Tale of Tales (1979) poster
1979 · animation · short · russian

Tale of Tales

Directed by Yuri Norstein29m1979
ElsewhereIMDb7.84kTMDB7.3147
  • slow-burn
  • gentle
  • surreal
  • tender
  • signature
Movie DNA

Neutral, slow-burn, gentle animation / short, surreal in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, tender, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Distant, well-worn memories of childhood are inhabited by a little gray wolf. Through astonishing imagery, the memory of all of Russia is depicted.

Our read · Tale of Tales (1979) reads as a neutral, slow-burn, surreal animation · short · russian entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, tender in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Tale of Tales

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a poetic Soviet animation masterpiece on memory, war, and childhood.

ends bittersweetit stays with youmeditativegrips by minute 3attention 5/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightSkip if you need a linear story or dislike abstract, wordless art animation.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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