Rating: 5/5

The Fall is the story of Roy Walker (Lee Pace), a Hollywood stuntman in the early 20th century who is hospitalized after an injury he sustained while performing a stunt for a film, and Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), a young immigrant girl who is hospitalized with a broken arm. While in the hospital Roy and Alexandria become friends. Roy begins telling Alexandria a story about five adventurers who are united in their hatred for Governor Odious (Daniel Caltagirone), a man that has done each of them a great wrong. In exchange for the story, Roy convinces Alexandria to bring him Morphine pills.

The Fall is one of those movie gems that gets passed over by the masses. As Roy tells his story to Alexandria, we are taken to amazing lands during times of old. The film moves back and forth from Roy’s story to Roy and Alexandria in the hospital. Much like in The Wizard of Oz (1939), as Roy’s story progresses we begin to see more people from the hospital as characters in the story. The cinematography is amazing. All of the shots are beautiful and crisp. The sets and locations are amazing as well. The story is filled with fantasy, adventure, and legend.

The only real complaint I have about the film, is that things didn’t go the way I wanted them too towards the end. Now, that’s not to say it was wrong for the film, but I just wasn’t happy with some of it. However, in the end, I feel that The Fall is an excellent film and should be a part of everyone’s movie collection.

Director: Tarsem Singh

Writer: Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, Tarsem Singh

Cast: Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Lee Pace

MPAA Rating: R for some violent images.

Runtime: 117 minutes

As the late-year Oscar rush continues, here are a few of the year’s worthiest contenders the Motion Picture Academy has probably missed.

THE FALL — Picture, Director (Tarsem Singh), Actor (Lee Pace), Actress (Catinca Untaru), Cinematography, Score, Costume Design, Film Editing

Well on its way to becoming this decade’s Dark City: a visionary achievement the Academy has never heard of, let alone honored. Singh’s thrilling work of visual art is a testament to what the movies can be; its exquisite location shoots put green screens to shame. You could watch it with the sound off and still be filled with a certain childlike wonder for the possibilities of the cinema. It features a career-vaulting performance by Lee Pace (TV’s Pushing Daisies), and one by young Catinca Untaru that is perhaps the finest youth performance I’ve seen this generation. It’s one of the best films of the year.

TAKE — Actress (Minnie Driver), Original Screenplay (Charles Oliver)

Go figure. My favorite film from 2007’s Tribeca Film Festival is finally released to theaters and it disappears without a trace. What’s more, it receives a drubbing from most critics. Consider me the minority report: The emotional continuity of Oliver’s screenplay improves upon the often self-conscious time-shifting of Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga’s films (21 Grams, Babel). And the performance of Driver, playing a mother seeking closure after the death of her young son, is remarkable.

IN BRUGES — Actor (Brendan Gleeson)

Gleeson plays Ken, one of a pair of hit men forced to lay low in Belgium after a job. There, he must make a decision between a man he is loyal to and one who has hope for a better future. Gleeson expresses the weariness of a man eroded by a painful and violent past, but with enough of his soul intact to imagine a different way to live.

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY — Actress (Amy Adams and Frances McDormand), Adapted Screenplay (David Magee, Simon Beaufoy)

An unexpected gem. Magee and Beaufoy add the subtext of war to a story adapted from Winifred Watson’s novel, adding a somber gravitas to an otherwise delightful farce about the transformations of women in 1939 London. Adams and McDormand, as a vain actress and her overwhelmed social secretary respectively, give performances that work on two levels: as delirious comedy, and as a study of women who survive in an inhospitable era.

HAMLET 2 — Actor (Steve Coogan), Original Song (“Rock Me Sexy Jesus”)

British comic icon Coogan is the glue that holds together a freewheeling comedy that at every instant threatens to fly off the rails. He plays hapless drama teacher Dana Marschz as an artist of such pure creative abandon that he draws us in despite his obvious lack of talent. Finally, he puts on his titular masterpiece, an uproariously inappropriate mishmash of styles and subjects whose highlight is “Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” the year’s most audacious original song. If the Academy had the courage to nominate South Park, they should nominate this one too.

THE VISITOR — Actor (Richard Jenkins)

It’s easy to overlook Jenkins, just as it’s easy to overlook his character, Walter Vale. The actor uses eloquent body language to express the loneliness and isolation of the college professor, whose life starts to gradually open up again as the result of a newfound friendship with immigrants illegally subletting his New York City apartment. But don’t mistake subtlety for ease. The veteran character actor inhabits this tortured man from the inside out.

IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS — Original Screenplay (Alex Holdridge)

Owing its inspiration to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, this indie comedy follows a young man and woman (Scoot McNairy and Sara Simmonds) who arrange a meeting through Craig’s List so they won’t be alone at midnight on New Year’s. We follow them on a Los Angeles adventure that neither will ever forget, and we get to know and love them through dialogue so sublime that we hardly want the night to end.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY — Supporting Actor (Eddie Marsan)

Marsan’s irascible driving instructor Scott serves as the counterpoint for the effervescence of star Sally Hawkins’s Poppy, but soon he explodes in a scene of such profound hurt that we, like Poppy, are taken aback. In this climactic scene, he shows us Scott’s raw soul, and in his quivering lip we see the deep, deep sadness of a man exposing his most personal wounds.

TRANSSIBERIAN — Original Screenplay (Brad Anderson and Will Conroy)

A study in suspense writing. Director Anderson and his co-writer Conroy have Hitchcock’s understanding of how to make an effective thriller. Their wily misdirections and psychological perceptiveness (star Emily Mortimer plays a reformed bad girl falling back on old habits) expertly engage and manipulate us. They play us like a fiddle.

The story is about a stuntman in Hollywood in the 1920s. He has fallen, both literally and metaphorically (the movie – while breathtaking – isn’t subtle). He’s in hospital.  A famous actor has seduced the stuntman’s girl. Of all his injuries, this cuckolding is the worst. The stuntman becomes addicted to morphine. Bedridden, it’s hard for him to maintain a constant supply. He befriends a little girl (hospitalized after – you guessed it – a fall) as a ruse so she’ll steal morphine for him. In return for her help, the little girl keeps bugging the stuntman to tell her a story. He does – and it’s breathtaking – but as the story unfolds, the morphine takes over…

Tarsem Singh spent four years making The Fall. In eighteen countries. With his own money. And Catinca Untaru still steals the show. In interview, the director speaks of how he couldn’t have made the movie till he found the right girl. And he was right. When a movie is this dazzling, it needs reality. Untaru has never acted before. With luck, she will never act again. Not for Sophia Coppola-type reasons, but because: she’ll never be this good. Non-actors get one shot at a perfect performance. Then they become actors. There are reaction shots The Fall catches from Untaru that one actor in a million could replicate. Tarsem Singh’s best decision was to let this little girl dictate how every other actor behaves. When Lee Pace (the stuntman) is with her, you’re watching an actor unlearn acting. And be better for it. Because acting is play time. Would that every movie had the luxury of children playing children instead of “child actors”.

So what do we see? Some examples: the desert; a wall of sand that looks a thousand feet high; a lone rider like an ink smear on the dunes. Or how about an island in the shape of a butterfly; blissfully white; set it in a billowing blue ocean. Or a dead tree sprouting into flames. Or an aqueduct designed by M.C. Escher. Or a wedding couple ringed by whirling Dervishes. Or tiny birds flying out of a man’s mouth. Or – Beauty. In essence. The Fall is “the full meal” (as a wise teacher of mine once phrased it). It is absurd, sensual and (my favourite) unabashed. It puts me in mind of movies like The Fountain, where the audience has to have the right appetite. You either gorge on such movies or you’re bored by them. Cynics will only gag.

While spirituality might seem ham-fisted in Singh’s handling of it (“Are you trying to save my soul?” the stuntman asks, repeatedly), like Darren Aronofsky, the soul of his movie isn’t there in words, it’s grasped holistically, through the movie. To put it another way, The Fall would be about the soul if the stuntman and the little girl talked about cornflakes.   Like a great song which leaps the boundaries of its form; the message isn’t the words, it’s the music.

It’s easy to wear-out a word like “breathtaking”. How good can it be? we long to sneer. But great movies come from a director’s childish awe at the world. You can’t make great movies if the world doesn’t amaze you. How else to explain the power of the close-up? To look at something so intently that – for a few seconds, a lifetime – it engulfs you. Human faces are the best kept secrets told by close-ups. Most of us still retain the capacity to be awed by a desert or an ocean. And the deserts and oceans of The Fall are awe-inspiring as any in movies. But that one little girl. We’d miss her. She and everyone else who’s ever given a great performance on-screen. Because great acting is only half of it. For the other half: you have to look close.

País: La India

Director: Krishna Levy

Reparto: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddel, Julian Bleach, Robin Smith, Daniel Caltagirone, Leo Bill, Sean Gilder, Grant Brett Swamby, Marcus Wesley, Jeetu Verma…

***

Alexandria es una pequeña de 5 años que a causa de una caida al recoger naranjas en el huerto de sus padres, es ingresada en el hospital para rehabilitarse. Durante su estancia, conoce a un hombre que resulta ser especialista de cine.

El hombre decide contarle una historia sobre Alejandro Magno para conseguir que la pequeña le consiga Morfina. Innocentemente accede y este promete seguir contándole una historia que recorrerá todos los confines del mundo si se la trae.

El argumento es ese, parece simple, pero nada más lejos. Es maravilloso, la historia es preciosa y enseña muchisimas cosas que a una pequeña como Alexandria, le resultan muy valiosas. No sólo a ella, si no al resto de los que asistimos a la narración del cuento fantástico.

