Blu Review: Tales of the Night (2011)

February 1, 2013 Blu Review, Home Video No Comments

Cast: Julien Beramis, Marine Griset, Michel Elias
Director: Michel Ocelot
Country: France
Genre: Animation | Fantasy
Official Trailer: Here

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0

Editor’s Notes: Tales of the Night released on Blu Ray from New Video Group on January 29th, 2013.

Borrowing a style pulled down and dusted off from the hallowed shelves in the immense living museum of cinema, Tales of the Night is reminiscent of the unique and unparalleled works of Lotte Reiniger (The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)) while maintaining its own strengths, using new technology to create vibrant worlds of depth and color. It follows three storytellers on their quest to capture pieces of the human spirit through their art as they spin yarns for the empty seats of an abandoned theater, ineffectual at influencing anyone in their imaginative efforts but ultimately unaffected by the futility of their unseen toiling. Their passionate explorations, though unseen, are strictly for the satiation of their own souls. Unburdened by the need for validation from others, they create whimsical worlds and act out a series of melodramatic fables, aided by imaginary technology that provides context for their shifting timelines, storylines, and costumes while acting as a cinematic allegory for the tools of creativity offered by technology and the democratization of ideas with the (relatively) universal accessibility of these new tools of the digital age.

Tales of the Night is reminiscent of the unique and unparalleled works of Lotte Reiniger (The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)) while maintaining its own strengths, using new technology to create vibrant worlds of depth and color.

With nothing more than entry-level consumer laptop and a healthy imagination, anyone can produce art that expresses their deeply personal vision, and with the internet those ideas can be instantly transmitted to the entire world, finding niche audiences and spiritual brethren despite the supposed lack of personal connection espoused by naysayers of technology. There is validity in the concerns of a disconnect between individuals as we shroud ourselves in these gadgets, more interested in what a person across the world is thinking than the banal small-talk of someone across the table as we neurotically and impulsively check our devices for something more interesting than the here and now. This disconnect between individuals works at creating a new consciousness that is all-encompassing as we discover that different cultures are ultimately populated by the same human animal, sharing many of the same hopes and fears despite vast distances and wildly different daily realities. Tales of the Night focuses precisely on this universality of the human condition as each of its “tales” explores similar themes across different eras and civilizations, illustrating the universality of impatience with the status-quo of the reactionary establishment as they seek to break free from the traditions and superstitions of yesterday to forge new sensibilities where earnestness and humane nobility conquer violence and oppression.

Borrowing critical elements of the style of Lotte Reiniger, Michael Ocelot creates characters that live in perpetual darkness, edges formed by gentle lighting that flickers with the irresistible glow of candlelight. These two-dimensional shadows cast themselves against the obfuscating scrim of Plato’s cave, illustrating the multifaceted qualities of cinema in that execution and technique are equally as important as the “substance” of a film. While each story is ultimately forgettable and its characters are two-dimensional shadows, Tales of the Night will fill the recesses of your mind with the colors and patterns of civilizations long gone, but never forgotten in their uniqueness in both aesthetics and traditions.

…Tales of the Night will fill the recesses of your mind with the colors and patterns of civilizations long gone

Like any film daring enough to attempt unique storytelling techniques or unusual styles, there will be varying degrees of alienation of mainstream audiences. When my children asked me why the film wasn’t playing correctly and where the “colors of the people went”, I offered reassurances that everything was working as intended. Despite their initial trepidation, Tales of the Night managed to capture the attention and imaginations of a 2, 5, and 6 year old and kept them entranced with its vibrant colors and simple fables of love, beauty, altruism, and the importance of each seemingly insignificant fiber in the tapestry of civilizations. Each tale pulsates with charming subversive qualities that are irresistible to children and adults alike, as in its lessons of earnest bravery the noble hero disrupts the status-quo to forge new worlds, traditions, superstitions, and values using the unconventional strengths that define who they are despite a fundamental misalignment with the outmoded characteristics of past generations. The heroes and heroines of Tales of the Night may not understand the motives of their ancestors, but despite this misalignment it is still possible to thrive on their own terms as they forge the world in their own idiosyncratic image.

77/100 ~ GOOD.Each tale pulsates with charming subversive qualities that are irresistible to children and adults alike, as in its lessons of earnest bravery the noble hero disrupts the status-quo to forge new worlds, traditions, superstitions, and values using the unconventional strengths that define who they are despite a fundamental misalignment with the outmoded characteristics of past generations. The heroes and heroines of Tales of the Night may not understand the motives of their ancestors, but despite this misalignment it is still possible to thrive on their own terms as they forge the world in their own idiosyncratic image.

By Matthew Blevins

Senior Editor/Film Critic & OFCS Member. Behind me you see the empty bookshelves that my obsession with film has caused. Film teaches me most of the important concepts of life, such as cynicism, beauty, ugliness, subversion of societal norms, and what it is to be a tortured member of humanity. My passion for the medium is an important part of who I am as I stumble through existence in a desperate and frantic search for objective truths.