Fall What Does the Fall

Fall

What does the FALL tell us about stories? What do we learn about stories from the film? What questions does it raise? And what answers does it propose?

The film, "The Fall," uses different elements of storytelling beginning with the "long, long ago" at the start of the film. We meet Roy (Lee Pace), a paralyzed stuntman in a hospital bed, and a little Romanian girl, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), who is a patient in another wing. She doesn't speak or understand much of English, however, the two are able to communicate with each other via Roy's storytelling. Roy tells her a story about a handful of adventurers that are trapped on an island, the prisoners of Governor Odeous who is -- like his name implies - odious. The film reenacts the story as Roy tells it. Essentially, while Roy is telling the story, the audience is seeing it through Alexandria's eyes, which is quite fantastical.

Director Tarsem Singh uses aspects from the hospital throughout Alexandria's interpretation of Ray's story. This gives the film a very childlike storytelling quality in which the audience can reference other movies that use these elements -- for example, "The Wizard of Oz." In the "Wizard of Oz," people from Dorothy's real life back in Kansas are characters in her fictional and fantastical world (i.e., the scarecrow, the cowardly lion, and the tin man). Another film that uses similar elements is "Pan's Labyrinth."

"The Fall" also employs mixing aspects of reality with fantasy, which gives it more of a darker feel sometimes (especially towards the middle to end of the film). Two films that comes to mind is "Gulliver's Travels," and Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen." Through this mixture of fantasy and strange reality, the Tarsem manages to conjure up images that leave an indelible lasting impression on the audience. This is another way in which Tarsem is able to capture the audience. The use of powerful imagery is a way to bring people into a story and it doesn't matter whether or not the storyteller and the audience speak the same language. Tarsem seems to be telling us that stories are universal and storytelling is something that takes imagination and not necessarily just words. Stories can be broken down into visual elements in film -- through use of plot and character (dialogue as well, but a story can be sufficiently told with just the elements of plot and character (Block 2).

There is a definite juxtaposition between the scenes where Roy is telling his story to the young girl and the way that the fantastical scenes are done. Even the acting is different, which is one way to emphasize the story part of the film. Roy and the girl interact in quite natural ways while the recreated story is overacted and even campy. This is often the distinction between adult stories and children's stories. For example, a parent reading his or her child a book will adopt funny voices and use dramatic pauses and different types of pacing in order to get the story across -- to give it dramatic effect. 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: "