Art will be art, no matter the size of self-pride reflected. In fact, most arts are not without the motivation of ego. You set the rules, you stand on your grounds and you express your own beliefs. You are in direct contention with yourself; you are your worst critic. I have enjoyed some of such moments, yet I have also been in the exact opposite countless times. It is never a good feeling when you have an assignment full of potentials, which promises to be something worth delving into, turning out to be a labour of anger and hate. These sentiments, however, will not be felt for one particular gentleman; a man who feeds himself with unlimited expectations, realizing his overblown visions, self-indulged in his craft and yet managed to produce (what proves to be, as I read reviews after reviews), one of the most ambitious picture to date. This man I refer to is Tarsem Singh.
Known as the creative genius behind award-winning music-videos (most notable being R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion) and dozens of famous brands commercials, Tarsem is an idealist born for the silver screen. It is in his method of storytelling (or in this case, story ad-libbing) that transgresses any words, as he illuminates pictures on celluloid canvases, where the final outcome is nothing short than, ironically, preposterous and magical. Behold the chimerical images plucked out from the tasteful of minds and one could safely judged him as a scenic painter, perhaps even as an inventive architect of child-like fantasies. Take time out to escape your pathetic, mundane life (if you are living one right now) and catch The Fall (if you have not done so); only then will you have a clearer definition of this fine auteur who sees everyday things in atypical lights, forms and colours.
REVIEW OF ‘THE FALL’
(May Contain Stimulants, Hallucinogens and Spoilers)
What attracted me in the beginning was not the official trailers or the numerous voices that cite the film as a cinematic masterpiece. It was the theatrical release poster (above) that sparks my curiosity – a little homage to Salvador Dali’s The Face of Mae West Which May Be Used As An Apartment, circa 1935. Just one look and I am already drawn into the absurdity of it all. Because anything that spells surrealism gets my nod at the very first instance.
The Fall was initially released in 2006 , premiering at Toronto International Film Festival and had limited number of runs in several countries. Shot over a period of four years and funded entirely by Tarsem, it was based on the screenplay for the 1981 Bulgarian film Yo Ho Ho by Valeri Petrov. Directors David Fincher and Spike Jonze presented the film last year during its theatrical release, and it has since earned over $3 million worldwide. The film received mixed reviews with critic Roger Ebert calling it “Magnificent!” while Xan Brooks from The Guardian mocking it as “a vast sugar-frosted folly”. Whichever way it landed on, The Fall somehow managed to convince critics of its unique magical-realism, even when the narrative starts slacking in places and turning weak at the knees. Drawbacks in the plotlines caused a detrimental effect to the picture’s progress, and if not for the striking images that were beautifully put forth, The Fall might have been a total misadventure. Yet not many fantasy movies, with better plots or otherwise, can match the visual trickery of this singular tour de force. This I claim in boast when I came to learn that the movie was shot with very minimal CGIs and not a single frame were captured with the additional green screens. Even though how inconceivable a scene might appear to be, everything (or so Tarsem claims) was shot on real locations.
The locations were integral to the story’s forward motion and they were chosen with utmost dedications. Tarsem envisioned the artistic directions and penned the world as his backdrop. It took him roughly 16 years to collect footages, all the while directing for TVCs and MTVs worldwide. He noted that the juxtaposition of realities and fantasies had to be startling so as to keep the audiences engaged. To recapture the tall tale told by the traumatic tellers, he went scouting for suitable venues - crossing uncharted terrains, scaling high mountains and visiting exotic locales. In totality, the film was shot on 26 locations over 18 countries, all of which are existing spots of interest. A personal favourite would be the irreplaceable India - a stunning visual eye-candy at every turn, and I can’t help comparing the differing details of that with the grittiness shown in Danny Boyle’s (overhyped) Slumdog Millionaire. Such stark contrast.