Visualmente esa película es sublime, hay un claro contraste entre la parte realista y la parte fantástica de la película. La parte realista es tan cotidiana y  acogedora que te absorve y quieres ser parte la historia y te sumerges. La parte fantástica es… podría decir una burrada mayúscula, pero diré que es un placer para los sentidos.

Los actores, en especial los dos protagonistas están encantadores y forman una pareja muy bonita y creo que hay mucha compenetración entre los dos personajes principales, cosa que muchas veces es difícil con una niña tan pequeña.

El guión de las dos historias paralelas es genial, nada fuera de tono y muy bien compaginado y unido. La música ayuda a introducirse dentro de la historia y crear una sensación mágica.

El buen sabor de boca que te deja esta película perdura, no hace mucho que la vi por primera vez y hace dos días tuve que volver a saborearla, olerla y sentirla. Recomendable para todo el mundo, creo que es una de esas películas olvidadas que sin embargo todo el mundo debería ver. Es una joya, en definitiva, un 10.

Duración: 1hr 57min

Clasificación de edades: 13 años

Genero: Aventuras, Drama

Titulo Original: The Fall

Nacionalidad: India / Inglaterra / EE.UU.

Estreno: 14-11-2008

Director: Tarsem Singh

Intérpretes: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Julian Bleach, Leo Bill, Marcus Wesley

Trailler:

Sinopsis:

Los Ángeles, años 20. Un especialista en escenas de acción es ingresado en un hospital tras sufrir una caída que le puede dejar sin movilidad. Mientras pasa el tiempo postrado en una cama, conoce a Alexandria, una niña inmigrante con el brazo roto que se convierte en uno de sus principales apoyos. Para que la pequeña se olvide de su pena, el especialista comienza a relatar una historia maravillosa que transportará a ambos a exóticos parajes de todo el mundo con la simple ayuda de su imaginación.

El Festival de Sitges 2007 se clausuró con una rotunda ganadora: “The Fall. El sueño de Alexandria”. Rodada en más de 20 países diferentes con una fotografía bellísima, la película se basa en los cuentos fantásticos que un enfermo relata a una niña accidentada mientras los dos permanecen en el hospital. Su director, Tarsem Singh, tiene experiencia en el género gracias a “La celda”, el thriller fantástico que en el año 2000 protagonizó Jennifer López, aunque en esta ocasión se ha basado en una cinta búlgara de los años 80 llamada “Yo Ho Ho”.

La pareja protagonista está formada por Lee Pace, un actor norteamericano al que hemos visto en “Historia de un crimen” o “La condesa rusa”, y la rumana Catinca Untaru, que debuta en la gran pantalla con tan solo 10 años después de superar un casting que incluía a cientos de niños de todo el mundo. Les acompañan, entre otros, Justine Waddell (Chaos), Robin Smith (Man to man) y Leo Bill (Entre vivos y muertos).

Valoración: 8’2/10

Vencedora del festival de Sitges 2007, nos llega ahora a nuestras pantallas de cine. Tardaron 4 años a rodar esta película, y no me extraña, cada paisaje, cada tomo, esta perfectamente cuidado. Le falta algo para ser excelente, pero sin duda, es una notable película.

Fuente:http://www.fotolog.com/peliculasestreno/50834144

Aunque los cines de Las Palmas no se hayan enterado, hoy se estrena The Fall. La que yo pensaba que era la tercera película de Tarsem Singh, después de Más Allá de los Sueños y La Celda. Estaba equivocado.

Su primera película fue La Celda y no tiene ninguna relación con Más Allá de los Sueños. Éste, su segundo trabajo, es un remake de una película búlgara de 1981. No es esto lo que le ha dado fama al hombre si no la cantidad de videoclips y anuncios que ha dirigido. Lo cual me sirve de excusa perfecta para poner, tras el salto, Losing my Religion de REM.

La Celda no me gustó… demasiado oscura y encima protagonizada por Jennifer López, pero era original y me encantaría ver como Tarsem trata otros temas. The Fall pinta mucho mejor y ya veremos como le va cuando enfrente a hombres contra Titanes en 2010.

Inkább művészfilm ez mint hollywoodi tucatkommersz, bár annyira nem értelmezhetetlen darab, mint amilyennek az előzetes alapján tűnt. Alapvetően egy drámáról van szó, melyben David Lynch filmjeihez hasonlóan erőteljesen elmosódik a határ a képzelet és az álomvilág között (sőt ha már itt tartunk, akkor érdemes megemlíteni, hogy a túlságosan erős képzelőerővel megáldott gyermek témája már a Del Toro féle Faun labirintusában is megjelent).

