The Fall

Shot over four years across 24 countries, and entirely self-financed by commercials director Tarsem, The Fall is such a mind- (and eye) boggling movie it’s hard to believe it actually exists. Indeed, it only got a token release in 2006 despite the support of David Fincher and Spike Jonze, and for many years the film has been impossible to see, least of all on the big screen — which is really the only place where it makes sense. It’s a tall story about storytelling: in 1915 Los Angeles, a bedridden patient captives a young girl with a wondrous tale of heroes and villains. Tarsem insisted that all the effects in the film would be practical (no CGI), making this one of the last great miracles of pre-digital cinema.

Tarsem’s The Fall is a mad folly, an extravagant visual orgy, a free-fall from reality into uncharted realms. Surely it is one of the wildest indulgences a director has ever granted himself… a movie that you might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

What would’ve happened if Andrei Tarkovsky had made The Wizard of Oz.

Spike Jonze

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