Monthly Review : THE FALL (2008)

ONCE the word of mouth begins to permeate through the grapevine, barely a soul will escape this movie's many and brilliant charms. THE FALL will escalate from cult gem to one of cinema's greatest achievements.Shot on 26 locations over South Africa ,India ,England, Indonesia, Fiji, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic,Romania ,China , Argentina ,Turkey, Egypt, Chile ,USA, Brazil within a span of 4 years, it is as if Tarsem Singh, the director, channeled the spirits of David Lean and Jean-Pierre Jeaunet to bring forth a visual hallucination of the best bedtime story ever conceived. This film is simply a love letter to cinema.




Plot Overview :
The Fall is set during Hollywood's silent film era.During her hospital recovery from a broken arm, young Alexandria encounters the bedridden stuntman Roy who quickly entices her with his storytelling. While manipulating the young girl into carrying out tasks for him, Roy weaves together an epic tale of five diverse warriors all fixated on a common goal – to kill the tyrannical governor Odious . Continually adapting and evolving his story to encompass characters based on real people around them, and to please Alexandria's vivid imagination, Roy slowly deceives the girl into aiding his tragic plan.



Review :

This sounds like a warm, endearing children's tale, and to a point, it is. Alexandria is so smitten with Roy that she eventually drops him into the role of the story's masked bandit, taking the place of her late father. Everything about The Fall is so warm and charming -- it's an artfully shot peck on the check -- that when the movie takes a darker turn, it's devastating. No, The Fall is too smart and too sharply-crafted a film to settle for cheap melodrama or whatever you might be picturing. I won't spoil what Roy's ulterior motive is for weaving this fantasy together for Alexandria, but it's truly heartbreaking for both of them, and the barrage of emotional slugs in the gut build up to an intense, teary-eyed crescendo.




Indian Origin Director Tarsem shot the film all over the world so he could bring real world locations to vividly portray Roy's story as envisioned by Alexandria . Whether it's the orange sands within which Alexander the Great is stranded or the labyrinth of despair or the mad staircase ridden city that forms part of the final battle--they all look amazing. The colour palette of the film, the diversity and the contrast of each scene, is just awe-inspiring to look at.Cinematographer Colin Watkinson displays a real flare and gusto for making images look jaw-dropping on-screen and I’m sure this will get him the recognition he deserves. The visuals of the film are one of the key reasons to see it; even if you hit the mute button and just watched the film in silence it would still feel satisfying.



Young Romanian actress Cantinca Untaru as Alexandria is superb. I normally avoid films with children as they are usually cheesy or groan worthy. There is nothing stiff or unnatural about this young actress and it is a great credit to Tarsem as a director that he was able to pull this level of acting from a child in her debut film. While watching the movie, I was amazed at how Tarsem and Cantinca were able to move the audience from laughter to tears and back to laughter so fluidly. Lee Pace puts in an excellent show and does a great job as a suicidal patient in the hospital, but Cantinca is definitely the star of this show.


Parting Thoughts :



Entrancing, uncompromising, and visually dazzling: The Fall feels like the best moments of our lives sprinkled throughout a drama that's equal parts charming, warmly natural, and emotionally devastating. I didn't want The Fall to end.To my eyes, The Fall is perfect -- there's not a role I'd recast, not a scene I'd gut out, and not a line I'd change -- and it's a film I get the distinct impression has something new to discover with each successive viewing.So, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to this grand achievement in film making.





Title :THE FALL
Dir: Tarsem Singh
Cast : Lee Pace ,Cantinca Untaru,Justine Whadell



Country :USA
Language : English

Rated PG-13 for violence


DVD Features :Feature Length commentary with director Tarsem Singh ; Feature Length commentary with actors , producer and writer ; Deleted Scenes ; Outtakes ; Still gallery Interview with cast and crew ; Behind the scenes ;


Trailer Link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO0LYcCoeJY Torrent File Name : The.Fall[2006]DvDrip-aXXo.avi;

Festival Coverage : Cannes (2010 )

The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23,2010 in Cannes, France.Here are the description of the films that won the major award categories.





1.Palme d'Or Award


Film : Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Director :Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Country :Thailand


Plot Overview : The film centers on the last days in the life of its title character,Boonmee. Together with his loved ones – including the ghost of his dead wife and his lost son who has returned in a non-human form – Boonmee explores his past lives as he contemplates the reasons for his illness.


2.Grand Prix Award

Film :Of Gods and Men

Director : Xavier Beauvois

Country : France

Plot Overview :It centers around an actual event in 1996, when seven French Roman Catholic religious order of contemplative monks monks were kidnapped and beheaded in Algeria. The Armed Islamic Group of Algeria claimed full responsibility for the incident, but according to documents from French secret services it is possible that the killing was a mistake carried out by the Algerian army during a rescue attempt.The drama focusses on those monks who stand up for their beliefs when confronted by fundamentalists.



