In Los Angeles, in 1915, Roy, a paralyzed stuntman, languishes in his hospital bed. But one day he finds himself with a little girl with a broken arm, Alexandria, as a neighbor. A spontaneous bond develops between them, as Roy begins to tell Alexandria an epic and mysterious tale. Soon, the child immerses herself in the fiction… Exquisitely beautiful, The Fall unfortunately flew under the radar after its premiere at TIFF in 2006, briefly hitting theaters in 2008. As Mubi prepares to launch its 4K restoration of this now cult film, its director, Tarsem Singh, simply Tarsem by his professional name, returns exclusively to a self-financed shoot, spread over four years, held in no fewer than 24 different countries.
“Years and years ago, I was in Delhi in a hostel, and there were a whole bunch of people freezing, on the smackand who wanted to go see as many films as possible at a local festival in order to “come down”. I wasn’t part of that group, I was in my corner playing chess, but they took me with them, and I saw this film by Valeri Petrov, called Yo Ho Ho“I was captivated as I had never been by a film,” says Tarsem, contacted in August at the Locarno International Film Festival, where the restoration of The Fall.
Released in 1981, Yo Ho Ho tells the story of the friendship between a little boy with a broken arm and a paraplegic actor against a hospital backdrop, the latter telling a pirate story to the former.
“You have to understand that I grew up partly in boarding school, abroad, in the Emirates and in Iran. And so, in the films I saw, I didn’t understand the dialogue, I didn’t understand the language: I only trusted the images,” confides the filmmaker of Indian origin who now lives most of the year in Montreal.
“In the evening, in my bed, I replayed the scenes, finding a meaning in them that probably had nothing to do with reality. And the next day, on the bus, I told my version of the film. Seeing Yo Ho Howith this child who appropriates the story that is told to him by reimagining it, I suddenly saw my own experience represented on the screen. It was a truly transcendent moment.
After studying at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, Tarsem was quickly noticed, in music videos and advertising, for the rather singular evocative power of his images. His music video for the song losing my Religionby REM, in 1991, earned him several awards. Not surprising, knowing that he learned at a young age to rely on the language of cinema rather than that of words.
And, always, this film by Valeri Petrov which floated in his memory…
This being the case, Tarsem decided to design a variation of it in his own way, infusing it with his own themes and concerns and, above all, his unique visual style. The actor of yesteryear became a stuntman addicted to morphine (Lee Pace; Guardians of the Galaxy / Guardians of the Galaxy), and the metanarrative acquired a mythic dimension, with larger-than-life characters: a mute heroic warrior, a thief, a politician, an explosives expert and two disparate historical figures, namely Charles Darwin and Alexander the Great.
With her imagination boiling, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) gives the protagonists of this phantasmagoria the faces of people she meets in reality, integrating herself into Roy’s story.
Constructed images
As soon as he managed to put some money aside, Tarsem took steps to acquire the adaptation rights to Yo Ho Ho.
“Between the time I saw Yo Ho Ho and the one where I made my first location scouting trip for the filming of The Fall19 years have passed. Initially, I was also looking for a boy for the main character, but when I saw the film Ponythe performance of little Victoire Thivisol made me question everything. Then I found Catinca Untaru to play Alexandria, and everything fell into place in my head.
For years, Tarsem multiplied paid advertising contracts with brands such as Smirnoff, Coke, Nike, Levi’s and Pepsi in order to self-finance. The Fall. In fact, despite the favorable reception of his first feature film, The Cell (The cell ; 2000), which also enjoys cult status now, Tarsem knew that no studio would want to put a penny into his strange project. And if one of them accepted, the filmmaker feared losing a part of the creative freedom, freedom that he wanted total for The Fall.
“Hollywood decision-makers are reasonable people: if they invest a lot of money in a project, they want to limit the risks. It makes sense from their point of view. And if they accept a more unusual project, it has to come from a filmmaker who has a good track record. I didn’t have that at the time. When you work with the studios, you have to expect to have to put a little milk in your coffee. Except that, for me, The Fallit was a very dark and dense Turkish coffee.
For four years, Tarsem chose the music videos and commercials he made based on the regions of the world he visited. Each time, he brought the actors for the film at his own expense, working with the same team as for the video or commercial of the moment.
“The filming was extremely complicated logistically, because of the difficulty of accessing certain locations. But at the same time, if it were simple, others would have gone to film there before and after. And on screen, it pays off. Today, with small digital cameras, it’s different, but at the time, it was heavy equipment and 35 mm cameras.”
One reason the film has aged so well is that Tarsem insisted on not using any special effects: the incredible aesthetic sophistication is organic, tangible. A tribute to the power of imagination, to the act of storytelling, to childhood and to cinema, The Fall is of an opulence, of a magnificence, quite indescribable.
“I am often asked if I see these images in my dreams, or if I take drugs. I have never touched drugs, I have never been under the influence in any way. I have never even had a sip of beer. Since I invest myself completely in everything I do, I would be afraid of the result. In fact, my conception of images is stupidly meticulous: I elaborate them with great care. For images from dreams, I think more of David Lynch: what he creates is very visceral. My work is not visceral, it is constructed.”
A “visual orgy”
In the end, it cost Tarsem US$30 million to complete. The Fall. After adjusting for inflation, we’re talking about around 40 million: that’s a third of the 120 million Francis Ford Coppola spent on his Megalopolisbut still. Despite the support of colleagues David Fincher (Seven/Seven ; Zodiac / The Zodiac) and Spike Jones (Being John Malkovich / In the shoes of John Malkovich ; Her/She), who joined forces as “presenters” of the film, The Fall was a flop.
Without being bitter, Tarsem believes that there was a misunderstanding regarding the tone of the film, or even its narrative bias.
“One of the criticisms that came up was about the naivety of the story. But it’s precisely a story filtered through the imagination of a child, not an adult. You know, I didn’t see those four years go by. Making this film was like going down a tunnel of creation at the end of which there were festivals where people said: “It’s crap, we don’t want it.”
Not everyone agreed. Roger Ebert, for example, gave the film a perfect score in a review headlined “Finding New Images in a World of Imagination.”
The critic rightly wrote: “ The Fallby Tarsem, is a mad delirium, an extravagant visual orgy, a free fall from reality into unexplored lands. It is surely one of the craziest indulgences a director has ever allowed himself. Tarsem […] made a film that you might want to see if only because it exists. There will never be another one like it.”
News from The Cell
The restored version of the film The Fall will be available on the Mubi platform from September 27.