Tovább is van>>

She’s the cutest thing I’ve seen on screen in recent memory. Very talented, but not at all annoying in that Dakota Fanning way. I want to pinch her cheeks. I want her to walk around in my house and show me her box of treasures. I don’t want her teeth to grow in; I don’t want her broken arm to heal. She is so precious, adorable, and lovable. The Telegraph’s Tim Robey called her “a chubby gurgling little thing from Romania.” Now I want a Romanian baby!

Bongo and I have been running around impersonating one of her first lines, “How do you go to the potty?” It sounds weird out of context, but after you see The Fall, I promise you will want to get in touch with your inner child. If you’re lucky, that inner child is Untaru. She’s like that little kid at a birthday party who isn’t necessarily a part of the in-crowd. She borders between precocious, mature thought (spoiler later) and pure, childlike daydreaminess. Did I mention she’s super cute?

Onto the rest of the film. I loved it. From the adult yet whimsical story to the gorgeous costumes to the typography in the end credits. LOVED IT! A lot of people rave about The Fall’s cinematography, which is gorgeous. I felt like I was watching a magazine spread in action. It must have been the Western movies component to the story, but the movie’s frequent use of vast blue sky made me think of Marlboro ads. The story is fantastic, a seemingly lighter version of Pan’s Labyrinth but darker version of The Princess Bride, but the visuals choreographed to tell it are really amazing. They filmed in over 20 different countries! That’s gotta be the coolest gig ever! For my future honeymoon I would like to visit each spot once. Not a tall order at all.

The costumes were designed by Eiko Ishioka, and with any luck, this will be my next Halloween costume:

If I were a Project Runway judge I would sing about the innovation behind the fan-mask and the beauty of the silhouette. Sigh. Ishioka’s coffee table must be hidden under the weight of a thousand inspirational fashion mags and clippings from all over the world. It was kinda like Cirque du Soleil plus Julie Taymor meets origami. And you know how I’m a sucker for multicultural things. (Also keep an eye out for the purple dress Nurse Evelyn wears. She embodied my idealized genie.)

It came as no surprise, after I watched the movie, to learn that The Fall is directed by Tarsem Singh, who directed The Cell. Whereas The Cell made me feel like I had just been mentally violated, The Fall seemed to open me. To be fair, they are completely different stories from each other, but Singh’s rich storytelling can be seen in both. Singh didn’t skimp on visual creativity in either movie, and now I think he is a master at dreams.
In the final conflict between Alexandria (Untaru) and Roy (Lee Pace, the piemaker from Pushing Daisies!), Roy can’t get past the fact that his ex girlfriend did not love him. He feels down on life and can’t bring himself out of his suicidal state. He ends up killing the story he’s woven for Alexandria. She fights with Roy to keep the story, and him, alive. Both speaking through tears, she bluntly tells him, “No, she doesn’t love him! Your girlfriend stayed in the car!”

It broke my heart! It was the slap of reality he needed, and thus Alexandria brought Roy back to living.

Dir. Tarsem Singh
(R) ★ ★ ★ ★

There isn’t a single shot in The Fall that isn’t interesting. The great majority are beautiful. Several are astonishing. Shot in two dozen countries, the film takes advantage of some of the most remarkable locations in the world and redefines the possibilities of the medium. It has Lawrence of Arabia’s sensitivity to physical space, shown in glorious wide shots of deserts, mountains, and architecturally magnificent buildings. It is equally attentive to color, a broad palate showcased in the remarkable costumes and natural landscapes. There are no green screens. This is an easy bet for my list of the year’s best films.

The director is Tarsem Singh — credited only as Tarsem, but we can forgive his indulgence. He reportedly spent seventeen years scouting the locations and, I think, singlehandedly justifies the creation of an Academy Award category for location scouts. From Muslim mosques, to African dunes, to a Brahmin city painted entirely in blue, Tarsem has found the kinds of places that if they didn’t exist you could only have imagined. He previously directed 2000’s The Cell, a grossly underrated film, and before that was a music video director. It is thus no surprise that he has made a film of visual splendor, but he also has a story to match, which brings the film into the same league as Pan’s Labyrinth.

The story proper takes place in a Los Angeles hospital in the 1920s (filmed in South Africa), where a young Romanian immigrant recovers from a broken arm that was the result of a fall while picking oranges. She is Alexandria, and she’s played by Catinca Untaru, a major discovery. She is befriended by a Hollywood stuntman, Roy (Lee Pace), who also suffered a fall, on the set of a movie, and now is paralyzed from the waist down. He entertains her with an epic story, but he has an ulterior motive.

