Below - The second and third images from the bottom are stills from the new film, "The Fall".
Film/Stage
Masterpiece Filmmaker's Latest Creation
by KEVIN POWERS
The trailer for The Fall doesn't exactly lend much to understanding the film's story.
Likewise, the stills Cinematical brings us today are equally confounding. But do we really need to understand what's going on?
The Fall is directed by Tarsem Singh, the seemingly low-frequency mastermind behind The Cell from 2000. Plot and acting aside, the visuals in that film were positively spectacular. From what we're seeing of Fall, it looks like we're in for another mind-bending exploration of the visual.
The Fall was filmed over a period of four years and in 24 different countries. Its official description sheds a little light on what we're seeing in this pre-release material.
"In a hospital, a little girl with a broken collarbone meets a bedridden man who starts telling her a fantastical story which reflects his state of mind. As time goes by, fiction and reality start to intertwine in this uplifting epic fantasy".
Actually, pre-release is a bit incorrect. While the film makes an official release on May 9, 2008, The Fall premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006. Why has it taken so long to reach the public?
Apparently, early criticism wasn't very kind. Thankfully, two important people did like it. David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Where the Wild Things Are) are "presenting" the film to limited domestic audiences. Fincher described his impression of the film as being, "what would've happened if Andrei Tarkovsky had made The Wizard of Oz".
I honestly can't wait for this to come out. I've grown pretty fond of the lead, Lee Pace, through his work in "Pushing Daisies" and am amazed at what Tarsem is able to conjure. Interestingly, the guy doesn't actually produce much. This is his first big project since The Cell. Talk about a rare treat.
Tarsem is unapologetically pragmatic, too.
"Money makes accountants happy. But I didn't want to end up an old guy, sitting around talking about the movie I never got to make". He financed this project himself, so I hope folks go out to see it. The project's artfulness, the director's sensibility and the general idea of supporting something truly creative should be enough to motivate the masses.
I certainly hope so.
March 27, 2008
[Courtesy: Cinematical]
Conversation about this article
1: Satvir Kaur (Boston, U.S.A.), March 31, 2008, 8:21 AM.
Interesting. I didn't even know about his earlier movie, 'The Cell' I'll try to get my hands on it if possible.
2: Manbeer (Glendale, U.S.A.), March 31, 2008, 6:37 PM.
The Cell was a visually stunning but bad movie, if you got past J'Lo and Vince Vaughan. But it was also a huge step away from the Old School.
3: Bawa Preet Ranjan Singh (Delhi, India), April 02, 2008, 2:01 PM.
Wikipedia mentions that he did his schooling from Bishop Cotton School, Himachal Pradesh. If I am not mistaken, he was in Dagshai Public School, Himachal Pradesh. And Manbeer is correct: The Cell was visually good but with little substance.