3. The Fall - Tarsem
Tarsem is an incredibly talented visual director that has an adept grasp on photographic composition. There are only a few directors living or otherwise that have such a command over their artistic vision. The one glaring problem with Tarsem as a film maker is that he seems to care little for telling a story. He only utilizes narrative as a skeletal frame-work to drape imagery on. His films are all painstakingly planned works of exquisite painterly beauty in the visual department. From the aspect of story Tarsem's films fall apart quickly and usually become nothing more than long parades of visual splendor. The Fall just happens to be the most excessively long, extravagant and self-indulgent film he has ever made. The story and structure of film is not unlike the works of Guillermo del Toro. The Fall is a fantasy film strongly grounded in reality and rich in metaphors. The Fall concerns Alexandria a little girl with a vivid imagination who is in a hospital in California in the early 1900's. There she meets Roy a movie stunt man who had an accident on the set of his most recent film. Roy feeds into Alexandria's imagination and tells her of grand adventures which in turn helps him recover from his mental and physical wounds. What sends The Fall over the edge is again excess on the part of the director. Tarsem is absolutely in love with his camera work and shot composition. He lets the camera linger for far to long in most shots and several sequences seem crammed into the film just because Tarsem liked them. While the narrative in The Fall is more focused than some of his other films the pace is languid and lacks forward momentum. The Fall simply pushes the plot far into the back ground and abuses the premise as an excuse for Tarsem to create a long parade of sumptuous visuals. Again much of the film feels like self-indulgence with a complete disregard for the audience. Which is a shame since The Fall is visually one of the most beautifully filmed pieces of cinema you could ever lay your eyes on.