"The Fall" (With ETA)
Apr. 5th, 2009 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feliciakwFinally took time last night to watch The Fall. The only thing I could think to say when the end credits started to roll was "Wow."
Which Geo verbalized before saying anything else. "Wow."
Starring Lee Pace (Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies) and an amazing little girl named Catinca Untaru, it takes place in mid-1910s. Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) is a patient recovering from a broken arm in the children's ward of a Los Angeles hospital. She wanders the hospital grounds, charming the adults, exploring the halls, and meeting patients in other wards in other buildings. She befriends Roy (Lee Pace), who his himself bedridden as the result of an accident. A friendship is built on the story Roy weaves during Alexandria's visits to his bedside. Seen from her point of view, the story takes on splendid color and amazing fantastical scope and interpretation.
The movie is what you might call a feast for your eyes, and little Catinca is simply charming. The lack of CGI is also fantastic; these exotic locations are actual location shoots.
As Roy spins is fantastical tale of bandits and revenge, he draws little Alexandria in until she agrees to steal morphine for him in exchange for the story. What he doesn't count on is that she would come to love him and do anything he wants, at the risk of her own life.
Yes, I got a bit teary at the end, but it has a hopeful, life-affirming ending. I highly recommend.
Now, let's talk about Lee Pace. While I doubt he will ever reach my Jensen levels of infatuation, after seeing the behind the scenes footage (which was not commentary or documentary, but was footage shot behind the scenes minus any sort of interviews or voice over explanations), I'm really curious about the process he went through to play his role as accident victim. You see, Roy's accident leaves him paralyzed, without any feeling in his legs. And from what the BTS footage shows, Lee showed up on set in a handcapped van, remained in a wheelchair on set, had someone help him in and out of the hospital bed, and generally treated himself as if his legs would not move. My first thought was, "Wow. He really is Method." Because, you see, the actor himself can walk perfectly well, and he does in fact play one of the bandits in the story, where he, of course, is perfectly able to walk. Geo suggested that the director might have requested the wheelchair/paraplegic experience in order to keep the young girl in the frame of mind that "Roy" can't walk. Or perhaps Pace chose to do this to keep himself in the frame of mind of being crippled. I don't know. We didn't listen to any of the running commentaries, but Geo has now declared that he needs this movie on Blu-ray, so I'm sure we'll have a chance soon.
Another amazing aspect of the movie was the location shoots. The sprawling desert? Was actually a sprawling desert. The Taj Mahal set looks like the Taj Mahal because it is the Taj Mahal. It's just . . . amazing.
The story is very sweet and charming and there are some pieces of delightful humor woven in with the drama. The story itself is rather straight forward, but viewing it through the eyes of the little girl makes it just that much more imaginative and splendid.
So go. Now. Watch. Enjoy. And if you've a mind, let me know what you think.
Okay, so I was sort of right. Apparently (I haven't listened to the commentaries yet, but Geo did get the disc today. He read this on IMDB, I think), through some series of events, the cast and crew were led to believe that Lee Paced was a paraplegic. The director chose not to discourage this misconception, especially for the little girl, who thought Lee actually was paralyzed. Then apparently, one day, a crew person entered a room where Lee was (by himself?) up and walking around. Said crew person apparently passed out from the surprise.
It's also interesting (and logical) to note that the hospital stuff was all shot in order, for the benefit of Catinca. I'm guessing, then, that the hospital stuff was shot before the location stuff. Fascinating.
Listened to the commentaries tonight. Very interesting stuff. It was the director's idea to keep Lee Pace in a wheelchair for twelve weeks of shooting the hospital stuff. Only a small, small handful of people knew the truth. It was all done for the sake of the little girl, so that she would think he was paralyzed and they would get a real performance out of her. Some of the crew were delighted when they found out later that Lee can walk. Others were angry for being lied to. They never said how Catinca reacted to the revelation.
Lee also say that by the time they got to the end of shooting the hospital stuff, he was very depressed. Not only did he spend 12 weeks in a wheelchair (he told about a cast and crew party at a restaurant or hotel where he had to be brought in through the back doors and carried up/down the steps--because there was no handicapped access, I guess), but he spent 12 weeks lying about a motorcycles accident--the cover story accident that explained his paralysis. Once he was in the bed for a day of shooting, he couldn't leave except for lunch.
And I'm convinced he's a very generous and alert actor, in that he was always making adjustments for Catinca's ad-libbed lines and her movements into and out of the lighting.
Did some research on him on IMDB. If IMDB is to be believed, he's theatrically trained. This explains a great deal.
So, if you rent the DVD, do take the time to listen to the two commentary tracts. Very interesting stuff.
