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3/07/2009

the fall

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I haven't really and truly loved a Netflix disc in a long while. Frankly, we're just way behind on our movie-watching. But last night, both of our jaws dropped open during The Fall. Johnny kept uttering things like, "This is the most amazing movie I've ever seen in my life." I couldn't believe the beauty before my eyes, either.

There's Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies; and a young actress, Catinca Untaru, who plays Alexandria - she might be the most charming little girl ever to appear on film. The cinematography is stunning - sweeping tall spaces, perfectly framed, and saturated with color. We watched this movie deep in the night and it was the best kind of bedtime story.

I was certain that some of the otherworldly images had to be digital, but this New York Times article by David Kehr astounded me by revealing otherwise:

"The Fall - an independent feature film from Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, a veteran music video and commercial director who uses Tarsem as his professional name — is full of sights that provoke genuine astonishment: an underwater shot of an elephant swimming gracefully overhead, a palace courtyard built out of interlocking staircases that might have been designed by M.C. Escher, a village clinging to a mountainside where all of the buildings seem to have been individually painted in subtly different shades of inky blue.

These images amaze precisely because they are quite evidently real, bursting with the life and detail that elude even the most advanced digital artist. 'I decided it wasn’t going to be C.G.I.,' said Tarsem, using the industry shorthand for computer-generated imagery. Referring to his only previous feature, the psychological thriller The Cell (2000), Tarsem added: '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.'"

So, get to renting The Fall already. There are some magical films that reach in and take hold of you and this is surely one. I'll eventually be compelled to write an article - it's that good and I've got a lot to say.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Ali O said...

oooo, you've convinced me to see this. and i'm excited!

jenni said...

Ali O, make sure to watch it with your husband. I think he'd love it, too. :)

Kimberly said...

I've never heard of this film but we'll definately look for it.

Anonymous said...

I KNEW you would love it!! The story was so heartbreaking as it was unfolding, but so beautiful at the same time. I loved her little comments while he was telling the story to her - too precious!! She really made the movie.

jenni said...

I also think the cinematography, locations, and costumes made the movie. Amazing.