It’s hard to feel interested about Tarsem Singh‘s The Fall given its long history of shooting going back to ’04 or thereabouts. I don’t trust films that take forever to be made, and it’s hard to be interested in a film that showed at Toronto almost two years ago and generated no buzz. Then again, it’s being “presented” by David Fincher and Spike Jonze so it obviously has some level of quality and integrity.

Roadside Entertainment is releasing The Fall on May 9th, and to support this a screening was held last night at the Armand Hammer museum. I was invited but decided to go to the Young @ Heart concert instead. An HE reader named Grant McFadden attended, and this is partly what he wrote this morning:
“I absolutely implore you to please, please see The Fall, as I truly believe you will agree that it is, without question, a landmark film of our time. It is phenomenal.
“Allow me to reiterate what I’m sure you already know. 24-plus countries. 2 years to make. 16 1/2 years of scouting. Fully financed by Tarsem himself. When cash got low, he purposefully would arrange for a commercial shoot in a particular part of the world to make the cash on the side…and then continue the shoot.
“The little girl’s performance is insanely brilliant. From the q & a, Tarsem revealed that she hadn’t acted before…and didn’t really understand what was going on until about a third of the way into the shoot. She was convinced that Lee wasn’t an actor and that he truly was a paraplegic. (This isn’t a spoiler) But when she did catch on to the whole acting thing….she thrived and nailed her scenes. Every time. This, according to Tarsem.
“The film is tragic, surreal, hilarious, epic. It captures his brilliant artistic production design while remaining true to the narrative that builds with empathy to the very end. It is Ford, Chaplin, Dali, Del Toro, Brooks, Tarkovsky….and so on. I have no faith in Roadside Attractions to market this film. They will step and then kill it.
“Please see this. It needs great word of mouth. Particularly yours. I have no connection to this film. I’m simply an earnest cinephile who wants to scream in angst when something this beautiful is put through the ringer. But there is no question….The Fall is one of the great films of our time.”