Which Geo verbalized before saying anything else. "Wow."
Starring Lee Pace (Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies) and an amazing little girl named Catinca Untaru, it takes place in mid-1910s. Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) is a patient recovering from a broken arm in the children's ward of a Los Angeles hospital. She wanders the hospital grounds, charming the adults, exploring the halls, and meeting patients in other wards in other buildings. She befriends Roy (Lee Pace), who his himself bedridden as the result of an accident. A friendship is built on the story Roy weaves during Alexandria's visits to his bedside. Seen from her point of view, the story takes on splendid color and amazing fantastical scope and interpretation.
The movie is what you might call a feast for your eyes, and little Catinca is simply charming. The lack of CGI is also fantastic; these exotic locations are actual location shoots.
As Roy spins is fantastical tale of bandits and revenge, he draws little Alexandria in until she agrees to steal morphine for him in exchange for the story. What he doesn't count on is that she would come to love him and do anything he wants, at the risk of her own life.
Yes, I got a bit teary at the end, but it has a hopeful, life-affirming ending. I highly recommend.
Now, let's talk about Lee Pace. While I doubt he will ever reach my Jensen levels of infatuation, after seeing the behind the scenes footage (which was not commentary or documentary, but was footage shot behind the scenes minus any sort of interviews or voice over explanations), I'm really curious about the process he went through to play his role as accident victim. You see, Roy's accident leaves him paralyzed, without any feeling in his legs. And from what the BTS footage shows, Lee showed up on set in a handcapped van, remained in a wheelchair on set, had someone help him in and out of the hospital bed, and generally treated himself as if his legs would not move. My first thought was, "Wow. He really is Method." Because, you see, the actor himself can walk perfectly well, and he does in fact play one of the bandits in the story, where he, of course, is perfectly able to walk. Geo suggested that the director might have requested the wheelchair/paraplegic experience in order to keep the young girl in the frame of mind that "Roy" can't walk. Or perhaps Pace chose to do this to keep himself in the frame of mind of being crippled. I don't know. We didn't listen to any of the running commentaries, but Geo has now declared that he needs this movie on Blu-ray, so I'm sure we'll have a chance soon.
Another amazing aspect of the movie was the location shoots. The sprawling desert? Was actually a sprawling desert. The Taj Mahal set looks like the Taj Mahal because it is the Taj Mahal. It's just . . . amazing.
The story is very sweet and charming and there are some pieces of delightful humor woven in with the drama. The story itself is rather straight forward, but viewing it through the eyes of the little girl makes it just that much more imaginative and splendid.
So go. Now. Watch. Enjoy. And if you've a mind, let me know what you think.
Okay, so I was sort of right. Apparently (I haven't listened to the commentaries yet, but Geo did get the disc today. He read this on IMDB, I think), through some series of events, the cast and crew were led to believe that Lee Paced was a paraplegic. The director chose not to discourage this misconception, especially for the little girl, who thought Lee actually was paralyzed. Then apparently, one day, a crew person entered a room where Lee was (by himself?) up and walking around. Said crew person apparently passed out from the surprise.
It's also interesting (and logical) to note that the hospital stuff was all shot in order, for the benefit of Catinca. I'm guessing, then, that the hospital stuff was shot before the location stuff. Fascinating.
Listened to the commentaries tonight. Very interesting stuff. It was the director's idea to keep Lee Pace in a wheelchair for twelve weeks of shooting the hospital stuff. Only a small, small handful of people knew the truth. It was all done for the sake of the little girl, so that she would think he was paralyzed and they would get a real performance out of her. Some of the crew were delighted when they found out later that Lee can walk. Others were angry for being lied to. They never said how Catinca reacted to the revelation.
Lee also say that by the time they got to the end of shooting the hospital stuff, he was very depressed. Not only did he spend 12 weeks in a wheelchair (he told about a cast and crew party at a restaurant or hotel where he had to be brought in through the back doors and carried up/down the steps--because there was no handicapped access, I guess), but he spent 12 weeks lying about a motorcycles accident--the cover story accident that explained his paralysis. Once he was in the bed for a day of shooting, he couldn't leave except for lunch.
And I'm convinced he's a very generous and alert actor, in that he was always making adjustments for Catinca's ad-libbed lines and her movements into and out of the lighting.
Did some research on him on IMDB. If IMDB is to be believed, he's theatrically trained. This explains a great deal.
So, if you rent the DVD, do take the time to listen to the two commentary tracts. Very interesting stuff.
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Date: 2009-04-06 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 04:16 pm (UTC)But the first place we saw him was Wonderfalls, as Jaye's big brother. I need to pull those out again and watch them.