As they shape the story together, it’s shown to us in fantasy sequences set in the beautiful locales. We learn more about Alexandria and Roy. They become closer. And then the stakes are raised. That’s all I’ll describe of the plot, because I don’t want to spoil its secrets. This is a film of discovery for the eyes and the emotions. It’s the kind of film they don’t make anymore, although I don’t think they ever made them quite like this. Special effects have become a crutch for the movie industry. Used unwisely, they deconstruct wonder and piece it back together as empty spectacle. Movies like 300, Speed Racer, and the recent Star Wars films create grandiose images using computers and then parade actors in front of them. At best, we admire the pretty pictures but feel nothing. There is no joy in it. Compare it to the famous scene in Gone with the Wind where the camera pulls back and reveals an entire battlefield full of dead and wounded soldiers. How did they do it? Lots and lots of extras, gathered in real physical space, to make us feel the human reality of the casualties of war.

Special effects have their place, but like all things in film they are tools best employed by artists. Directors like Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Robert Rodriguez have used effects and green screens with great success. The Fall could have been made with green screens. It would have been cheaper and logistically simpler. I think it might still have been a good film, but it would not have captured my imagination the way it does. In The Bucket List, a good film, the Taj Majal was created with visual effects. In The Fall, they go there for real, and the difference is palpable. The reality of the locations achieves a wonder that effects could not reproduce.

I have been a fan of Lee Pace since the premiere of his television series Pushing Daisies last fall. 2008 has been a breakthrough year for him. He earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the series. He appeared on the big screen in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, where he demonstrated a suavity out of old Hollywood. The Fall was filmed before either of those projects and features what may be the best performance of his young career, full of volatile anger directed inwards and outwards.

His co-star Untaru is a revelation. She gives a performance so good I spent much of the film wondering how she was so good. She was six years old when the film was made, but it’s not a precocious performance. She behaves as a six-year-old would behave and speaks as a six-year-old would speak, without affectation and utterly natural, yet the role is also emotionally demanding and she doesn’t miss a beat. How does she do it? It’s a credit to the talent of the young actress, but also to Tarsem’s direction of her. The DVD special features are illuminating: he did not have her memorize lines but rather allowed her some freedom to improvise, and elements of her performance influenced the screenplay. There is a language barrier between the Romanian Untaru and American Lee Pace; rather than work around it, Tarsem uses it, and the actors develop an easy, unforced rapport.

The cinematography is by Colin Watkinson, who remarkably has never photographed another feature film. He previously worked as a focus puller, which proves to be an advantageous skill; during some shots, the actors are on one mountain and the camera is on another. The costumes by Eiko Ishioka are innovative and striking; she’s an Oscar winner for 1992’s Dracula. Robert Duffy’s film editing bridges reality and fantasy and unifies settings from across the globe into a single, mystifying world. Krishna Levy’s score incorporates multiple musical styles and cultures and is at times playful, grand, and solemn. Tarsem is the visionary filmmaker who pulls it all together. This is his first film since 2000. The time was well spent.

Tarsem’s masterpiece, The Fall, still charms though it loses some of its impact on the small screen.  Honestly, a film this visually dazzling should be seen and appreciated on the big screen, but it isn’t necessary to enjoy the story.

Alexandria (played by newcomer Catinca Untaru) is a young girl trapped in a 1920s California hospital until her broken arm heals.  On one of her wanderings through the hospital buildings, she comes across Roy Walker (Lee Pace), a stuntman with a broken spirit in addition to a broken body.  In exchange for morphine that Alexandria steals from the hospital’s pharmacy, Roy weaves a tale together for Alexandria out of bits and pieces of their daily experiences at the hosptial set against a fantastic landscape.  This story-landscape created by compiling and collaging real deserts, palaces, and labryinths from around the world unseen on camera before is the amazing triumph of Tarsem Singh (whose only other feature film directing credit is The Cell starrring Jennifer Lopez).  The primary focus of the film is visual presentation, all else – story, dialogue, narrative, etc., – are second.  For some critics, this proved to be a problem, but I can’t seem to care when viewing Tarsem’s lushly filmed scenes.

Tarsem knows his strengths and by keeping his story simple (almost mythic), he is able to convey more with one image than twenty lines of dialogue.  Thus, when Roy and Alexandria pick themselves up again after their respective falls (physical, emotional, and spiritual), it doesn’t matter that it’s not surprising.  They both carry themselves beautifully threw their scenes.  Untaru is brilliant and sells the whole film with by using her sweetness and precociousous.  Whereas, Pace is able to turn the drug-addicted coward into someone the audience can understand and feel compassionate towards.  Between his work in this film and his role on Pushing Daisies, Pace is continually proving himself to be a capable and engaging actor.  Therefore, predictability doesn’t matter.  (Let’s face it, in this day and age, we know the ends of most myths.)  What matters is that we moved through a visual world we’d never known existed before, and we came back from the experience richer for it.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/

This review has no spoilers and minimal language.

