68th Cannes film festival main competition opens with Italian film

Italian director Matteo Garrone's latest film Il Racconto Dei Racconti (Tale of Tales) opened the official competition of the ongoing 68th Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) on Thursday.

The film of three neighboring kingdoms is inspired by the stories of the 17th century Italian fairy-tale author Giambattista Basile, whose fables inspired many fables, including the story of Cinderella.

This time, Garrone decided to shoot the film entirely in English with an international crew, including Mexican actress Salma Hayek, French actor Vincent Cassel, British actor Toby Jones and the Oscar winner French music composer Alexendre Desplat.

Asked about why the movie was filmed in English instead of Italian, Garrone said he felt a link between Basile, an Italian 17th century author, with Shakespeare.

"I thought English would be the best language, and also a way of giving Basile an international spotlight," explained Matteo Garrone, who shot the film in Italy to feel closer to his root and culture.

For the Mexican actress Salma Hayek, who plays the role of a queen who was obsessed with the wish for a child, the movie was very special, because "even though it is a fairy-tale and fable, but it (story) doesn't go where fairy-tales and fables usually go, it goes in a very special place and in a unique way."

"The process of working with him was like being a color in a brush that kept transforming and transforming until the artist said Ok," said Salma Hayek.

The Italian director Matteo Garrone, a regular at Cannes, won the Grand Prize of the festival in 2008 and 2012, respectively with Gomorrah and Reality.

A total of 19 films were selected to compete for the top prize Palme d'Or. The 68th Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) runs from May 13 to 24. Endit