The Falls (1980)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Writer:

Peter Greenaway (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The world has been affected by a mysterious occurrance known as the Violent Unknown Event or VUE. It has caused immortality and disability...

Plot Keywords:

Bird | Film Industry | Fake Documentary | Surrealism | Independent Film

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Peter Westley
Aad Wirtz
Michael Murray
Lorna Poulter
Patricia Carr
Adam Leys	...	Narrator
Mary Howard
Sheila Canfield	...	Narrator
Evelyn Owen
Hilary Thompson	...	Narrator
Carole Meyer
Monica Hyde
Colleen Thomas
Neil Hopkins
Dewi Thomas
Peter Sacro
Keith Pendlebury
Robert Worby
Marcia Pendlebury
Stephen Quay
Timothy Quay
Tom Hunsinger
Martin Burrows	...	Narrator
Maggie Palmer
Adejbo Nkasaggi
Maurice Tarlin
Patrick Whitney
Alicia Webb
Sandra Williams
Garry Morris
Richard Jenkins
Serena MacBeth	...	Narrator
John Wilson
Leslie Wilson
Gabor Vernon
Rod Stoneman
Howard Milner
Aet Nyman
Teet Toome
Reeta Toome
Alfret Toome
Martin Pawky
Jeremy Tarling
Graham Jones
Chris Auty
Glyn Fielding
Chris Rodriquez
John Lea
Alice Skillings
Michelle Caborn
Simon Fea
Kenneth Breese
Edith Lazenby
Nigel Algar
Lucy Finch
Donald Lazenby
Terry Lansbury
Freida Jones
Pat Hopkins
Peter Sainsbury
Ian Lake
David Cowper
Sarah Cowper
Lucy Skeaping
Herbert Mullinger
Christine Metcalfe
Christopher Metcalfe
Lilian Mullinger
Marion Brame
Wendy Evans
Bob Godfrey	...	G. Odfrey
Mick O'Connor
Reina James
Chris Thomas
Alderich Asonbryl
Dorothy Bradley
Udi Eichler
Cathy Lake
Dave Lawton
Brigitte Kahn
Glennys Williams
John Hyde
Christopher Williams
Gillian Tarlin
Russel Flint
J.J. Czipri
Lucia Apel
Molly Nyman
Rachel Penfold
Simon De Quincey
Peter Greenaway	...	Interviewer
Colin Haap
Colin Berwick
Anthony Sloman	...	Person (as Tony Sloman)
Peter Nage
Colin Cantlie	...	Narrator

Directed by
Peter Greenaway

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Peter Greenaway		writer

Original Music by
Michael Nyman

Cinematography by
Mike Coles
John Rosenberg

Film Editing by
Peter Greenaway

Sound Department
Tony Anscombe	....	dubbing mixer
Mick Audsley	....	sound
Malcolm Hirst	....	sound
Dave Lawton	....	sound
Digby Rumsey	....	sound
Diana Ruston	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
David Bough	....	assistant camera
Glynn Fielding	....	grip
Donald Lazenby	....	still photographer
Tex Ledcote	....	additional camera operator
Michael Nyman	....	still photographer
David Scott	....	assistant camera
Andrew Speller	....	assistant camera
Bert Walker	....	camera operator: rostrum camera
Francine Winham	....	additional camera operator

Music Department
Rory Allam	....	musician
Brian Eno	....	composer: additional music
Barbara Grant	....	musician
Ben Grove	....	musician
John Hyde	....	composer: additional music
Ian Mitchell	....	musician
Michael Nyman	....	conductor
Michael Nyman	....	musician
Keith Pendlebury	....	composer: additional music (as Kieth Pendlbury)
Steve Saunders	....	musician
Lucy Skeaping	....	musician
Doug Wootton	....	musician

Thanks
Kenneth Breese	....	special acknowledgment
Bernie Brown	....	special acknowledgment
David Cowper	....	special acknowledgment

Production Companies

• British Film Institute (BFI)

Distributors

• British Film Institute (BFI) (1980) (UK) (theatrical)
• British Film Institute (BFI) (2003) (UK) (DVD) (special edition)
• Dolmen Home Video (2004) (Italy) (DVD) (boxed set)
• Kinokuniya (2005) (Japan) (DVD) (box set)

Runtime:

195 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | UK:PG

Company:

British Film Institute (BFI)

Trivia:

Fragments of director Peter Greenaway's short films _Walk Through H, A (1978)_ and _Vertical Features Remake (1976)_ appear in the film.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea (2004)

Borges Meets Hitchhiker's Guide

How Greenaway surprises. Here is an early work that is rich in ways that in later works seem submerged.

The concept: A 'Violent Unexplained Event' occurs at 11:41 PM GMT, 14 June, People experience physical changes, often transitioning to birds. 92 new languages appear, and 92 birdnames are embossed in some minds. Four new genders are created; survivors appear immortal. Birds are the apparent cause, perhaps the Australian flightless rattite. The survivors are catalogued by competing societies (together with the detracting Society for Ornitological Extermination, FOX). This film is from the catalogued biographies from the primary society, of those whose names start with `fall.' There are 92 of them.

Some elements are familiar to later Greenaway viewers. Already Nyman creates an apt score. There is a magical surrealism. We have counting and other overlapping synthetic laws that restructure a slightly askew reality. We have a layering, so that many scenes add to or annotate others. Later, Greenaway does this with simultaneous images. Here the device is linear. Much harder, as one must not only create the alternative world, but also it's linear unfolding. Hence, this seems his most intelligent work.

The big shocker: In his later, much more commercial works, one can always count on lush painterly images, and often on elaborate panning shots. None of that here, in fact a practiced complement. All the attention is on the narrative, with many narrators, all filmed doing their work.

This film is self-referential in all the ordinary ways, plus the idea that the creator of the film is responsible for the radical change in reality. Of course, I do believe great artists do change the world; isn't that the only workable definition of art? Does Greenaway come up to this measure or is he like everyone else, a mere spectator?

Spectating here, but we do see something that retrospectively alters my recent experience with `Drowning by Numbers.' Biography 27 is of the three Cissy Colpitts, who live in Goole and establish an experimental film repository in the watertower. This is administered from a room in the nearby maternity hospital, one of the primary epicenters of the VUE (view). The three Cissys and the watertower reappear in `Drowning by Numbers,' and their collective mission is to have a child after eliminating husbands. Fits the Prospero role of replacing God with a new logic.

Love it.