There is a lot of debate as to whether a film can be amazing simply because of its visuals, and it seems to have reached a new height with The Fall. There are many people who believe the film fell flat – they say it was a dissapointment – while others call it a masterpiece. At least both sides agree that the film looks absolutely stunning. I wouldn’t quite give it the level of praise that the latter group is doting out, but I will say that it is one of the best films I’ve seen all year, and most definetly the most visually impressive. It also has perhaps the best opening credit sequence I’ve seen in awhile.

Since the visuals are so distinct and such a large part of this film (some would say the only part), it’s only fitting to talk about them first. Tarsem’s style is not really like any other director. It can be slightly compared to Del Toro, if he used very little CGI, and it can be more easily compared to Terry Gilliam’s more visually intensive films like Brazil. And yet it’s not at all like either of those, he has his own view and it is a pleasure to watch from beginning to end. There are enough visually mindblowing scenes in this film to warrant both getting a copy on Blu-Ray (which I plan to do) and multiple viewings.

The acting was well done on the part of the entire cast, and the actors always knew just how serious or ridiculous to push their roles. The fantasy sequences were not meant to be very serious and the actors would play them up so that you can’t help but smile – and often laugh. Then there was the lead roles in the “real” world. Lee Pace was great and obviously talented, but the show was stolen by the young female lead Catinca Untaru. An actor has achieved something special when, as a viewer, it seems that they have been thrown into the film with no script or idea about acting, and the performance is perfectly natural. Untaru achieved this without fault. There were so many little quirks about her performance which made it seem so real that I would not be surprised to find out the entire thing was improv.

The cinematography was also amazingly well done. Every shot showed exactly the right things and gave exactly the right feeling, it was a pleasure to watch. But the film was not without faults. The writing was great but the story often lacked direction, it felt almost like it would have no discernable conclusion. The visuals also took huge precedent over everything else, and the rest ended up hurting because of it. Not that I minded too much since it was so great to watch. I would recommend this film to anyone interested in breathtaking visuals and phenomenal cinematography.

Rating – 9.5/10

Ten minutes into the film and you’re certain you’ve chanced upon something rare; a film that is truly an auteur’s labor of love. The Fall is not so much about imagination as it is about childhood innocence.

In a hospital in early 20th century Los Angeles, Roy Parker (Lee Pace), a depressed and suicidal stunt man paralyzed from the waist down befriends a free spirited young girl, Alexandria (played brilliantly by Catinca Untaru, who at the time was only 6 years old) secretly hoping he can charm her enough to get a bottle of morphine. He proceeds to tell her a story that he makes up along the way and the audience is privy to a sumptuously visual tale calling into action colorful characters ranging from an angry slave to Charles Darwin and his pet monkey.

As Roy becomes progressively more depressed in the real world, his story gets darker and immerses an innocent young girl into the recesses of the mind a man on the brink of suicide. As Alexandria starts getting emotionally involved, she goes to great lengths to keep the story going, to keep Roy going, all the while hoping for a happy ending. The third act was so emotionally engaging that I have to confess, I think I may have shed a tear or two.

Shot in some 25 countries, the film is an eye-popping travelogue and the compositions of a few frames are so ridiculously brilliant that you can’t help but marvel at what goes on inside the head of the director.

The characterizations and the plot itself are deeply flawed mostly because the director pays too much attention to visual detail but you’ll be hardpressed not to overlook that. You have to hand it to Tarsem for his audacity; he shot the film over four years with his own money and never allowed studios to touch a single frame. This is evidenced by the lack of a truly uplifting ending.

For me, the film was an immensely personal experience taking me back to my childhood where bedtime stories played an integral part; perhaps the reason why I tend to go off on tangents so often. Escapism, you see, is a beautiful thing.

[Link to IMDB profile]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/

Ten minutes into the film and you’re certain you’ve chanced upon something rare; a film that is truly an auteur’s labor of love. The Fall is not so much about imagination as it is about childhood innocence.

In a hospital in early 20th century Los Angeles, Roy Parker (Lee Pace), a depressed and suicidal stunt man paralyzed from the waist down befriends a free spirited young girl, Alexandria (played brilliantly by Catinca Untaru, who at the time was only 6 years old) secretly hoping he can charm her enough to get a bottle of morphine. He proceeds to tell her a story that he makes up along the way and the audience is privy to a sumptuously visual tale calling into action colorful characters ranging from an angry slave to Charles Darwin and his pet monkey.

As Roy becomes progressively more depressed in the real world, his story gets darker and immerses an innocent young girl into the recesses of the mind a man on the brink of suicide. As Alexandria starts getting emotionally involved, she goes to great lengths to keep the story going, to keep Roy going, all the while hoping for a happy ending. The third act was so emotionally engaging that I have to confess, I think I may have shed a tear or two.

Shot in some 25 countries, the film is an eye-popping travelogue and the compositions of a few frames are so ridiculously brilliant that you can’t help but marvel at what goes on inside the head of the director.

