Screening from Friday 3^rd until Thursday 16^th October 2008 @ Watershed, Bristol

Magical, beautiful and ambitious are but some of the words that best describe award winning music video and commercial director Tarsem Singh’s newest release, The Fall.

The film’s story revolves around an injured stuntman and a young girl with a broken arm in a 1920s Los Angeles hospital and their endeavour for escapism from the harsh truth and reality of everyday life. The girl, Alexandria, is initially looking for a father figure and the stuntman (Lee Pace) looking for someone naïve enough to help him but they begin to find freedom within the elaborate and imaginative stories they tell each other. The stories, that can be fairly dark at times, revolve around five warriors on a quest of vengeance across the earth. Within these stories we are given an insight into the real characters’ rough history and anxieties about the future they face.

The film, conceived by Singh some 23 years ago, is the result of 17 years of painstaking location scouting and shot in over 28 different, awe-inspiring areas around the world, with Singh stating that no CGI manipulation was involved. Each location within The Fall is far grander and more unbelievable than the last and it is a perfect product of the old school film making process, even showing direct homage towards the latter of the movie. It stands as an impeccable signifier that no matter how advanced our technology develops and how believable graphics do become, there is nothing like knowing there are fantastical, almost dreamlike places that do exist in other parts of the world waiting to be explored. It is evident Singh feels exceptionally strong about this, with the characters often taking a sidestep and allowing the land and mise en scene to tell the story for itself.

For some directors, the sheer elaborate style and vision that takes a fundamental role within this film would prove one too great to tame; however, Singh his no stranger to this and does so in an utterly original and fearsome manner; there is a real sense of passion and almost infatuation that has gone into producing this film and one in which should be experienced by everyone. It is indeed a film that has something for anyone, without loosing reason or motive behind its contents.

www.watershed.co.uk

Kyle Brown