When I was a young teenager, my older sister lended me a book called "Contos Populares Portugueses" (Portuguese folk tales).
These portuguese tales were collected in the 19th century, by a portuguese writer that went from village to village, asking the old grandma's to tell stories from ancient oral tradition. The writer was called Teófilo Braga, but some of the oral tales were "transversal" to the whole of Europe.
For my surprise, I found in Czechoslovakian Cinema, an elite treatment of one such tale, called "Salt more than gold", that even today is very impressive for a mature audience.
I made some clips that are very impressive, I would start with the intro with a jousting, with impressive cinematography, be sure to click on the "CC" button for the english subtitles:
The entire folk tale is only one page on a book, where a king had 3 daughters, and he asks them how much do you love me. The daughter that answers "I like you as salt" is banished from the kingdom, later the outcast princess gets a job in the palace kitchen and prepares a meal without salt for her father.
However the Czechoslovakian film directors went well "above and beyond the call of duty", when recreating any folk take, their films are Cinema works of art, beautiful to behold and interesting to analyse and discuss.
For example, in my next clip, you can watch and read the english subtitles, of the court jester criticizing the king, which is historically correct, because the court jester was the only person allowed to criticize directly a king, in most european countries (I confirmed this in wikipedia).
The readers must realize that the old european folk tales where not so childish as Disney made them to appear, and during the cold war the eastern european film studios, created films with no-profit, just trying to make the most perfect rendition of a folk tale, with real castles and palaces. In my two previous clips, there is no childish or comical content.
In the case of this film, there will be a few childish scenes and themes here and there,, however I feel the above clips are interesting for old readers, just by themselves, and not beeing necessary to watch the whole film.
Finally, in this regard, I would like to share the final "Soviet-Style" Folk Tale film, that really does seem a beautiful farewell in 1991, by the Juraz Herz master of Gothic Cinema himself, created during the collapse of the Soviet Union, by funds from Spain, Italy, France, etc. after the Re-unification of the two germanies and the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia. Here is my trailer for the "Frog King", the last great eastern bloc fairy tale film:
These eastern european film directors did know how to make serious fairy tale films, in real castles and palaces, with master cinematography, and with none of Disney's Comedy or Childishness.
These portuguese tales were collected in the 19th century, by a portuguese writer that went from village to village, asking the old grandma's to tell stories from ancient oral tradition. The writer was called Teófilo Braga, but some of the oral tales were "transversal" to the whole of Europe.
For my surprise, I found in Czechoslovakian Cinema, an elite treatment of one such tale, called "Salt more than gold", that even today is very impressive for a mature audience.
I made some clips that are very impressive, I would start with the intro with a jousting, with impressive cinematography, be sure to click on the "CC" button for the english subtitles:
The entire folk tale is only one page on a book, where a king had 3 daughters, and he asks them how much do you love me. The daughter that answers "I like you as salt" is banished from the kingdom, later the outcast princess gets a job in the palace kitchen and prepares a meal without salt for her father.
However the Czechoslovakian film directors went well "above and beyond the call of duty", when recreating any folk take, their films are Cinema works of art, beautiful to behold and interesting to analyse and discuss.
For example, in my next clip, you can watch and read the english subtitles, of the court jester criticizing the king, which is historically correct, because the court jester was the only person allowed to criticize directly a king, in most european countries (I confirmed this in wikipedia).
The readers must realize that the old european folk tales where not so childish as Disney made them to appear, and during the cold war the eastern european film studios, created films with no-profit, just trying to make the most perfect rendition of a folk tale, with real castles and palaces. In my two previous clips, there is no childish or comical content.
In the case of this film, there will be a few childish scenes and themes here and there,, however I feel the above clips are interesting for old readers, just by themselves, and not beeing necessary to watch the whole film.
Finally, in this regard, I would like to share the final "Soviet-Style" Folk Tale film, that really does seem a beautiful farewell in 1991, by the Juraz Herz master of Gothic Cinema himself, created during the collapse of the Soviet Union, by funds from Spain, Italy, France, etc. after the Re-unification of the two germanies and the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia. Here is my trailer for the "Frog King", the last great eastern bloc fairy tale film:
These eastern european film directors did know how to make serious fairy tale films, in real castles and palaces, with master cinematography, and with none of Disney's Comedy or Childishness.