David Kehr Falls for ‘The Fall’
Lee Pace and Catinca Untaru in The Fall
Though I was mildly disappointed by my first viewing of Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, I wonder if expectations didn’t get the better of me. Even if it’s not perfect, I think it’s still something to see and an article by David Kehr in yesterday’s NY Times casts a new light on it.
It didn’t occur to me until I read Kehr’s piece that there was no CGI used in the crafting of the beautiful and sometimes miraculous imagery. It’s getting to a point now where I assume at least a partial assist by computer in almost every movie I see, but according to Singh, “I had enough of that in my first film, as much as I enjoyed it. I decided in this one that the art direction was going to be in the landscape and in the costume design and nothing else.”
I also didn’t realize that Singh financed it himself. According to friend David Fincher (who has a presenting credit along with Spike Jonze), when financing for the project fell through, the director decided “I won’t have the passion and belligerence that I think this is going to take 10 years from now” so he just did it, traveling from continent to continent, agreeing to film commercials in places he knew he wanted to film the fantasy sequences for his movie.
These are the things I miss out on when I go out of my way to see a movie without knowing anything about it. Sometimes a little background is useful.
Filed under: Movies
“The reason to do it is to see where it goes,’ as opposed to ‘Let’s make one of these or one of those.”
That quote sums up exactly why I will now see the movie in a theater too. Thanks for the post, Craig, because you’ve now sufficently piqued my interest enough to get my ass into the seat if/when this comes my way.
I tried to add it to my Netflix queue last night. It wasn’t even on their “saved” list of releases. Never a good sign.
Lee Pace rules!!!!
Or to the Daisies fans, the Pieman.
I am such Daisies fan - as is Hedwig.
Such a great show, up there in my top 5 of all time.
That quote got me to thinking too Joel. I try to give the benefit of a doubt to artists who’re willing to take chances and push boundaries even if the end result doesn’t always hit the mark 100%.
In part it explains my affection for both Blueberry Nights and Speed Racer. I like what they’re doing and I admire that they’re trying to evolve so it’s easier to ignore the flaws rather than get hung up on them.
I may have to see The Fall again with new eyes.
Pushing Daisies is the one regret I have about not watching TV this year. Ahh well. It’ll be on DVD, right?
I freaking hope so….usually, for my birthday, I order like thousands of Rands of TV shows and DVDs from Amazon, and this year P.D is on my list.
As is “The Fall” on my list of things that I really want to see.
Arrgh, black me out until I see this thing. Flipped past this very
article in yesterday’s NYT (yes, I’m a shameful reader of the “rag”…)
The NY TImes is still among the best papers going, even if it’s a shadow of its former self. Plus, David Kehr is always good.
But yeah…skip the article, it has plenty of plot details. And you’ll probably want to stay away from pictures too. I purposely have stayed away from showing the more interesting ones so people can see them fresh in the movie.
Much obliged, sir.
Nicky, you took the words right out of my mouth.
LEE PACE is the living bloody end…
I don’t know if you’ll like this one Miranda, but you’ll want to catch it for ol’ Lee, I’m sure.
Well, I listened to everything that you said, Craig - and I’ve certainly taken it all under consideration. But it’s tough to know how you’ll react until you’re in the theatre and you watch the celluloid unspool before you.
Remember you didn’t think that I would like THERE WILL BE BLOOD either - and I thought it was a masterpiece. But that was, of course, many moons ago.
There’s something that you said lately that I can’t get out of my mind: that you didn’t know whether to call THE FALL a comedy or a tragedy. I usually avoid spoilers like the plague but I was VERY curious about one thing. (I think you can guess what that is.) So someone on IMDB threw out their own thoughts and perceptions and another person that had seen the movie told them that they were dead wrong. So apparently there are no twists but there’s more to the story than is apparent from the trailer.
So I backed off at that point and now it’s back to spoiler limbo. I’m trying to be careful.
But someone did say something about the fact that the tone was rather tongue in cheek through much of it. It sure as hell didn’t seem funny in the trailer. Darkly tragic and bombastly dramatic. But not amusing.
I don’t know what it is about some actors. A lot of people leave me cold or supremely indifferent. But LEE PACE gets to me on a level I haven’t felt since JUDE LAW. I sense greatness in him and I’d like to see him do well. Plus he seems really sweet and genuine.
I hate to say this. But I think I might break down before the weekend and go see Miss Pettigrew again. I have to go to the dentist and I’d like to hang out and do something while I’m downtown. There isn’t anything else on that appeals to me. So it seems kind of inevitable.
You know, I don’t even know if we’ll even get it. A LOT of independents and smaller films are not making it up here for some reason. I don’t know why. glim lives in Texas and he’s getting it on the 30th. I’ll be really upset if we don’t, though.
So it was sad to hear you were disappointed in the film. But you and I do split on a fair amount.
Disappointed, but only because of my expectations I think, Miranda. It’s still a worthwile film. A second viewing might put me over the top now that I know better what to expect.
It was a situation where I literally knew nothing about it except the barest synopsis and who the director was. Sometimes that can backfire. It’s good to have a little sense of what’s coming sometimes.