Tarsem is able to tell his story through different acting styles and by changing the tone of the film quite suddenly. While the two stories in the film are disparate though they involve similar elements, the stories come to meet when they both tend to go into a darker vein. The audience learns how Roy was hurt and we watch as Roy tries to manipulate Alexandria. While this is happening, there is also a move toward the darker side when the adventurers meet some pretty dark challenges. There is a great shift in the movie overall, going from fantastic and quirky to almost scary.

What "The Fall" mainly tells us about stories is that while there are certainly rules to storytelling, once one has a grasp on creating a story through character and plot, one can easily break rules of storytelling (Lamb 2), which is what Tarsem has done. The story in itself is quite simple really, however, what makes the story complicated is how quickly the imagery on film changes. "The Fall" takes a simple story and makes an enigmatic and complicated piece of cinema.

In regards to the movie, Roger Ebert wrote: "

'the Fall' is beautiful for its own sake. And there is the sweet charm of the young Romanian actress Catinca Untaru, who…speaks with the innocence of childhood, working her way through tangles of words. She regards with equal wonder the reality she...

It is her imagination that creates the images of Roy's story, and they have a purity and power beyond all calculation. Roy is her perfect storyteller, she is his perfect listener, and together they build a world (Ebert 2008).
While "The Fall" is a great piece of cinematic art, it does raise some questions about storytelling. The first question relates to imagery and when imagery actually begins to stand in the way of the story. While Tarsem was a music video director before directing films and it's clear that he likes to use stunning imagery in his work, there are times when the imagery appears to be a bit capricious and meaningless. When does imagery get in the way of telling a compelling story in cinema? This is a difficult question to answer since cinema is a visual art.

Works Cited

Block, Bruce. The Visual Story, Second Edition: Creating the Visual Structure of Film,

TV and Digital Media. Focal Press; 2nd edition, 2007. Print.

Ebert, Roger. "The Fall." The Sun Times. Web. Accessed on January 25, 2011:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080529/REVIEWS/

805290301

Lamb, Nancy. The Art and Craft of Storytelling: A Comprehensive Guide to Classic

Writing Techniques. Writers Digest Books, 2008. Print.