3.Special Jury Prize:

Film :A Screaming Man

Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Country :Republic of Chad

Synopsis :Set in perennially war-torn Chad Adam, the protagonist, is a fifty-something former swimming champion, known to everyone as "Champ," who happily reigns, as pool boy, over the swimming pool at a local resort which has been taken over by the Chinese. When management decides to downsize, he is laid off from the beloved job that has given so much status and meaning to his life . When his equally beloved son Abdel takes his place, jealousy is created .In the meantime, Adam is being pressured by local authorities to contribute to the government's war effort against the ever-present rebels, and because he has no money to give them, they "draft" (kidnap) Abdel into the army. Torn by conflicting desires, Adam doesn't try to protect his son



4.Best Director :

Dir :Mathieu Amalric

Film :Tournée (On Tour)

Country :France



Plot Overview :Formerly successful television producer Joachim Zand returns from America to his native France, where he previously has left everything behind, including friends, enemies and his own children. In his company is a burlesque striptease troupe whom he has promised a grand performance in Paris.Together they tour the French port cities, staying at cheap hotels and making success along the way. Old conflicts are however reignated upon the return to the French capital.



5.Best Screenplay:

Film :Poetry

Dir and Screenplay :Lee Chang-dong

Country :South Korea

Plot Overview :It tells the story of a suburban woman in her 60s who begins to grow an interest for poetry while struggling with Alzheimer's disease and her irresponsible grandson.







6.Camera d'Or (First-Time Filmmaker) Award:




Film :Año Bisiesto

Director : Michael Rowe

Country :Mexico



Synopsis:A lonely Mexican woman with some major intimacy issues goes on a one-month sex spree .Freelance business journo Laura through her solemn routine of eating, watching TV, looking out the window and talking on the phone with her mother.But such details take on added significance as the narrative slides into darker waters, beginning with the first time Laura brings a guy home and the two have rough but passionless sex.This routine is repeated several times with different men, and it's not until Laura meets Arturo , whose taste for violent coitus seems to be Laura's cup of tea. Some fairly disturbing sex scenes may be a turnoff to high-brow arthouse crowds, but patient viewers will be rewarded with a conclusion that can only come from its character's intense trial by fornication.



7.Best Leading Actor (Tie):

1.Actor :Javier Bardem

Dir:Alejandro González Iñárritu

Film :Biutiful

Country :Spain

Synopsis :Biutiful is the story of Uxbal. Uxbal is a person who sort of deals outside-of-the-law in Barcelona. He helps a group of Chinese immigrants work illegal jobs that pay under the table which provide knock-off products that Senegalese immigrants then sell illegally on the streets. He doesn't deal in drugs anymore, but that was once part of his past life. His wife is a prostitute with bipolar disorder and he has two children whom he loves very much. But he soon discovers that he may not be alive much longer and we're taken on an emotional journey after he learns that news. But that's not the only big problem he encounters.

2.Actor :Elio Germano

Film : La Nostra Vita

Dir: Daniele Luchetti.

Country :Italy

Synopsis :Claudio is a building site foreman who lives with his wife Elena and his two young sons.Elena is pregnant again, but she dies in childbirth, and Claudio is knocked sideways. He’s already had a shock when he finds the body of a Romanian illegal immigrant worker on the building site. Using the cover-up of the Romanian worker’s death as a blackmail chip, Claudio convinces construction king Porcari to give him the contract on a new residential block in Rome’s northern suburbs, which needs to be finished in record time.He raises the money and sinks part of it into flashy toys for his kids .Claudio uses consumerism to assuage his grief and guilt. Things, of course, spiral before they get any better.

8.Best Leading Actress:

Juliette Binoche

Film :Certified Copy

Dir: Abbas Kiarostami

Country : France


Plot :The story is set in Tuscany and focuses on a French art gallery owner, played by Juliette Binoche, who together with a man she just met pretends to be a long-married couple.James Miller is a writer who's just published a book entitled Certified Copy, and he's giving a lecture in Italy to present the work.Juliette Binoche's character, only named "She", is able to listen to a few minutes of the lecture before her young son interrupts her. She heads off to a cafe with him, passing along her number in the hopes that James will give her a call. He does, and they spend a day together, discussing everything under the sun dealing with love, aging, and marriage.

Monthly Review : BAD TIMING (1980)

"A Sick Film About Sick People Made By Sick People For Sick People."—The Rank Organization, Original distributor of BAD TIMING who funded the film, reacted with shock when they saw the end result.This famously conservative distribution company empire with a long history of releasing family classics removed their logo from the beginning of the film and banned the film from their own cinema chain network.







Plot Overview :

A young american woman, Milena , is rushed to hospital, in Vienna, after taking a drug overdose. Her former lover, psychiatry professor Alex Linden , accompanies her to hospital. As the doctors try to save Milena’s life, a police Inspector questions Alex , trying to get to the reasons for her suicide attempt.As the Inspector pores over the details of the case, Alex recounts the minutes of their fragmented relationship, and the audience tries to put together not only the events leading up to Milena's suicide attempt, but the strange and often painful journey from their first acquaintance to this potentially fatal end.Also the inspector finds evidence suggesting that hours passed between the time that Alex Linden received Milena's distress call, and when he finally summoned an ambulance. What is the uncooperative Linden hiding?

