| The Fall | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Tarsem Singh |
| Produced by | Tarsem Singh Ajit Singh Tommy Turtle |
| Written by | Tarsem Singh Dan Gilroy Nico Soultanakis |
| Starring | Lee Pace Catinca Untaru Justine Waddell |
| Music by | Krishna Levy |
| Cinematography | Colin Watkinson |
| Editing by | Robert Duffy Spot Welders |
| Studio | Radical Media Absolute Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Roadside Attractions |
| Release date(s) | September 9, 2006 (TIFF) May 30, 2008 (United States) October 3, 2008 (United Kingdom) |
| Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | United States India |
| Language | English Romanian Latin |
| Box office | $3,199,759 |
The Fall is a 2006 adventure fantasy film directed by Tarsem Singh, starring Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, and Justine Waddell.[1] It is based on the screenplay of the 1981 Bulgarian film Yo Ho Ho by Valeri Petrov.[2] The film earned $3.2 million worldwide. The film was released to theaters in 2008. It should not be confused with another 2008 release of the same title, a legal drama by John Krueger.
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In 1920s Los Angeles, stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is in a hospital, bedridden and possibly paralyzed after a jump he took in his first film. A note blows in through his window and lands on his bed. The note is from Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), who is in the hospital recovering from a broken arm, which is in a stiff plaster cast. When Alexandra rushes in to take the note back, Roy tells her she is named after Alexander the Great, one of the greatest warriors of all time, and he begins to tell her a story about him. Alexandria is told she has to leave, but not before Roy promises to tell her an epic tale if she will return the next day.
The next morning, as Roy spins his tale of fantasy, Alexandria's imagination brings his characters to life. Roy's tale is about five heroes: a silent Indian warrior (Jeetu Verma), a muscular ex-slave named Otta Benga (Marcus Wesley), an Italian explosives expert called Luigi (Robin Smith), a surreal version of Darwin (Leo Bill) with a pet monkey, and a masked swashbuckling bandit (Pace). An evil ruler named Odious (Daniel Caltagirone) has committed an offense against each of the five, who all seek revenge. The heroes have been stranded on a butterfly-shaped reef with only a distant swim to shore, but the Masked Bandit can't swim. The group is jolted into action when word arrives that Odious will hang the bandit's brother. Darwin spots a swimming elephant on which the bandit rides to shore, where they are joined by a sixth hero, a mystic who emerges from a smoldering tree trunk after it had burst into flames. Alexandria vividly imagines her friends and the people around her appearing as the characters in Roy's story. One of her Sikh friends, who works at the orchard with her family, becomes the Indian (notably, cultural differences cause Alexandria to envision the Indian as a scimitar-wielding Sikh, despite Roy's allusions to the warrior's Native American 'squaw' and 'wigwam'); one of Roy's visitors, a professional one-legged stuntman, becomes Luigi (now with two legs); and the ice delivery man becomes Otta. Although Roy develops genuine affection for Alexandria, he also has an ulterior motive: by telling tales and gaining her trust, he tricks her into stealing morphine from the hospital pharmacy so that he can attempt suicide. Alexandria, however, misreads Roy’s note and returns with only three pills.
As the line between fact and fantasy blurs, more real-life people begin to populate Roy's fictitious stories and the stories themselves become a collaborative tale to which Alexandria also contributes. A hospital nurse, Evelyn, (Justine Waddell) becomes the center of a romantic feud between Governor Odious and the masked bandit, who is Roy. Alexandria herself becomes a character in the story: while Roy is the masked bandit, she is his daughter. Roy talks Alexandria into stealing a bottle of Morphine tablets locked in a fellow patient's cabinet. Roy downs the whole bottle. Going to see Roy the next morning, Alexandria sees a sheet covered body in the courtyard outside and thinks that he is dead. Running to Roy's bed she is surprised to find him asleep. After Alexandria awakens Roy, he realizes he is only alive because his neighboring patient is receiving a placebo. As Roy is restrained after yelling in anger, Alexandria is shuffled away.
Later that evening, Alexandria, desperate to help Roy, sneaks out of bed. In the pharmacy, she climbs onto the cabinet but loses her footing on a pestle, and falls to the floor. After surgery, Alexandria is visited by the bewheeled Roy in the recovery room, where he consoles her and confesses his deception. Now he can imagine only a grim ending to the tale, encouraging Alexandria to ask someone else to tell it, but she, in tears, insists on hearing Roy's ending. Roy reluctantly begins the rest of the story. The heroes die one by one, and it seems that Odious will be triumphant. Alexandria becomes upset, and Roy insists, "It's my story." She declares "Mine too," and in the end is able to exert some influence on the course of the tale. Finally the epic tale the two have been telling comes to an end with only the Bandit and his daughter remaining alive and Odious dying. Next, Roy and Alexandria along with the patients and staff of the hospital watch a viewing of the finished 'flicker' that Roy appeared in. With everyone laughing, only Roy's smile is broken in confusion when he sees that his life-threatening leap has been edited out of the film and that his horse is once again alive as another stuntman jumps from the railroad trestle safely into the saddle.
Some time later, Alexandria’s arm has fully healed and she returns to the orange orchard where her family works. Her voice over reveals that Roy had recovered and was now back at work again. At first Alexandria didn't believe it, but as she talks a montage of cuts from several of silent films' greatest and most dangerous stunts plays. She imagines all the stuntmen to be Roy.
According to the director's remarks on the DVD release of the film, Tarsem Singh largely financed the film with his own funds, determined to make the film according to his own vision, and paid members of the cast and crew on an equal basis rather than in more typical Hollywood fashion.
Singh's commentary indicates the film was made over a period of four years and incorporates footage shot in over 20 countries, including India, Indonesia (Bali), Italy, France, Spain, Namibia, China (PRC), and numerous others, a few of which are not listed in the credits. The contemporary South African mental hospital which substitutes as an early 20th century Los Angeles hospital and the principal setting throughout the film remained operational (in a separate wing) during filming, according to the DVD commentaries.[3]
The DVD supplementary features reveal that actor Lee Pace remained in a bed for most of the early filming at the director's suggestion, convincing most of the crew that he was in fact unable to walk. The intention, Tarsem and Pace noted, was to maximize the realism of Roy's physical limitations in the eyes of Catinca Untaru, whose lines and reactions as the character Alexandria were largely unscripted, and so were young Catinca's spontaneous interactions with Pace's character. For example, Alexandria's misinterpreting the letter E as the number 3 in a note written by Roy—came about from an accidental misreading by the 6-year-old actress during filming, which the director then realized he could adapt into a clever twist in the story.
To further the realism of young Catinca's performance, Tarsem had portions of the hospital scenes between Pace and his young costar filmed through small holes in the hospital bed curtains, maximizing the youngster's spontaneous interactions with Pace despite the presence of the film crew surrounding them.
The film's recurring musical theme is the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony.
The film opens with the 2nd movement allegretto of Beethoven's 7th symphony.
The Fall premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. For its theatrical release in 2008, the film was presented by David Fincher and Spike Jonze.
The film received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 59% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 101 reviews.[6] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 64/100, based on 23 reviews.[7] Roger Ebert gave the film 4/4, and wrote, "You might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it."[8] Nathan Lee of The New York Times, however, wrote that the film "is a genuine labor of love — and a real bore."[9]
The film appeared on a couple of critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club named it the best film of 2008, Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer named it the 6th best film of 2008, and Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times named it among his top 20 films of 2008.[10]
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