Pure Faerie Tales

This film does an incredible job of putting faerie stories on screen, in that great, Old Ways mode where the stories are magical, whimsical, and often terrifying and gory. All three tales are nicely balanced - each one having its own delights (and terrors) to offer. But there is a bit of a hierarchy in my mind.

The best tale, in my opinion, is the story of the Princess (Violet), the flea, and the ogre. It starts with endearingly quirky characters (the distracted king and his pet flea obsession, the would-be-singer princess), gets into an almost "magic-real" territory with the ever-growing flea, and then settles into a more traditional "kidnapped princess" zone. I don't want to spoil the ending, but there are still great surprises with the ogre.

Next is the tale of the two half-brothers. This is where the story starts. I found the sea dragon sequence one of the best shot in the film (and that's saying something, because the whole film is replete with wonderful imagery and camerawork). I also love that it does a lot more show than tell, and it gives us a very strange scenario where there are these two brothers (sired by the serpent, it seems) who aren't officially brothers and who might not even 100% know. I must admit, I was confused by the ending. I didn't notice what the second monster turned into after the attack in the cave. I found out later, though, and it makes me wonder: had the sea dragon always been a sea dragon...?

Finally, the tale of the two sisters. This was a very good story, but just didn't spark as much as the other two. I loved the themes of aging and youth and lust, and nobody plays horny and creepy like Vincent Cassell, but there always seemed to be something - just a little something - missing.

The best of this film is the visuals, the dedication to true faerie story atmosphere, and a cast that fully invests and makes us believe the world thoroughly. I have very few gripes - if any. I might say that I would have liked it if each story got to explore its ideas a *little* more. The conclusions, particularly, I felt could have been a little longer - especially with the brothers. I also would have liked to see a bit more overlap between the tales. It was great to see the neighbouring kings and queens attend funerals and coronations, but it might have been nice to have the characters interact once or twice instead of just being at each other's events.