The Fall (35mm)

  • A man in a black, wide-brimmed hat & a black, gold-laced, sleeveless shirt with is right hand raised, smeared with red, in the shape of a gun, in front of a red background.
  • Five elaborately costumed people dwarfed by the surrounding mountains & desert, by a lake and what appears to be an exploding tree!
  • Five men, each holding a weapon, costumed so elaborately it's impossible to describe here, except the man in the center in a black, wide-brimmed hat and a black, gold-laced, sleeveless shirt, wearing a red mask across his eyes.
  • A large, dark man where a helmet with horns & a quiver of arrows slung 'round his shoulder, stands with his back us in front of the Taj Mahal, with a woman being tied to a pole on his left, a man in a black, wide-brimmed hat & a black, gold-laced, sleeveless shirt who appears to be holding a pistol & another man dress in white robes and a black bowler hat, to his right. Way in the background, 3 saddled camels await by a mote.
  • 5 saddled horses & 4 elaborately costumed people dwarfed by the surrounding mountains & desert, look on as a man in a black, with a wide-brimmed hat & a black, gold-laced, sleeveless shirt kneels before a humongous white cloth, half of which is soaked in red, hanging from some a wooden structure, surrounded by red-soaked rocks.
  • A five-year-old girl, with a truly maniacal expression on her face- eyes crossed and tongue sticking out, is dressed in a black, with a wide-brimmed hat & a black, gold-laced shirt. That girl is Romanian child prodigy Catinca Untaru. Where in the world is she today?
“There is something transgressive about how it blurs the categories of pop & art… it takes its place among an elite category of cinema: a careful artwork that doesn’t advertise its own gravitas. Perhaps that’s the definition of a cult classic.”
– Will Lasky, Slant

Rick is ever so curious as to what you will make of the entirely CGI-free, hyper-real, Dali-like dreamscapes that visionary director/ producer Tarsem Singh gathered from the natural world.

An Indian-American director, known for his work on music videos, TV commercials, and some truly terrifying imagery in movies such as THE CELL, THE FALL is easily Tarsem’s most ambitious undertaking, in which he spent 17 years to scout locations in 24 countries, and then another four years to get it all in the can. Needless to say, he was obliged to finance this cinematic folly on this own. Rick, David Fincher & Spike Jonze would like to thank him for doing so, right here and now. Who’s with us?

At the center of this rapturous fever dream of a film is a child listening to a story. She is a 5-year-old immigrant girl convalescing with a broken arm after falling from a tree while picking oranges. Set at a Los Angeles hospital in the 1920s,  the child befriends a silent-movie stuntman with paralyzed legs and a broken heart. In exchange for undercover deliveries of morphine, he spins her a tale. That story involves a band of five heroes led by the Black Bandit, a princely African slave, a swami, an explosives expert, and the naturalist Charles Darwin, all tilting at an evil Governor Odious who has imprisoned them.

“Tarsem has found a home for his endlessly unique visions, and (wouldn’t you know?) it’s beyond artifice and stealing toward art”. – Austin Chronicle

Directed by Tarsem Singh. Written by Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis & Tarsem Singh, based on a screenplay for the 1981 Bulgarian film YO HO YO by Valeri Petrov. With Lee Pace, Marcus Wesley, Julian Bleach, Robin Smith, Leo Bill, Daniel Caltagirone, and introducing Catinca Untaru as Alexandria. Production Design: Ged Clarke.Costume Design: Eiko Ishioka. Cinematography: Colin Watkinson. 35mm.

Runtime
1h 57m
Year
2006
Director
Tarsem Singh
Format
2D Film
Country
us
Language
English
First Showing
December 22, 2022
Categories
Staff Picks , Featured
  • Assisted Listening