт серенький волчок,
Он ухватит за бочок
И утащит во лесок
Под ракитовый кусток.
Bayu-bayushki-bayu,
Ne lozhisya na krayu.
Pridyot serenkiy volchok,
On ukhvatit za bochok
I utashchit vo lesok
Pod rakitovy kustok.
Baby, baby, rock-a-bye
On the edge you mustn't lie
Or the little grey wolf will come
And will nip you on the tum,
Tug you off into the wood
Underneath the willow-root.
Many situations in the film actually derive from this lullaby, as well as the character of the little grey wolf. Indeed, the film's original title (rejected by the Soviet censors) was The Little Grey Wolf Will Come.
The name Tale of Tales came from a poem of the same name by Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet that Norstein loved since 1962.[4][10]
Russian
Transliteration
English translation
Стоим над водой -
солнце, кошка, чинара, я
и наша судьба.
Вода прохладная,
Чинара высокая,
Солнце светит,
Кошка дремлет,
Я стихи сочиняю.
Слава Богу, живем!..
Stoim nad vodoy -
solntse, koshka, chinara, ya
i nasha sud'ba.
Voda prochladnaya,
Chinara vysokaya,
Solntse svyetit,
Koshka dryemlyet,
Ya stihi sochinyayu
Slava Bogu, zhivyom!..
We stand above the water -
sun, cat, plane tree, me
and our destiny.
The water is cool,
The plane tree is tall,
The sun is shining,
The cat is dozing,
I write verses.
Thank God, we live!..
Awards
1980—Lille (France) International Festival of Films: Jury Grand Prize
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