Review of The Fall (2006) by Natanz L — 15 Dec 2011

Tarsem Singh has fascinated me ever since I saw the opening five minutes of The Cell on t.v at 1am. Since watching The Fall, that fascination has only increased. Storyteller he is not, but Singh has one of the most brilliant visual sense of any director working today.

The plot is a bit convoluted and hard to follow at times, but the visual presentation is unbelievably spectacular. Every shot is a perfect painting, and the colour and image convey more than the dialogue, which is a bit hard to follow. The contrast between the story world and the real world, the bright, bold primary colours against the warm sepia tones, presents the escape and excitement of the imagination against the familiar and inevitability of life. The use of mise-en-scene is also very strong. Although the design is largely colour based, with the deep blue waters and the golden sands, Singh's use of patterns and strong lines add to the dynamism of the composition. The colours and the form of the image are perfectly harmonized, not fighting with each other as often happens.

The Fall starts out kind of slow and plodding, but as Singh warms to the visual design of the film, it becomes mesmerizing. It's almost as if the image overpowers the narrative and all that's left is the visual, which carries more meaning and more heart than anything that could be conveyed simply through the voice over narrative. In a sense The Fall is almost an abstract and avant-garde work, because in the end, it's not the story or the moral that I remember, it's the sweeping vistas and the vastness and endlessness of the world and existence that comes from the image. The images tug at your mind long after they're gone and continue to cause thought and reflection, just as all good art does.