The Falls (1980 film)

Last updated

The Falls
The Falls FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Peter Greenaway
Written byPeter Greenaway
Music by Michael Nyman
Release date
1980
Running time
185 min
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Falls is a 1980 film directed by Peter Greenaway. It was Greenaway's first feature-length film after many years making shorts. It does not have a traditional dramatic narrative; it takes the form of a mock documentary in 92 short parts.

Contents

Plot

The world has been struck by a mysterious incident called the "Violent Unknown Event" or VUE, which has killed many people and left a great many survivors suffering from a common set of symptoms: mysterious ailments (some appearing to be mutations of evolving into a bird-like form), dreaming of water (categorised by form, such as Category 1, Flight, or Category 3, Waves) and becoming obsessed with birds and flight. Many of the survivors have been gifted with new languages. They have also stopped ageing, making them immortal (barring disease or injury).

A directory of these survivors has been compiled, and The Falls is presented as a film version of an excerpt from that directory, corresponding to the 92 entries for persons whose surnames begin with the letters FALL-. Not all of the 92 entries correspond to a person – some correspond to deleted entries, cross references and other oddities of the administrative process that has produced the directory. One biography concerns two people – the twin brothers Ipson and Pulat Fallari, who are played (in still photographs) by the Brothers Quay.

The Falls includes clips of a number of Greenaway's early shorts. It also anticipates some of his later films: the subject of biography 27, Propine Fallax, is a pseudonym for Cissie Colpitts, the central figure of Drowning by Numbers (1988), while the car accident in biography 28 prefigures that in A Zed and Two Noughts (1985).

The largely formal and deadpan manner of the narration contrasts with the absurdity of the content.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is mainly by Michael Nyman and is partly based, like his later music for Drowning by Numbers, on the slow movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra K. 364 . It also includes numerous clips from various songs popular among the avant-garde of the time, including pieces by Brian Eno (in particular "Golden Hours" from Another Green World) and snippets of "Jugband Blues", the last song Syd Barrett recorded with Pink Floyd.

Reception

The Falls has an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, [1] with Nathan Lee of The Village Voice calling it "the most playful and engaging of Greenaway's compositions". [2]

Vincent Canby writing in the New York Times gave The Falls a mostly positive review, saying 'though The Falls is much too long for its own good, its rewards are real'. [3]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Greenaway</span> British film director

Peter Greenaway, is a British film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are the scenic composition and illumination and the contrasts of costume and nudity, nature and architecture, furniture and people, sexual pleasure and painful death.

<i>Drowning by Numbers</i> 1988 British film

Drowning by Numbers is a 1988 British-Dutch film directed by Peter Greenaway. It won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Cannes Film Festival of 1988.

Tulse Luper is a fictional character, created by film director Peter Greenaway.

"Born in Newport in 1911, Luper was, according to Greenaway's introduction to the exhibition catalogue, in Moab, Utah in 1928 when "Uranium was 'discovered' there. He was in Antwerp in 1939 when the Germans invaded Belgium. He was in Rome when the Americans arrived in 1944. He met Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest in 1945 and followed him to Moscow in the 1950s. He was at an East-West German checkpoint in 1963". The 92 suitcases thus tell Luper's story from 1928 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, sketching not so much the biography of one man as the story of a century related through some of its key events."

<i>Lacombe, Lucien</i> 1974 French film

Lacombe, Lucien[lakɔ̃b ly.sjɛ̃] is a 1974 French war drama film by Louis Malle about a French teenage boy during the German occupation of France in World War II.

The Tulse Luper Suitcases is a multimedia project by film maker and artist Peter Greenaway, initially intended to comprise four films, a 16-episode TV series, and 92 DVDs, as well as websites, CD-ROMs and books. The project documented the imagined life of a fictional character called Tulse Luper.

<i>A Zed & Two Noughts</i> 1985 film by Peter Greenaway

A Zed & Two Noughts is a 1985 film written and directed by Peter Greenaway. This film was Greenaway's first collaboration with cinematographer Sacha Vierny, who went on to shoot virtually all of Greenaway's work in the 1980s and 1990s, until Vierny's death. Greenaway referred to Vierny as his "most important collaborator". The film deals with twin zoologists who, after losing both their wives in a car accident, develop an obsession with animal decomposition.

