The Fall

Almost a year ago, I wrote about a film that I wanted to see: The Fall, a film directed by Tarsem Singh that was originally released back in 2006. It’s now finally been released on Blu-ray, so I invested in a copy and sat down to watch it with Martin and a friend.

Well, we were all entranced and stunned by the film. Visually, it’s one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Shot after shot were jaw-dropping. And the central performances of Lee Pace as the injured stuntman (and the bandit) and Catinca Untaru as the little girl were heart-stopping. Untaru’s performance, in particular, was not a performance at all – she was the little girl.

The film moves constantly between scenes set in a Los Angeles hospital in the 1920s, where the stuntman is weaving his fantastical tale for the little girl, and into the tale itself, which is being visualised by her.

The settings of the tale are, as I said, stunning. The interesting thing is that they are all real locations – there was no CGI trickery used to construct virtual reality here.

The film is, in effect, a love letter from Tarsem to the power of cinema and its abilities to spark the human imagination. It’s a masterpiece. See it.