The Falls

source: The Falls

Moviecut—The Falls

The Falls

This really isn't what most people would call a "movie". It uses the film _media_ in a totally different method than what we are accustomed to. Of course I'm probably repeating something I've read elsewhere but this is really a "Visual Encyclopedia" or something like that anyway. I'm sure most of you have seen "movies" in a driver's education class - I'm thinking of the movies we had to drive to on virtual car machines back in high school in the 70s - now you wouldn't put those movies in the same class as Hudsucker Proxy now would you? Just because something was filmed on a visual media doesn't mean it's a "movie". Imagine Encyclopedia Britannica making a movie of their books - that's kind of what we have here - or better yet, imagine a dictionary in "movie" format in which each word instead of being spelled out is given a 5 second video clip - now splice all these video clips together and that's kinda what we have here.

I saw this film in college. A third of the way through (about 90 minutes into the film), the lights came up for an intermission -- and virtually everyone in the theater left. It was that boring. To paraphrase Tom Servo of MST3K from his critique of "Manos," this film made me want to blow my brains out. I would recommend "The Falls" for the MST3K treatment itself, save that the show doesn't produce two-part episodes, which is what this behemoth would require.

This movie has my vote for the worst movie ever made. Other candidates, such as "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Manos: The Hands of Fate," are at least amusing, if unintentionally so. "The Falls," however, doesn't even have this advantage. Instead it is just excruciatingly long, boring and repetitive, telling an absurd number of supposedly linked vignettes about victims of some undefined apocalyptic event. The victims profiled, most of whom have developed some sort of bizarre physical or psychological handicap as a result, have nothing in common other than that the first four letters of their last name are "F-A-L-L," hence the title. There is a theme, but no plot and no particular reason to care about anyone in the film. I sat through this monstrosity while in college. When the theater brought up the lights for an intermission, halfway through the 185 minute film, at least two-thirds of the audience got up and walked out. It was that bad.

Exhausting and brilliant, Greenaway's first feature may come as a surprise to those familiar with his more famous concoctions, such as THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT or DROWNING BY NUMBERS. Instead of sumptuous finery, set-design and colour, or studied, enigmatic performances, we have a, very local, documentary. A documentary which, like all others in the genre, seeks to examine realistically a particular problem in a particular area, through evidence, witness and analysis. A documentary whose 'real' elements are so preposterous that they develop not into an answer for truth, but full-blown mystery and fantasy, without ever moving beyond words and plausible images. What is very Greenaway is the numerology, the formalism, the very literary script, the arch jokes, the word-games, the nonsense-as-high-theory. Stunning, but you may not watch it again in a hurry.

I'm a big fan of Greenaway's works and I jumped at the chance to check out this early work by the director on video. I can't add to what others have said here except to say that it's an excrutiating experience that doesn't have enough humor to keep your interest for the full running time. At its best, "The Falls" is an interesting and sometimes funny curiosity that points to themes Greenaway would return to again and again in his later work; at its worst, "The Falls" is a tedious experiment.

10 minutes into the film, I had to check to make sure this was the right movie. 20 minutes into it, I had to make sure it was indeed Peter Greenaway, and not his evil afterbirth, who directed this. 40 minutes into it, I had to check my pulse for signs of life. I am not too familiar with the work of Peter Greenaway (_The Cook_ being the only film of his I've seen), but based on this experimental rambling, I don't think I want to. If you loved _The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover_ for its visual brilliance, compelling story and vivid acting, I ASSURE YOU, YOU SHALL RUE THE DAY YOU EVER POPPED _THE FALLS_ INTO YOUR TV SET. This film is little more than a Monty Python skit dragged out for 2 hours. The joke is over in the first 5 minutes. Don't waste your lives. Save yourselves. Alas, it is... too late... for me... beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

I saw this movie at a Greenaway festival, at the Neptune in Seattle WA a few years back. It was the ultimate realist experience. The movie went on and on merciliess in its informing you of how much was left. I don't think that I have been to any movie where I have seen so many people walk out. This movie has to be seen in a theatre--video offers to many chances for escape. If you let yourself be caught up in it, the experience is unparalled. Not for the weak, but for those that fall into it, a work of pure genius.