“Fall” into Harris this Friday Night

September 29th, 2011 | By Nathan Forman formanna@grinnell.edu | Section: Article

This Friday’s SGA Film “The Fall” has almost all of the important pieces of a good story. Probably because of this, its plot cannot be easily summarized. To say that it is the story of how a young girl, Alexandria, and a professional stuntman and drug addict, Roy, recover from injuries together in a Los Angeles area hospital through storytelling in the 1920s would not do the film justice. To say that the Fall is the story of how an Indian warrior, former slave, Italian explosives expert, Charles Darwin and a masked bandit come together in an attempt to kill an evil governor surely does not provide any more clarity. Despite the apparent disconnect in the two plots briefly described above, they do not run concurrent to each other. A significant part of the movie is dedicated to the story of these six characters being told by the stuntman to the young girl—in essence, a large part of this movie is a story within a story. “The Fall” deals with subjects like drug addiction and being abandoned by loved ones which hold real world significance for the viewer. However, it also has some of the elements of classic blockbuster films like a clear clash between good and evil and a love interest for the protagonist. Furthermore, “The Fall” deals with larger philosophical concepts like the perception of reality and the inherent innocence of youth. All the while, “The Fall” is arguably also a meta-film as we see the techniques Roy uses as he improvises his way through the story he tells Alexandria. Through the depiction of Roy’s inspiration for storytelling the film demonstrates its cognizance of the fact that a story is being told. But don’t let the dense plot of “The Fall” scare you away from seeing it, because the movie is incredibly enthralling. Released to theaters in 2008, “The Fall” was directed by Tarsem Singh, over the course of four years with footage shot in 20 different countries. “The Fall” was financed by Singh so that he could make it precisely according to his own vision. It stars relatively the relatively unknown Lee Pace, most famous for his role of Ned in the ABC dramedy “Pushing Daisies,” and Hungarian actress Catinca Untaru who was only nine when the film was first screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. Overall, “The Fall” is intellectually challenging and aesthetically pleasing. It is the culmination of years of effort by a director, cast and crew to make an incredibly unique film. In this respect it succeeds both visually and imaginatively. “Fall” into the Harris Cinema, this Friday at 9 pm.