| this week's TRIBUNE reviews: 'The Fall' [7/10]'; 'Import Export' [8/10] |
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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Fall USA/India/UK 2006 Starring : Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru Director : 'Tarsem' (i.e. Tarsem Singh) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Import Export Austria 2007 Starring : Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hoffmann Director : Ulrich Seidl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UNFORTUNATELY for fans of Mark E Smith and/or Albert Camus, new release The Fall has absolutely nothing to do with either the band or the novel of identical appellation. Nor is it connected with the 13 other features and shorts entitled The Fall which, according to the Internet Movie Database, have been made since 1954 - much less Peter Greenaway's The Falls (1980). But if its title lacks originality, then the movie's superabundant contents provide extravagant compensation. Loosely based on Yo ho ho, a little-seen Bulgarian adventure from 1981, it's an epic, florid fantasia, half a decade in the making, from the hyperactive imagination of the advert/pop-video director known professionally as 'Tarsem.' He was born Tarsem Singh Dhandwar in the Punjab in 1961, and his latest work - a prodigious leap ahead of his disastrous Hollywood-funded debut, Jennifer Lopez vehicle The Cell (2002) - borrows much from the visual and oral traditions of his native land. It's constructed as an airily whimsical multi-level narrative about an injured silent-movie stuntman (Pace) and the precocious young girl (Untaru) he befriends while recuperating in a California hospital, spinning her swashbuckling yarns which Tarsem illustrates with footage shot in two dozen countries. Having divided audiences and critics alike since premiering at Toronto back in September 2006, The Fall is only now emerging from a distribution limbo. Unorthodox and challenging, a fairy-tale for adults in the tradition of Pan's Labyrinth and reportedly made without recourse to CGI effects of any kind, it's clearly something of a tough sell in today's blockbuster-oriented commercial climate. But it's easy to see why those who like The Fall tend to become noisily passionate in their admiration ("He makes [Pan's Labyrinth] look like cramped, primitive cave-painting with the sheer breadth of his canvas," panted the picture's most indefatigably consistent cheerleader, Tim Robey of the Telegraph.) While undeniably bonkers and somewhat over-convoluted in its double-helix plotting, it's consistently ravishing to look at - with eye-popping colours, costumes and locations - and, crucially, boasts a pair of terrific, engaging central performances. Pace, from TV's Pushing Daisies and recent big-screen comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, confirms that he's a proper old-fashioned movie star in waiting - though even he can't do much to stop little Untaru from stealing her every scene. She's one of the most irresistibly endearing, effortlessly heartbreaking child-performers to come along since Shirley Temple hung up her knickerbockers. IF The Fall is a should-see for lovers of the offbeat, then Import Export is a must-catch for anyone interested in current cinema - indeed, it's one of the year's most accomplished and savagely intelligent releases. Born in Vienna in 1952, writer-director Ulrich Seidl has been a major name in German-language cinema for decades, gaining an international reputation as a misanthropic provocateur ("shit-stirrer," we'd say in England) in 2001 with Dog Days, a searing examination of desperate lives in a stultifying Austrian suburb. Import Export is his followup fictional-feature, revealing Seidl as an old-school liberal humanist - once concerned with the (forcible) extension of audience sympathies, and displaying an acute awareness of and interest in Europe's current socio-economic realities. These are analysed via twin plotlines: one ('Import') focussing on Ukrainian nurse Olga (Rak), an attractive blonde in her mid-twenties whose diligent toils bring meagre reward. Reluctant to explore the shadily lucrative world of internet porn, she heads west - and finds a series of more-or-less demeaning/over-demanding jobs ("I can hire you and fire you," she's told. "That's how it is in this country!"). 'Export' concentrates on hot-headed Pauli (Hofmann), an energetic youth somewhat lacking in academic skills but by no means stupid (he seeks "harmony with myself and my surroundings".) After an abortive, humiliating stint as a security-guard, he starts working for his piggishly-lascivious stepfather Michael (Michael Thomas) - who delivers superannuated Space-Invaders to desolate eastern-European destinations and takes advantage of the attractive, cash-strapped young ladies he meets there. Seidl (working with co-scriptwriter Veronica Franz) alternates between the story-strands in a manner that adheres to a well-established form of cinematic syntax. But the screenplay's structure doesn't turn out as we're led to expect - indeed, the audacity of the picture's ambiguities may frustrate some. This structural aspect, though ultimately one of Import Export's most intriguing and successful elements, isn't ever allowed to overwhelm Seidl's content, however. He takes us on a clear-eyed journey to places we'd rather not think about, let alone visit, and does so in a way that's illuminating but never didactic or preachy. His 'trademark' in-your-face techniques (including disturbing scenes protracted beyond 'acceptable' lengths) are deployed for a specific and justifiable purpose - to show the realities of contemporary exploitation in its many forms. His method is clear: in our age of cosily blinkered anaesthesia, only extreme images and emotions can rouse us from our bourgeois slumbers. Neil Young 23rd September, 2008 written for the current issue of Tribune magazine  THE FALL : [7/10] : UK/US/India 2006 : 'Tarsem' (= Tarsem SINGH) : 117m (BBFC timing of cut version) : seen 15th April 2008 : Tuschinski cinema annexe, Amsterdam : public screening (complimentary ticket; Fantastic Film Festival) : original review IMPORT EXPORT : [8/10] : aka Import/Export : Austria 2007 : Ulrich SEIDL : 141m (BBFC) : seen 27th October 2007 : Kunstlerhaus cinema, Vienna : public show (complimentary ticket; Viennale [=Vienna Film Festival]) : original review |
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