Sasidhar (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} psasidhar) wrote,@ 2008-05-15 15:59:00 |
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The Fall and The Edge of Heaven
Tarsem Singh's new film, The Fall, opens and closes with the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. That alone was enough for me. Lovely imagery and glorious music.
I am suffering from Beethoven second movement syndrome - Howards End taunted me with its use of 2nd movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Months after watching that passable film, I was still humming the 2nd movement. Now, I can not get the 7th Symphony-2nd movement out of my head. It's just playing in a loop accompanied by hallucinogenic images.
The Fall is a movie piggybacking on its bookends. Tarsem made this movie in two dozen countries (the list of shooting locations was never ending, you will notice if you sit through the end credits) over a course of more than four years (He hasn't made a movie since his debut - The Cell). He put in his own money into making this movie. It's painful to see such a labour-of-love going wrong. Most of the dazzling scenes are completley unnecessary, and could be enjoyed only for their visual splendour if seen on a big screen. I knew it before hand, that's why I saw it at Landmark. Landmark seems to be imitating Arclight, bringing state-of-art projectioning and audio system to the westside. Picture and note perfect, if only the movie were good as well.
The Edge of Heaven has a better title in German - On the Other Side.
I have recorded Fatih Akin's Head-On, his earlier critically acclaimed movie, on TV, but never got around to watch it. And his next movie is now in theatres. I caught the preview early last week.
When a movie punctuates its subparts rather ominiously - "Yetel's Death", "Lotte's Death" - and still manages to deliver despite giving away the plot elements, then you've got nothing to complain about. Right? But, I do. It's a nice and gripping movie, no doubt, but has heavy undertones of the triptych style of Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu (psasi rules, he almost got Alejandros's name right without looking up :)). Instead of Mexico (or globe-spanning Morocco/Japan/Mexico), we have Germany and Turkey, and the characters taking strides across the borders and the cultures.
Tarsem Singh's new film, The Fall, opens and closes with the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. That alone was enough for me. Lovely imagery and glorious music.
I am suffering from Beethoven second movement syndrome - Howards End taunted me with its use of 2nd movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Months after watching that passable film, I was still humming the 2nd movement. Now, I can not get the 7th Symphony-2nd movement out of my head. It's just playing in a loop accompanied by hallucinogenic images.
The Fall is a movie piggybacking on its bookends. Tarsem made this movie in two dozen countries (the list of shooting locations was never ending, you will notice if you sit through the end credits) over a course of more than four years (He hasn't made a movie since his debut - The Cell). He put in his own money into making this movie. It's painful to see such a labour-of-love going wrong. Most of the dazzling scenes are completley unnecessary, and could be enjoyed only for their visual splendour if seen on a big screen. I knew it before hand, that's why I saw it at Landmark. Landmark seems to be imitating Arclight, bringing state-of-art projectioning and audio system to the westside. Picture and note perfect, if only the movie were good as well.
The Edge of Heaven has a better title in German - On the Other Side.
I have recorded Fatih Akin's Head-On, his earlier critically acclaimed movie, on TV, but never got around to watch it. And his next movie is now in theatres. I caught the preview early last week.
When a movie punctuates its subparts rather ominiously - "Yetel's Death", "Lotte's Death" - and still manages to deliver despite giving away the plot elements, then you've got nothing to complain about. Right? But, I do. It's a nice and gripping movie, no doubt, but has heavy undertones of the triptych style of Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu (psasi rules, he almost got Alejandros's name right without looking up :)). Instead of Mexico (or globe-spanning Morocco/Japan/Mexico), we have Germany and Turkey, and the characters taking strides across the borders and the cultures.
