It’s a great time to revisit Tarsem’s divisive 2006 masterpiece, The Fall
If you enjoyed Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy, check out Lee Pace giving a different era of stunt performers their flowers in The Fall
Film Features The Fall
If The Fall had come out this year, you might wonder if the 2006 cult classic and David Leitch’s The Fall Guy were born from the same prompt at a writers’ workshop. Beyond the mirrored titles, the divisive labor of love from Tarsem Singh (known professionally as Tarsem) shares an oddly similar jumping-off point with the new Ryan Gosling flick.
Both The Fall and The Fall Guy center on dejected stuntmen contending with the loss of their girlfriend and their sense of identity after suffering a devastating injury on the job. Both end in montages highlighting the under-appreciated labor of stunt performers and use a story-within-the-story as a vehicle for their emotionally-stunted protagonists to fully communicate their feelings. Both represent the fulfillment of a years-long quest for their respective directors: Leitch, a former stuntman himself, has been working diligently to get fellow performers more recognition and maybe their own Oscar one day, while Tarsem self-financed his project and shot it piecemeal over four years in more than 24 different countries. Both are steeped in reverence for the craft of filmmaking and pay homage to those that came before.
But while The Fall Guy is a poppy, accessible, afternoon snack of a movie, The Fall is anything but. On its surface, this dichotomy is unfortunately literal. The Fall is next to impossible to buy from services like Amazon and Apple TV or to stream anywhere, at least legally. (Singh reached out to Criterion to distribute the film, but they said no.) Your best bet is to get your hands on an old Blu-ray copy, but even those will set you back at least $75 on eBay. Googling won’t really help you either—you’ll have to wade through a lot of results about Gillian Anderson’s 201os series of the same name (no relation) or 2022's tall pole thriller Fall (even less relation).
I’m saying all of this up front so you can manage your expectations, because what you’ll find if you are lucky enough to secure a copy (or you’re reading this in the future after Criterion screws its head on straight) is a bold and beautiful mess of a masterpiece, as intimate and personal as it is impossibly grand. Anchored in a 1915 Los Angeles hospital, the story follows paralyzed and bedridden stuntman Roy (the ever-delightful Lee Pace), who attracts the adulation of 5-year-old fellow patient Alexandria (first and only-time actress Catinca Untaru).
Seeking to end his life, Roy sees an opportunity to secure the necessary pills in his young and somewhat able-bodied protégé, one he exploits by spinning a fantastical yarn of love and revenge that ends up entrancing them both. The film flips between the muted reality of the hospital and the technicolor dream-world of Roy’s story, painted through a dizzying number of gorgeous on-location shots from around the globe, and some once-in-a-lifetime costume work by Eiko Ishioka. Just watch this one awesome transition and you’ll probably get the picture. (Warning: This might ruin lesser shots, like the Game Of Thrones dragon wings, for a little while after. It’s pretty tough to beat.)
But as stated above, The Fall is not without its detractors. Even though it features a healthy dose of swordplay, pyrotechnics, and elephant-based aquatic escapes, it’s about as far removed from the breezy antics of its modern counterpart as stunt performers currently are from award contention. (The Academy has really got to fix that one, huh?) The Fall is the self-serious masterwork of a self-serious auteur, one that cannot escape the weight of these labels even in its most light-hearted moments. Even then, these mostly occur at the beginning of the film, as Pace deftly acts around his young co-star’s mostly-improvised chatter; for better or worse, it’s all Tarsem by the end. In a 2008 interview with Minnesota Public Radio, he described the project as “a Western happening in India through a Ukrainian girl,” so that’s a pretty good taste of just how many balls are in the air here.
Another modern comparison is coming up soon, as we’ll soon see whatever the hell Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is when it premieres at Cannes later this month. Both films took a similar path to the screen, even if Coppola’s took approximately ten times as long to finally arrive. While he didn’t have any vineyards to sell off, Tarsem’s version of that financial sacrifice was to take commercial work for a while, but only in countries he also wanted to use for The Fall. That way, according to that MPR interview, he could cover costs along the way and fly actors out to shoot on location whenever his day job was done. That level of personal care is palpable in every line of dialogue and every set-piece that feels plucked straight out of a well-read child’s wildest fantasies. The film is often unwieldy, but so breathtaking in its earnestness that it’s hard not to buy in by the end. In her original 2008 review, A.V. Club writer Tasha Robinson called the project “pretentious to the point of laughability.” Later, she named it one of her top films of the year. Both can be true.
If all of this isn’t enough to at least pique your interest, this fact might put it over the edge. Tarsem is also the guy behind one of the greatest bits of pop culture history to ever grace our screens: I’m talking, of course, about the 2004 Pepsi commercial featuring Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Pink singing “We Will Rock You” in full gladiator garb at the Colosseum. If you’re not at least a little bit curious about a feature-length film from that beautiful brain, then we have nothing left to say to each other.
45 Comments
I watched this movie once a long time ago, and fell in love with it. It has the spirit of ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’ but in a dramatic sense. Thanks for the review!
