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The Fall (2006) [spoiler-free first post]

Started by Pedro_Bear, October 27, 2010, 10:19:08 PM

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Pedro_Bear

Once in a while a film sneaks onto the big screen that is so good it takes our breath away. Seemingly in common with almost everyone else on Earth we missed The Fall when it first came out in 2006, but it was recommended to us by an unusual source that was proving reliable, so we screened it out of the box. It completely ruined the rest of the line up for the evening; it was that amazing.








Basic Plot: A badly injured stuntman trapped in a hospital bed befriends a lively girl with a broken arm, and trades an epic fantasy story for her assistance in running errands.

Basic Themes: imagination, storytelling, hope, humanity, heartbreak

Hmm sounds suspiciYES, yes, okay, there is a high probabilty you'll end up shedding a manly tear, tough guy. Yet this isn't a run-of-the-mill weepy, so you can pretend to be coughing or something. The Fall gloriously defies genre type, and can be enjoyed by anyone, be they kids, adults, tough guys or embarrasing weepy romantics. It's proper cinema the likes of which we never thought we'd see in contemporary times, and on a truly epic scale.

Beautifully anomalous as a piece of modern film making, "the fall" of the title reveals itself to be allegorical in multiple ways, not least that of modern expectations of cinema itself.

The next post is spoilers, although it would be almost impossible to ruin this film.

TL;DR? Do you like cinema? Yes? Though so. See The Fall as soon as possible.




Pedro_Bear

+++++++ SPOILERS +++++++ SPOILERS +++++++ SPOILERS +++++++








Not since Anna Paquin's performance in The Piano has a child actress been so systematically endearing through sheer force of naive personality. Catinca Untaru rasies the bar as our heroine Alexandria, a bored little migrant worker with a broken arm wandering about a 1920's LA hospital, charming staff and residents. She's bright, she's inquisitive, she's alert and she's perceptive. She's also delightfully devious as only small children can be, at one point mediating between a doctor and her mother across two languages to diffuse a potential confrontation.





It is through Alexandria's colourful, rich imagination we view the epic story told by stuntman Roy. Immediately we see how he's underestimated her intelligence and diverse social experience, in that he is labelling one of the characters as being an Indian, assuming Native American, and she is picturing a Hindu warrior.

I can't describe how clever the film is on this sort of unspoken, meta-level as events unfold. Even just listing what "the fall" refers to part by allegorical part misses nuance. It assumes that we are intelligent enough to navigate our way through, and warmly rewards us with new surprises and reveals.




Alexandria works in motifs and themes from all around her, stuff that we miss even on a second viewing. Her keen sense of humour infects proceedings, starting with the glorious costumes she imagines the heroes wearing. She's innocent but horribly observant, her non-judgemental child eyes picking up on the everyday cruelties of peoples' lives around her, which she layers on top of the unfolding tale. Roy works in events from his own life into the story, dark themes reflecting his tortured state of mind and body. There's overlap of overlap, simple misunderstandings unleash flights of imaginative improvisation.




And then... then there's true horror, just unrelenting, creeping horror as we slowly realise that Roy is trying end his role as storyteller permanently, abusing Alexandria's naivety, turning her into a courier for the pills he needs to kill himself.

The juxtaposition of his suicidal urge against the sheer beauty and celebration of life in the face of poverty and hardship represented by our heroine is beyond even the darkness of Pan's Labyrinth. The manipulation is a betrayal, cold hearted and cynical. The effect it has on the unfolding tale is hatefully cruel. Fairy Tale cruel. If that wasn't enough, and believe me it is, there's Alexandria's own path into hospital to be woven into this now dark spell, a child's nightmare, and upon elucidation the whole premise of the fantasy epic becomes heart-stopping.




The Fall enjoys that rare cinematic indulgence of not having to play out the way the audience necessarily would like. I've kind of spoilt the conclusion anyway by being the poster of the thread (read into that what you will) and I'll leave it at that.



TL;DR? You peeked! It wont spoil anything, go see the film, go, shoo.




+++++++ SPOILERS +++++++ SPOILERS +++++++ SPOILERS +++++++

SavageHedgehog

Yeah I loved this one. I remeber watching Tarsem's previous film The Cell and thinking "this is is a piece of shit, but I love this guy's style, so I'll watch his next movie". Thankfully it turned out to be something up my alley.

Dark Poet


Mister Six

I was actually completely unable to watch this the first time around because it was so deliberately composed. Each individual shot has been carefully framed and angled so that it's visually striking, whether through perfect symmetry, the rule of thirds or whatever. Which would be great if it were one of those Blu-Ray test videos or something, but it completely destroyed the narrative because I found myself trying to take in each stunning image before it moved on rather than just following the damned story. Singh's got a great eye for a photo but he's a shit director.

The second time around I saw it in pan-and-scan while in India and - robbed of the widescreen splendour - I was actually able to enjoy it for what it is: a rather brilliant update of the Princess Bride with far darker undertones and some sterling acting. Now I've seen the actual story I'll go back to it in proper HD and soak up the raw beauty. I just wish there was a happy medium in which I could enjoy both. Maybe in the cinema - where the image is just too big to take in fully - it would have garnered a more positive reaction from it.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Peru

Quote from: Dark Poet on October 29, 2010, 02:32:10 PM
This was never released in the UK.  Odd.

It definitely was because I saw it in the Cornerhouse in Manchester. I'm going to broadly agree with Mister Six - Tarsem makes purty pictures, but he's got a LONG way to go as a director. The fact that this thing was shot over several years (whenever he had a couple of days after shooting an advert) is undoubtedly resourceful but the whole thing looks like a piecemeal assembly of interesting ideas. It looks amazing, of course, but the film had little emaotional resonance for me. Same with his first feature, The Cell. A crappy serial killer movie with some absolutely fall-over amazing visuals.