The Fall
Screening: Monday 7 June 2010
UK/India/USA 2006.Director: Tarsem Singh.
Starring: Catinca Untaru, Lee Pace, Justine Waddell.
Subtitles.
Certificate: 15. 112 minutes.
Synopsis
1915. A little girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru, then six) befriends a bedridden stuntman named Roy (Lee Pace) in a Los Angeles hospital. She is captivated by his fantastic tales of five heroes seeking revenge on the evil Governor Odious. Roy talks of wonders such as bandits, deserts, horses, derring-do and her imagination creates the images, drawing on the people she sees around her in the hospital but transposing them to dazzling locations. And as the story becomes more surreal and subversive, the backdrops get more amazing, flitting from Prague to India to Bali and Fiji.However, Roy has an ulterior motive. He feels his life is worthless and he is manipulating Alexandria to bring him morphine by promising another instalment of the story. He is embracing the end of life whilst she is facing up to the difficulties and cruelty of the adult world.
Notes
This is a stunningly beautiful movie, full of exotic scenes, huge vistas and colours almost too vivid to bear. It’s like a mix of the Arabian Nights and Brothers Grimm, with some historical figures such as Charles Darwin thrown in. In the richness of its imagery it brings to mind Guillermo del Toro's masterful Pan’s Labyrinth or Terry Gilliam’s underrated The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.A must-watch for lovers of the strange and unusual, this visually ravishing oddball drama has sequences of genuine beauty and charm - even if it won't be to everyone's taste. — Saxon Bullock on the Film 4 website
Untrained as an actress, (Catinca Untaru’s) performance was created out of a series of games and improvisations, with the camera and crew often hidden from her. She "acts" like a real child, not a Hollywood caricature, giving the film a solid realism that allows the fantasy to truly fly. — Phelim O’Neil, The Guardian