Tarsem Singh! One of the my favourite – and sadly, underrated and underemployed – directors slash cinematographers. I first came across him, and the work of Deep Forest, with “Sweet Lullaby”. SBS down here in Australia played it as a station ident, in the days before Shazam, and tantalisingly never mentioned the song’s name, only ending with the slogan “The world is an amazing place”. (It wasn’t until years later, at uni, when the cafe on the quad happened to be playing it on CD, and the girl behind the machine told me what it was – thus was my introduction to the work of Deep Forest.He also directed the somewhat infamous The Cell, featuring a fantastic, as always, Vincent D’Onofrio, and the rather meh Jennifer Lopez (who, fortunately, mostly has to play a stoner). I think that movie’s a blacker mark against his name – it could’ve done with a better lead actress in a post-Clarice Starling world:The man can compose and dress and frame and shoot a scene like no one else. Visually rich, often ethereal and fantastic. Even in that early clip, his eye was well in – he knows his strong lines, flowing cloth, and meditative lens. Out of all the directors who deserve to have the MCU toss him a half-billion dollar bone so he can go on to do his passion projects, he’s at the top of my list.
I thought it was an odd choice for J.Lo’s character to smoke pot when she’s required to enter people’s minds. The Cell was a great movie aside from that.
Nothing like paranoia when entering the minds of the severely psychologically-damaged, eh?She’s easily the worst thing about it. The dreamy nature of it, however, is worth gritting your through her performance.
Agreed, this scene alone is worth it.
I thought it was a bit like how movies often show hitmen having a drink or two before doing their thing. Obviously getting wasted (or stoned) isn’t going to help matters, but something to take the edge off things before doing something unpleasant makes sense.
IIRC, she got stoned after entering a patient’s mind before writing down her notes(?). I think it was a child as well.
Oh, man. The Cell is the only movie I ever reviewed for publication (a student newspaper, let’s be clear), and it was unreal. Like, the story wasn’t that interesting, but the vision of it was incredible. Just wild production value, beautiful costuming… frames of it have stuck with me since I saw it in the theater. I LOVE the idea of having Singh direct an MCU movie! I’d love for him to take over Dr. Strange, maybe one of the horror properties like Blade or Midnight Suns, or maybe even one of the cosmic ones (Nova?). Other ideas?
I would love to see a Tarsem Silver Surfer movie
Right? It’s just a bog-standard must-find-serial-killer’s-victim-who-might-still-be-alive plot, but it’s Tarsem’s vision that elevates it. And the sci-fi elements are, if you think about it, kinda trite and pat. But you don’t, because it gets you to the dreamscapes.It would be amazing to see Tarsem take on one of the more surreal MCU stories. Maybe Quantumania…?
Tarsem is who Snyder Bros think Snyder is. A true visual artist. One of these people where it’s very easy for critics to complain that he’s style over substance, but where the style is so imbued with artistry that you realize that style and substance, in his case, are one in the same.
Agreed. But it was somewhat ironic/sad that one of Singh’s later films, Immortals, came a few years after Snyder’s 300 and you had people saying “hey, this guy ripped off Zack Snyder!”
That seems to suggest that Snyder has some chops and is unjustly maligned.
Well put. Both are highly stylised, it’s just that one’s style isn’t shit. And that one ain’t Zack. I went bankrupt making The Fall, and I’d go bankrupt another ten times to do itIt is frankly offensive that Snyder gets hundreds of millions to make store-brand, artificially-flavoured Star Wars, yet Tarsem went unknown, and broke.
Man, the only thing I really remember about The Cell is the horse that gets sliced into bits.
The Fall is one of my all time favorites. The story is pretty OK, but the visuals are absolutely mind-bendingly good. Every time I’m in a store that has used DVDs, I do a quick scan, just keeping hope alive. No luck, yet.
I was definitely smitten by this movie in my teens, and this article makes me wanna give it another go. And I’m dead certain this was the start of my crush on Lee Pace. <3
Wow, I watched this movie all the time and made everyone I knew watch it. I haven’t watched it in years so I’m curious if it holds up outside of the beautiful visuals (which I’m sure do). I had no idea it’s essentially a “lost” movie, which is such a shame.
Obviously YMMV, but from the perspective of a screenwriter with a deep and abiding interest in narratology and oral tradition in storytelling I fucking LOOOOOVE this movie. I saw it in theaters three times. For the year I watched it it briefly outshone my number one all time favorite Evil Dead II. I love that it’s a meta-narrative that doesn’t wallow in the meta like so many other pretentious pieces of shit.
It’s not lost everywhere – you can still get it on DVD and Blu Ray, and stream it on Amazon Prime here in the UK… I’m sure there are ways these can be accessed from the US
I got a copy for my Plex server by sailing the pirate seas
I just got it on DVD from Amazon for $35
I’m probably showing my age here, but it seems like a massive oversight to have an article about Tarsem that doesn’t mention “Losing My Religion.” That aside, I haven’t seen this movie in years, but I recall it being beautiful, but also just devastatingly sad. Catinca Untaru’s performance is beautiful, delicate, and REAL, and Pace is his usual dreamy self. It would pair well with Pan’s Labyrinth or Devil’s Backbone as period-piece fantasias go.