Review :

Bad Timing is a clear example of a film way ahead of its time because of its non-linear structure.In these post–Pulp Fiction days, or maybe just because 21st-century audiences know how to quickly orient themselves, Bad Timing's jarring structure isn't so jarring. Like Babel,Pulp Fiction.... Bad Timing jumps back and forth in time to create new layers of meaning.But unlike those films, Bad Timing's temporal shifts don't feel like organic parts of the story, but like attacks on our sense of place and time.Director Nicholas Roeg doesn't use flashbacks in the normal sense, but adapts film grammar to express a flowing state of consciousness.

The film starts in the middle, jumps ahead to the end, then back to the prologue within the first four minutes – and continues in a non-linear fashion until the final shot. It takes us viewers a while to get our bearing, but it also elicits our attention to detail. Never are we certain if the cascading flashbacks are meant to be objective on the filmmaker's part, or the perspective of one of the three main characters. Is Milena a victim, or a tramp? Is Alex, a creep, or is that just the inspector's projection? Is the inspector a sympathetic doppelganger, or a crafty manipulator?

The essence of the characters' relationship is defined in a stray comment made by Milena halfway through the film: "I wish you could understand me less and love me more." Bad Timing is a film that thrives on the unknown quantities that erupt between breakups and reconciliations, so 'understanding' these characters, their motivations and their interactions is a difficult task; but at the same time we cannot help but appreciate the relative positions of this eccentric woman and the relentless intellectual who tries to engage her.

Director Roeg also elects to change subjective viewpoints when he shows Milena's back story with her sad Czechoslovakian husband Stefan . Lest we think her a helpless victim in this psycho sexual drama, we see Milena toying with Stefan's affections. She pretends to be concerned, when she's actually amused by her ability to walk away from a man so hopelessly in love with her. Milena cherishes her sexual freedom, whereas Alex is rooted in the need to possess her, to make her exclusively his. Alex doesn't realize that he already 'has' Milena as much as she can be 'had', and it's his damning flaw that he wants excusive rights. The conventional Alex is obsessed with Milena and can't stand the thought of her being with someone else, an attitude that naturally drives her into the arms of others. She's ready to see their relationship go on forever, just as it is. But he wants to hurry to a position of control - a bill of sale in the form of marriage. Milena accuses Alex of being greedy in love, of demanding too much. Her continual question is, "What do you want?"

The missing two hours that put Milena's life in danger reveal the malignancy of this modern pairing. Bristling at what he thinks is Milena's manipulation, Alex dawdles before bothering to answer her call for help fter a drug overdose. Finding her unconcious and helpless, he seizes the opportunity to take from her what he thinks he deserves .The gruesome scene that follows is about as explicit and disturbing as mainstream movies can get.


Director Nicolas Roeg is a bold, detailed, and visually emotive director. He has directed a large handful of excellent-to-great films, and many people count Bad Timing among them. He replaces traditional narrative storytelling with stunning photography, explicit carnality and a signature editing style of jump cuts, cross cuts and subliminal flicker cuts. The film's look was based on the art of Gustav Klimt.It is unfortunate that this brilliant movie is not more well known than his other films.Maybe Roeg was right when he said "people don't like it when you hold a mirror to their face".

Theresa Russell as Milena is a dynamo. Her character's cold-faucet, hot-faucet mind games and desperate attempts to appear carefree spin a deep emotional web.One can picture a thousand actresses terrified by her ability to be truly uninhibited. Art Garfunkel was cast for his intellectual, snobbish physicality. Art alternates between primly pursed lips and angrily flashing eyes, and his impassivity doesn't do much to sell his emotional range as an actor. He nonetheless manages to convey a strictly constrained intellectual with depraved, suppressed passions.Harvey Keitel as the inspector shows us glimpses of the hardboiled naïveté he would perfect in Reservoir Dogs. He underplays the role so thoroughly, we accept him without question.Denholm Elliott as Stefan is quiet and powerful in his scant scenes.

Conclusion :

Bad Timing is honest, gritty, and dense, with intense visual imagery.It goes beyond normal definitions of what is controversial. If you can get past the unwholesome core and irritating trappings, Bad Timing offers a truly challenging artistic experience. There is simply no other film like it, and, based on current popular trends, nor will there ever be.



Title :Bad Timing (1980)

Dir: Nicolas Roeg



Cast: Theresa Russell, Art Garfunkel,Harvey Keitel

Country :UK

Language :English

Rated R for strong sexuality

DVD Extras :Interview with Director ,cast.
Deleted Scenes
Behind the scenes
Trailers

Trailer link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sKGx92ST4g


Torrent file name : Bad Timing (1980) DVDRip (SiRiUs sHaRe)