<i>The Return of the Pink Panther</i> 1975 detective comedy film by Blake Edwards

The Return of the Pink Panther is a 1975 comedy film and the fourth film in The Pink Panther series. The film stars Peter Sellers returning to the role of Inspector Clouseau for the first time since A Shot in the Dark (1964), after having declined to reprise the role in Inspector Clouseau (1968). The film was a commercial hit and revived the previously dormant series and with it Peter Sellers' career.

<i>After the Rehearsal</i> 1984 Swedish film

After the Rehearsal is a television film, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1984. The script contains numerous quotes from Strindberg's A Dream Play. The film was screened out of competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>The Man Who Loved Women</i> (1983 film) 1983 film by Blake Edwards

The Man Who Loved Women is a 1983 American comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Burt Reynolds, Julie Andrews and Kim Basinger. It is a remake of the 1977 François Truffaut's film L'Homme qui aimait les femmes.

<i>Le Beau Mariage</i> 1982 French film directed by Éric Rohmer

Le Beau Mariage is a 1982 French film directed by Éric Rohmer, starring Béatrice Romand, André Dussollier, Féodor Atkine. It is one of Rohmer's "comedies and proverbs". Its theme is a proverb from La Fontaine: "Quel esprit ne bat la campagne? Qui ne fait château en Espagne?".

<i>Thief of Hearts</i> 1984 American film

Thief of Hearts is a 1984 American erotic drama film produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It was written and directed by Douglas Day Stewart.

<i>The Return of Swamp Thing</i> 1989 film by Jim Wynorski

The Return of Swamp Thing is a 1989 American superhero film based on the DC Comics' character of the same name. Directed by Jim Wynorski, it is a sequel to the 1982 film Swamp Thing, having a lighter tone than its predecessor. The film has a main title montage consisting of comic book covers set to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Born on the Bayou", and features Dick Durock and Louis Jourdan reprising their roles as Swamp Thing and Anton Arcane respectively, along with Sarah Douglas and Heather Locklear.

<i>The Food of the Gods</i> (film) 1976 science fiction thriller American film by Bert I. Gordon

H.G. Wells' The Food of the Gods, also billed as just The Food of the Gods, is a 1976 science fiction thriller film released by American International Pictures and was written, produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon.

<i>Bobby Deerfield</i> 1977 film

Bobby Deerfield is a 1977 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Al Pacino and Marthe Keller. Based on Erich Maria Remarque's 1961 novel Heaven Has No Favorites, it is about a famous American race car driver on the European circuit who falls in love with an enigmatic Swiss woman who is terminally ill. Pacino was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. The movie uses clips from the 1976 Formula One season.

<i>Storyville</i> (film) 1992 film

Storyville is a 1992 film directed by Mark Frost and starring James Spader. The film takes its name from the historic Storyville red-light district of New Orleans.

<i>Heart of Midnight</i> (film) 1988 film by Matthew Chapman

Heart of Midnight is an American thriller film written and directed by Matthew Chapman and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh. The story follows a young woman with a troubled past who has a hard time dealing with the reality of her new surroundings. The original soundtrack for the film was composed by Yanni and it marks one of his first major recordings.

<i>Hard Promises</i> (film) 1992 film by Martin Davidson

Hard Promises is a 1992 American romantic comedy film directed by Martin Davidson. It stars Sissy Spacek and William Petersen.

<i>Joseph Andrews</i> (film) 1977 British film

Joseph Andrews is a 1977 British period comedy film directed by Tony Richardson. It is based on the 1742 novel Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Nicholson filmography</span>

Jack Nicholson is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who made his film debut in The Cry Baby Killer (1958). Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation. He is also one of the most critically acclaimed: his 12 Academy Award nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academy's history. He is also a Kennedy Center Honoree and a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saskia Boddeke</span>

Saskia Boddeke is a Dutch multimedia artist and stage, opera and film-director. Her work incorporates multiple projections, computer programming, virtual environments such as Second Life, and inter-connecting animated audio-visual avatars with live actors. Her performances have been shown around the world. Boddeke also creates immersive multimedia installations where the visitors are surrounded by projections, sounds, light, smells and art objects. In 2015 Saskia was awarded the Russian TANR award for her exhibition in Moscow: "The Black Square, The Golden Age of the Russian Avantgarde", a multimedia installation.

References

  1. "The Falls (1980)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  2. Lee, Nathan (26 June 2007). "Early Bloomer". The Village Voice. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  3. Vincent Canby (4 May 1983). "PETER GREENAWAY'S 'THE FALLS'". New York Times.