Tale of Tales
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| Tale of Tales | |
|---|---|
 Little Grey Wolf from Tale of Tales |
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| Directed by | Yuriy Norshteyn |
| Produced by | Soyuzmultfilm |
| Written by | Lyudmila Petrushevskaya Yuriy Norshteyn |
| Starring | Alexander Kalyagin |
| Music by | Mikhail Meyerovich Johann Sebastian Bach Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |
| Cinematography | Igor Skidan-Bossin |
| Editing by | Nadezhda Treshcheva Natalya Abramova |
| Release date(s) | 1979 (USSR) |
| Running time | 29 min 3 sec |
| Country | USSR |
| Language | Russian |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Tale of Tales (Russian: Ска́зка ска́зок, Skazka skazok) is a 1979 Soviet animated film directed by Yuriy Norshteyn and produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow. It has won numerous awards, and has been acclaimed by critics and other animators as the greatest animated film of all time. [1]
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[edit] Plot
Tale of Tales, like Tarkovsky's Mirror, 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 with 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, with particular emphasis on the enormous losses Russia suffered 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, and especially the little grey wolf (Russian: се́ренький волчо́к, syeryenkiy volchok). Another symbol connecting nearly all of these different themes are green apples (which may symbolize life, hope, or potential).
Yuriy Norshteyn wrote in Iskusstvo Kino magazine that the film is "about simple concepts that give you the strength to live." [2]
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[edit] 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 and Mozart are present, and the World War II era tango Weary 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, | Bayu-bayushki-bayu, | Baby, baby, rock-a-bye |
| Не ложися на краю. | Ne lozhisya na krayu. | On the edge you mustn't lie |
| Придёт серенький волчок, | Pridyot serenkiy volchok, | Or the little grey wolf will come |
| Он ухватит за бочок | On ukhvatit za bochok | And will nip you on the tum, |
| И утащит во лесок | I utashchit vo lesok | Tug you off into the wood |
| Под ракитовый кусток. | Pod rakitovy kustok. | 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 Norshteyn loved since 1962: [3] [4]
| Russian | Transliteration | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| Стоим над водой - солнце, кошка, чинара, я | Stoim nad vodoy - solntse, koshka, chinara, ya | We stand above the water - sun, cat, plane tree, me |
| и наша судьба. | i nasha sud'ba. | and our destiny. |
| Вода прохладная, | Voda proxladnaya, | The water is cool, |
| Чинара высокая, | Chinara vysokaya, | The plane tree is tall, |
| Солнце светит, | Solntse svyetit, | The sun is shining, |
| Кошка дремлет, | Koshka dryemlyet, | The cat is dozing, |
| Я стихи сочиняю. | Ya stihi sochinyayu | I write verses. |
| Слава Богу, живем!.. | Slava Bogu, zhivyom!.. | Thank God, we live!.. |
[edit] Awards
- 1980—Lille (France) International Festival of Films: Jury Grand Prize
- 1980—Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: Grand Prize
- 1980—Ottawa (Canada) International Animation Festival: Best Film Longer Than Three Minutes Award
- 1984—Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival: voted by large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time
- 2002—Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: again voted by large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time
[edit] Creators
| Director | Yuriy Norshteyn (Ю́рий Норште́йн) |
| Writers | Lyudmila Petrushevskaya (Людми́ла Петруше́вская) Yuriy Norshteyn (Юрий Норштейн) |
| Art Director | Francheska Yarbusova (Франче́ска Ярбусова) |
| Animator | Yuriy Norshteyn (Ю́рий Норште́йн) |
| Camera Operator | Igor Skidan-Bossin (И́горь Скидан-Босин) |
| Executive Producer | G. Kovrov (Г. Ковро́в) |
| Composer | Mikhail Meyerovich (Михаи́л Меерови́ч) |
| Sound Operator | Boris Filchikov (Бори́с Фильчико́в) |
| Script Editor | Natalya Abramova (Ната́лья Абрамова) |
| Voice Actor | Alexander Kalyagin (Алекса́ндр Каля́гин) as Little Grey Wolf |
| Film Editor | Nadezhda Treshcheva (Наде́жда Трещёва) |
[edit] See also
- History of Russian animation
- Films that have been considered the greatest ever
- List of films based on poems
- List of stop-motion films
[edit] External links
- Animator.ru profile of the film
- Book review of "Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator's Journey"
- Comparison of various DVDs containing the film (in Russian, but with helpful pictures)
| Works of Yuriy Norshteyn |
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Director/Co-director: 25th October, the First Day (1968) • The Battle of Kerzhenets (1971) • The Fox and the Hare (1973) • The Heron and the Crane (1974) • Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) • Tale of Tales (1979) • Winter Days (2003, segment) • The Overcoat (????) |
| Animator (selected films): Lefty (1964) • Go There, Don't Know Where (1966) • Times of the Year (1969) • Cheburashka (1972) • Shapoklyak (1974) • 38 Parrots (1976) • Autumn (1982) • The Book of the Dead (2005) |