The characterizations and the plot itself are deeply flawed mostly because the director pays too much attention to visual detail but you’ll be hardpressed not to overlook that. You have to hand it to Tarsem for his audacity; he shot the film over four years with his own money and never allowed studios to touch a single frame. This is evidenced by the lack of a truly uplifting ending.

For me, the film was an immensely personal experience taking me back to my childhood when bedtime stories played an integral part; perhaps the reason why I tend to go off on tangents so often. Escapism, you see, is a beautiful thing.

9.5/10

(Cross-posted on Couch Critics)

The Fall: Brilliant, original film-making and an excellent juxtaposition of the dark side of film: a suicidal actor (Lee Pace) with fantastical escapism narrates a story about a motley crew of outcasts taking on an evil governor to an idealistic young girl (Catinca Untaru). The performances are pitch perfect and the visuals, filmed on location in a variety of breathtaking locales, house an epic adventure, which form an improbable yet highly effective contrast to the interior struggle of Pace’s paralyzed actor with his condition and his failed romantic relationship. This unique film, helmed by the Indian film director Tarsem Singh (who often goes by just Tarsem) and “presented” by David Fincher and Spike Jonze fuses various genres and ideas so seamlessly that it demands to be seen and enjoyed.

R.H. on The Fall: Beautiful, beautiful film. Breathtaking, visually. The story is a bit weak. But being such a visually stunning film, you want to forgive the movie of all its missteps.

The Wackness

Savage Grace: A highly controversial movie that one cannot help but have an opinion about. The incestuous and extremely unsettling relationship between a divorced mother (Julianne Moore) and her son (Eddie Redmayne) is based on a true story and is likely to dominate the coverage of the film. This development, though expected, is highly unfortunate in that it precludes notice of Moore and Redmayne’s excellent performances. The queasy chemistry they establish, though not something to be relished, is certainly something to be admired as an excellent exercise in craft. Stephen Dillane turns in another disturbing performance as Moore’s estragned alpha male, explorer husband. Director Tom Kalin, imbues the movie with easily overlooked subtext concerning the nature of masculinity and sexuality. Again, the issue of the affair between Moore’s character and her gay son, ultimately grabs much of the attention and overshadows the careful character studies at play in this movie. That is why, I, your humble reviewer, ask that you put aside your own trepidations regarding incest and give this stylish and perfectly made movie a chance.

Wanted: James McAvoy brings his own charm to this film, mainly in that he cannot act without bringing out the humanity in his characters, whether it was as a half-goat, half-man in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or a working class young man in over his head in 2007′s Atonement. Predictably enough, McAvoy cannot “make an action movie that’s actually good” as he told Jon Stewart he aimed to do. The sheer ridiculousness of the plot inspired stifled laughter among my movie watching mate and your humble narrator. Of course, all action movies are ridiculous but Wanted takes it to such high levels and sorely lacks any of the philosophy that made the outrageous stunts of The Matrix so worthwhile that one is left with a naked Angelina Jolie, a sleepwalking Morgan Freeman and lots of bendy bullets but not much of a film.

R.H. on Wanted: Surprisingly, this film is pretty entertaining. The first half is fairly action-packed and funny. It’s a good summer popcorn flick. Very profane and bloody. Is the plot ridiculous? A society of killers worships a loom. You tell me. A fun movie, though.

Hancock: Many viewers, critics included went into the film expecting another pleasing but not excessively demanding genre film from Will Smith. Disappointment set in as they realized that Peter Berg, with his handheld camera close ups and focus on character, is trying to do more with the story than create a few huge digital action set pieces and collect his paycheck. Hancock is easily one of the most severely underrated and exceptionally good superhero movies ever made. This is a movie, that although will clearly make ridiculous amounts of money, will not be fully appreciated by its current audience. Perhaps filmgoers in the future, free from the expectations of viewers today, will be able to appreciate the way Berg makes a character-based superhero movie. Will Smith refuses to rehash the cocky smartass protagonists he has been asked to portray so frequently in films such as Wild Wild West and Men in Black and plays Hancock with the sense of melancholy, turmoil and even humor that the material requires. Sure, there are tonal shifts but such is life; it can be a Shakespearean comedy and a Greek Myth at the same time. Hancock has strains of both and emerges as a severely under-appreciated, very good film that asks the viewer to take a leap of faith into experimental superhero film territory  in its finale, those who do will surely be rewarded.

R.H. on Hancock: The critics were mostly right. The first two acts are pretty entertaining. The third though… a wee bit weird. The third act introduces a concept that could easily carry its own full-length, sci-fi/fantasy film. But the ferocious speed at which silly ideas are catapulted at the audience boggles the mind. Even the “villain” that reappears later in the film… Not creepy or disturbing. Just plain annoying. Blame the writers, but blame “actor” Eddie Marsan, as well. Hancock is not as horrendous as the mass of reviews would have you believe. It’s good. But it could have been much, much better.

