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First, birthday wishes go out to ilanabean42 and lesbiassparrow! I hope you both have a marvelous day filled with good things and an even better year to come! ♥♥
Second, I received acchikocchi's postcard from Salisbury (of the Cathedral with a helpful arrow to point out how far she climbed up inside *grin*)! Postcards are very happy things. :D
Third, finally, let me talk a little bit about Tarsem Singh's Q & A last weekend. He spoke so fast, truly a gushing fountain of enthusiasm and information, that it's impossible for me to remember everything. One of the things I liked best about him is his passion - he truly loves being behind a camera, truly loves making his visions become a celluloid (or digital) reality, and he's this neat combination of idealism and jaded been-in-the-biz-for-yonks savvy.
As you all know, I adored Tarsem's The Fall, I've seen it twice now, yadda yadda. One of the elements that stands out for everyone, I think, is the remarkable little girl who plays one of the two leads. She's breathtaking and so natural that it hardly seems like she's acting, and in my opinion it's rare to see a child actor who is so un-self-aware. Hearing Tarsem's talk explains how that came about.
For starters, he told us he's had this film in his head for 23 years and he spent 17 years looking for the right child to play the part in his film. Everywhere he went over the years, all the location shoots, all the commercials, everywhere - he would send some staff out to visit local schools and videotape children in hopes of finding the right boy or girl - he knew that his story would revolve around the right child so that person needed to be perfect. He finally found her a few years ago and when he found her he called his brother (with whom he often works), told him to sell everything because they had to film the movie now - if they waited even a year or two, she would have changed too much because children grow so fast.
He discovered later that the little Romanian girl, Catinca Untaru, had misunderstood a bit when they'd explained to her why they were videotaping her (the "audition" tape) - she thought it was for a documentary about a paralyzed actor, someone like Christopher Reeve. When Tarsem discovered this, he decided that her innocence was worth preserving, so no one told her. They spent twelve weeks shooting all the hospital scenes at a South African location, and on the set, only about three people knew that Lee Pace was not actually paralyzed. Tarsem even chose not to work with many of the crew he often worked with to preserve this truth, and also to gain some freshness.
While the scenes were of course entirely scripted, he knew that the chemistry between the actors was something special, and because all the scenes with Catinca and Lee were so intimate, there was a good bit of ad-libbing that took place, playing off how Catinca said her lines. Tarsem told us that they would do the scene several times and usually by the second or third time it was perfect. He wanted the scenes to play as naturally as possible, so for the scenes when Alexandria is sitting on Roy's bed while he tells her the story, Tarsem had holes cut in the bed curtains for the camera to be as inobtrusive as possible - so that the little girl might forget she was acting and react as naturally as possible.
Regarding the role of Roy, Tarsem definitely wanted an unknown face for the character, particularly since it had to be someone Catinca wouldn't know, and that the crew wouldn't know, to preserve the illusion that he really was a paralyzed man. When Lee Pace was cast, he had only done Soldier's Girl where he'd played a female character, so he'd been disguised even more (no one would recognize him!) - of course The Fall took so long to arrive in theaters (it was finished and began the festival circuit in 2006) that Lee Pace is now known for his television roles and has appeared in more films.
This is the majority of what I can remember right now - it's a pity I didn't write it down last weekend when the memory was fresher. Tarsem was such a colorful guy! He talked a mile a minute, came off as an extremely clever and inspired guy, but also a cynical one - he's been in the business for more than twenty years, and it was very clear how much he loves what he does, despite the BS that comes with it. Making this film was a labor of love for him - they had no backing at all, so they financed the film themselves, shooting the hospital scenes in South Africa, and then doing location shoots in many countries around the world, capturing some stunning vistas.
I'll direct you back to the Washington Post review because I think it did such a good job of explaining why The Fall is so special. And if you have the chance to see it, give it a try! And for heaven's sake, ignore the rating - no one has any clue what on earth prompted the MPAA to give this an 'R' rating - at the most, it's a PG-13.