India emerged as the perfect choice for Tarsem’s desired takes. A 400-year-old observatory in Jaidpur became the Labyrinth of Despair while Jodhpur, the Blue City in Rajastan, turned into the Big Blue City surrounding the antagonist’s castle. The Chand Baori stepwell in the village of Abhaneri transformed into the puzzling ascending/descending series of infinite staircase that will remind you of MC Escher’s Relativity lithograph of 1953.
But it was the Kecak Dance Sequence over at the Bali Rice Terrace, interspersed with a montage of traveling bandits, which instantly won me over. Haunting and awe-inspiring, this could possibly be the high point of the entire feature; and for cleverly incorporating culture in a fairyland setting, the unbelievable for once became tangible (though short lived).
The story is rather simple, but never plain, and because it involves a child’s mind at work, then anything is possible and forgivable. At the heart of The Fall lie the contradicting themes: imagination and existence, truth and myth, love and hate, all coexisting in a stupendous yarn. It starts in Los Angeles, around 1915, where an injured stuntman that goes by the name of Roy Walker (Lee Pace, of Pushing Daisies fame) fabricates a story to a 4 years-old girl patient named Alexandria, in exchange for some medical (objectives may varied) assistance. Roy, who’s on the brink of suicide after his lover left him for the leading man, narrates the tale with extreme details while Alexandria fills us with her far-out vision of the story. It is not long before they begin to star in their own make-believed adventure, similar to the kind that plunges out from an innocent child’s flight of fancy. The spontaneous parables consist of assorted characters who turned out to be (as we go along with the ride) characters in the real world. The double-casting routine brings into mind other films, like the classic Wizard of Oz and the modish (but forgettable) Big Fish, although the caricatures in The Fall are more relatable in terms of attributes and mission. Their traits are as prismatic as the costumes that they donned; each personality resonates with every passing frame, flaunting wits and subtle humour. Their ventures and perils played out like a spectre in a sleep; sometimes a nightmare and other times a hypnagogic vista.
As real events brought the two creators closer, the fictional head-trip escalated to the point of no return. Like all fairy tales, an ending is a must, and not all endings make you smile. The storytellers need to prove themselves that, as narrators of imagination, they possess the power to change scenarios, outline their fates and ultimately shape the culminating points.
These scenarios are in the good hands of Tarsem. With his deftness, he unfolds the carefully constructed, dreamlike tableaux like a magician pulling a rabbit or two out of the top hat. Breathtaking cinematography, combined with flavourful and valuable heritage, converged into a world of visual revelry where none truly exists. Emblazoning on the screen are simulacrum of the subconscious minds, pellucid and obscure, bordering on madness. But it is the characters (pulled off with dramatic effect, at times exaggerated) that hooked me into the fanciful journey and turned me into a believer for an hour or so. Within that brief time frame, I was a child once again. And it is sensible to say that M. Night failed at that with his Lady In The Water scam.
I will say no more about this egocentric piece of rare gem. Any form of verbal or written description is pointless (including this post). Leave the real world at the doorstep and fall over this with an open mind; there must be something in it that will stir viewers, emotionally or visually. It is a trance-inducing reel comparable to nothing, and this one sits nicely among my 100 top movies of all time, and will be amongst the 13 best for 2009 (yes, I stated 13 and not 10, because I’m sick of being even, and there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be more than 10, and because Ebert’s words must ring true - “A best films list should be a celebration of wonderful films, not a chopping process”).
Stunning images @ http://thefallthemovie.com
I started writing this quick review shortly after realizing how difficult it was to map out and analyse ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ in reverse order. There is absolutely no way for me to employ the same “backward aging” technique in my review. I once tried sending a recap of 'X-Men 3' to a group of friends by telepathy, in line with the power exerted by Professor Charles Xavier, but it was a joke failed tremendously. And for 'The Da Vinci Code', I managed to outline key pointers in the form of a cryptograph, but I did not post it anywhere for fear of being called senile. Suffice to say, a review should be as straightforward as the above. Unless you have any other ideas, don’t call me.
