The Falls is an exhaustingly long Peter Greenaway film, and apparently the first of his that can be called a feature film. In typical idiosyncratic Greenaway fashion, his "feature debut" is by no means traditional, as this is more or less 92 brief stories strung together into one film that runs for a little over three hours. Each of the 92 stories focuses on a different survivor of some strange event that killed much of the world's population and had bizarre effects on most people who survived. Despite how grim it might sound, just about everything's played for laughs, and much of the humor is absurd.
There's something weird about it because even with the repetition and slower/kind of boring moments, I never lost interest entirely. This is one film where I respect the brazen approach and admire how different it is more than I can say I really enjoyed it, but I wasn't bored too often and did enjoy parts of it for sure. It's a unique take on the post-apocalypse genre, if it can be categorized as a sci-fi film that deals with the after-effects of some kind of apocalypse. It's all done in a realistic, mockumentary style, too. Perhaps it's a little bit like the final third of Threads from 1984, but much funnier and not so soul-crushing.
I think this is my second favorite film of Greenaway's, after the immortal The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover. Actually, it would be third, after a short film of his called Making A Splash that's literally just people swimming (trust me, the Michael Nyman music makes that one amazing- it's on YouTube). Exploring about half a dozen films of his over the last week or so has proven most rewarding, and I think he's an endlessly fascinating (and talented) filmmaker. Also happy I've done my homework before tackling an article about the man's work sometime in the next couple of days. That article is going to be lucky to get more than a couple thousand views, but oh well - it's good to be thorough and do your homework when it comes to writing about entertainment (or films that you'd probably have watched at some point anyway), no matter what.
There's something weird about it because even with the repetition and slower/kind of boring moments, I never lost interest entirely. This is one film where I respect the brazen approach and admire how different it is more than I can say I really enjoyed it, but I wasn't bored too often and did enjoy parts of it for sure. It's a unique take on the post-apocalypse genre, if it can be categorized as a sci-fi film that deals with the after-effects of some kind of apocalypse. It's all done in a realistic, mockumentary style, too. Perhaps it's a little bit like the final third of Threads from 1984, but much funnier and not so soul-crushing.
I think this is my second favorite film of Greenaway's, after the immortal The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover. Actually, it would be third, after a short film of his called Making A Splash that's literally just people swimming (trust me, the Michael Nyman music makes that one amazing- it's on YouTube). Exploring about half a dozen films of his over the last week or so has proven most rewarding, and I think he's an endlessly fascinating (and talented) filmmaker. Also happy I've done my homework before tackling an article about the man's work sometime in the next couple of days. That article is going to be lucky to get more than a couple thousand views, but oh well - it's good to be thorough and do your homework when it comes to writing about entertainment (or films that you'd probably have watched at some point anyway), no matter what.