Get Smart: It’s a funny, mainstream comedy with excellent comic performances from all the players. It is a consistent laugh-maker. Thank whoever (Get Smart TV series co-creator Mel Brooks?) that these type of movies (funny films that are actually good) still exist. – R.H.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army: Meh. It’s entertaining. But nothing really that great.

The Incredible Hulk: This movie was made to make money. According to press reports, Edward Norton wished to do more with it but was severely limited in his attempts to flesh out the character by Marvel Studios (trying to match their recent success with May’s classy action film Iron Man) who correctly guessed that the average moviegoer would rather see the Hulk smash rather than Bruce Banner brood over his tragic condition. Ang Lee’s original Hulk (2003) was a mixed bag but there was a great film in there somewhere. This iteration of the Hulk story wishes to show you flashy special effects and I suppose, “entertain” the average viewer, which it manages to do to a large degree. Still, one cannot help but wish that the studio bigwigs had given Norton a little bit more freedom to truly show us who Bruce Banner was and not just give the director of The Transporter 2, Louis Letterier, lots of money to blow lots of stuff up.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Continuing the trend of movies simply made to make a buck, this series of reviews shall be concluded with the latest Indiana Jones movie. Harrison Ford is back, the fedora is back and so is the iconic John Williams score. Indy is fighting the communists, represented by Cate Blanchett, who although mired in a quest for world domination are in an odd Plato-like quest to attain ultimate knowledge. There is an unintended tragic nobleness about the culmination of Blanchett’s evil Communist’s quest to solve the mystery of the crystal skulls that led me to care a bit more than your humble reviewer should have, considering that this film featured an action sequence in which the chief protagonists were friendly commie-hating monkeys and then commie-hating ants. Clearly, everyone here is mailing it in, but the movie is not without its small pleasures, such as a bar fight between the greasers and the socs. Shia LeBeouf is an actor that continues to inspire indifference and a stray chuckle or two. The latest Indiana Jones movie accomplishes the goals of its creators, to replicate the adventure films of Spielberg’s earlier days, and more importantly, make everyone a lot of money.

On that slightly depressing and cynical note, I bid you adieu and sincerely hope that you can process the flood of movie criticism unleashed by your humble narrator.

-Vman

The Romanian actress is 11 now, but she was several years younger when The Fall was filmed, and she plays a curious, persistent, intelligent 5-year-old with such naturalistic grace that she gives her grown-up co-star, Lee Pace, a run for his money. And say what you will about the movie’s style-over-substance issues, The Fall has one of the loveliest, most unexpected endings I’ve seen in years. It sags a bit in parts, in terms of both plot and pace, but the good outweighs the bad. And Untaru alone is worth the price of admission.

Neal Schindler

Holy fuck, you guys, so there’s this little movie called The Fall that’s been out for like five weeks and has barely made a blip in pop culture consciousness and even my industry friends hadn’t heard of it and even I just got around to seeing it after all this time. IT IS FUCKING AMAZING, AND YOU HAVE TO GO SEE IT NOW

PRINCE GOMOLVILAS
]]> http://catincauntaru.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/the-first-genuine-performance-by-a-child-actor-seen-in-a-long-long-time/ Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:54:26 +0000 cineandreea http://catincauntaru.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/the-first-genuine-performance-by-a-child-actor-seen-in-a-long-long-time/ Second only to the amazing fantasy-scene imagery is Catinca Untaru’s performance as Alexandria in what could be the first genuine performance by a child actor seen in a long, long time. Tarsem’s skilful choreographing of the scenes between Ray and the girl mean her performance is much more believable and realistic than the disturbingly over-literate and precocious child actors produced by the Hollywood machine.

Stuart Wood

]]> http://catincauntaru.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/18/ Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:07:35 +0000 cineandreea http://catincauntaru.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/18/ BEETHOVEN 7

Without revealing essential plot elements, Nicole will merely move on to say that Catinca Untaru, who plays the film’s five-year-old patient, and Lee Pace, who portrays the suicidal man she befriends, deserve myriad awards for their acting abilities. The film industry would do well to make up awards to give these actors, although that shouldn’t be necessary. Add to these efforts the deft incorporation of symbolic elements (from the more obvious use of a heart locket to the more subtle inclusion of death-defying trains and the layers of meaning behind the bottle of pills), the cohesiveness of the film’s visual components (as when the opening and closing sequences of the movie parallel each other, and when Roy Walker’s two stories share the backdrop of a desert), and a rather stirring score of classical music, and you have a film that was worth the $12.00 admission fee at AMC Theatres on Times Square. Once Devon has seen The Fall, Nicole will push for it to earn the BOTO Pick for Best Movie of 2008.

NICOLE CATÁ