The Fall

http://www.thefallthemovie.com/

Ran across this movie randomly this weekend.

Absolutely phenomenal cinematography and locations. It's sort of like Big Fish in that it's a person telling tall tales which are shown in an amazing style.

It's about an early 1900's stunt man who takes a bad fall on the set, loses the ability to walk, and loses his girlfriend to the leading man. He's stuck in a hospital and a precocious little immigrant girl runs across him and he ends up telling her stories as a hook to get her to bring him pills so he can overdose to kill himself. The actress is amazing 90% of the time. She's not so good at displaying fear or sadness, but her conversations with the stuntman are simply real in ways I can't even imagine how they managed to get the script to work. But it does so brilliantly.

It took me two viewings to really understand the ways the real world, the state of mind of the stuntman, and the intrusions of the girl were modifying the tall tale.

Ultimately, I think the theme is about how every life is a narrative woven with others. The stuntman is resisting this truth as he cuts off relationships in order to justify ending his own story. But as the film progresses the girl asserts more and more power in attempting to make his story better. As he wrestles with this the tale becomes darker and darker, turning on this exchange: (paraphrased)

Girl: (crying) I don't like this story!
Stuntman: It's my story! I'll make any way I like!
Girl: No... It's my story too!

Comments

lelia said…
Do you own that movie and can I borrow it? I loved the trailer.
1:23 PM
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