Trailer Tuesday: The Fall

Hey, everybody!

Hi, Martha!

I'm back!

Yay! We've been crying buckets and being mean to small children because we've missed you so dearly.

Tsk, tsk, naughty! But I'm back now, so you can be happy and good.

We will...try, now give us the goods!

Patience little ones and sit still, for it is story time.

Welcome to Trailer Tuesday. I go through phases where I can't stand to watch even the previews of blockbuster-type movies, let alone the movies themselves. I am not against blockbusters, in fact I often enjoy them, but I often need a healthy dose of "other" to temper the simple-plotted, explosion-riddled, action-packed blockbuster. Unfortunately the cusp of summer is the worst time to go through this phase, yet here I am.

So instead of a new movie preview,  I must tell you about a movie I saw recently that is one of the most incredible and visually stunning films I've had the privilege of consuming; it now resides in my top five faves of all time.

The Fall (2006) stars my darling Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day), and is the pet project of director Tarsem Singh. Singh mostly used his own money to finance the film so he could have as much control over his vision as possible, and the results are stunning. Apparently The Fall was filmed over 4 years and in 20 different countries. Additionally and incredibly, no CGI was used, which is hard to believe at times. Oddly enough, it was mostly jeered by critics, but the critics who loved it, loved it passionately.

Bare bones plot: Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is an injured stuntman recovering in the hospital in the 1920s. Another hospital patient, a precocious little girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), befriends Roy and he begins to tell her a story. We hear the words of the story from Roy, but we see the world of the story through Alexandria's imagination, and this ain't your normally depicted child's imagination. The visuals are incredibly rich, bold, and expansive; and the story is sweet, charming, funny, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and intense.

On top of visual greatness and good story, the acting is excellent. Even I, the non child lover, fell in love with Alexandria. Singh filmed some of the scenes between Alexendria and Roy through holes in the walls or parting in a curtain so that the absence of cameras would allow more natural, spontaneous interactions. It worked beautifully.

With further ado, the trailer.

As of now The Fall is streaming on Netflix. Following are some stills from the movie that look dull an sad compared to the actual movie.