Glad you mentioned del Torro. I’m a bit bothered when critics cite him as one of the Three Amigos directors. Being from Mexico is the only thing they have in common.
Tarsem Singh made his visual style known 33 years ago with the Losing My Religion music video. I wanted him to shoot a Nirvana video as well, but it wasn’t meant to be (although Anton Corbijn’s Heart Shaped Box video does have vibrant colors). I lost track of him after he moved to feature films with The Cell with one Jennifer Lopez. Notice how The Fall was co-produced by fellow music video/feature directors David Fincher and Spike Jonze.
Hahaha. I worked with Tarsem for over a decade on most of his projects. It was always so fun. I was only a runner but I saw the world. He was a crazy talent and a lovely guy. We did a lot of high end commercials including a Kill Bill inspired Pepsi commercial with Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez with David Beckham. I only worked on The Fall in prep and then taking a huge amount of cash to Delhi also some satellite phones. Good times and he put on some mad parties.
I lost my copy of The Fall in a divorce, and it kills me that it’s so hard to find now. Tarsem’s best work (The Fall, The Cell, and yes, Immortals) is visually stunning in ways 95% of films can’t come close to. I love that you’ve given it some space on the site, even if in connection to mainstream pap like The Fall Guy.
Really great movie. I was having dinner with a romanian friend once and casually mentioned that I knew about this movie whose lead actress was romanian, and she was very interested in checking it out. She later complained to me that she and her friends hated it when they got high and watched it (I don’t think that’s how you should watch this movie). Before that time I honestly didn’t think it was possible to not find this movie beautiful and touching.
I love Criterion, but it’s some serious bullshit that they will put out a big release for Risky Business of all things (a movie I enjoy, mind you) and not grab up this absolute masterpiece at the first opportunity. I mean just look at these opening titles:
I wish David Fincher and Spike Jonze (who both have films in the collection) could pull some strings, because this movie really is screaming for 4K UHD edition.
His sense of visual composition is the most origianl I’ve ever seen and you don’t see many strong visual storytellers these days either.
There’s a lot of directors where you go “Oh, man, this cinematography really serves the story”, but with Tarsem, it is as much the story as the dialogue. It’s like if Ron Fricke did fiction.
As I understand it’s a narrative about storytelling which I’m always going to love. This summary reminds me of 1001 Nights, only in reverse as the patient longs for death.
Great news! Tarsem’s got the rights back to the film, and he said he’s got a 4K transfer ready-to-go. https://lwlies.com/interviews/tarsem-singh/I would buy a 4K Blu-Ray of it, and I don’t even own a Blu-Ray player.And, yes, Criterion released noted auteur Michael Bay’s Armageddon. Just…food for thought.
This is such a great movie, and I only learned about it thanks to reading that AVC 2008 Year in Film article. Firefly memes aside, learning about stuff like this was the best part of the old AVC.
personal opinions on this movie aside “If you liked The Fall Guy, check out The Fall” is unhinged
Public Service Announcement: you can borrow almost any DVD from your local library, for free! If they don’t have it, you can request it via the inter library loan system. That’s how I watched this movie for the first time two years ago (I adored it).
YES. I honestly cried at the end of this one because of how overwhelmed I was with the beautiful spectacle. it’s always on the verge of being a total disaster but then.
I’ll go ahead and read the article, but.. “divisive”…? I always thought it was just a great goddamn movie.
It’s beautiful and somehow boring at the same time.
oh film critics were harsh with this one, calling it a pretty wrap for vacuous content or childish or similar things.
film critics were harsh with this one, calling it a pretty wrap for vacuous content or childish or similar things Whoa. I didn’t know that. Only became aware of the movie the year after it came out. A friend I trust recommended it with “I don’t want to tell you anything about it. Just watch it.” I’ve seen it several times since and will continue to watch it, at least once every couple years. (I have the DVD.)It IS a pretty movie, and I do understand that Tarsem’s forte is visuals, but… it’s a beautifully plotted and very well acted movie, even if it also, you know, looks good.
Hard to believe it is essentially unavailable and in danger of basically being lost. I’m surprised to look back and see it didn’t get as much wide-spread critical love as I remembered. I knew it had flopped financially, but it was one of those movies at the time several people told me I had to see until I finally saw it. And I then saw it again because it looked so amazing on a big screen.
Tarsem got the rights back, and has a 4K transfer!
Tasha Robinson called the project “pretentious to the point of laughability.” Later, she named it one of her top films of the year. Both can be true.No, they really can’t.
I remember enjoying this quite a bit, and thinking it was a child’s fairy tale movie, but made for adults. Now its scarcity is making me jones to see it again really bad.