TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Graham Greene Greenaway's first feature length film after years of short, conceptual experimentation is a rich tapestry of absurd fabrication dressed up as fact. His prior experiments had developed this mock-documentary format with films like Dear Phone (1977) and A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist (1978), in which facts that couldn't possibly have any believable anchorage to reality, were presented to the viewer with the straight-faced, stiff-upper-lipped austerity usually reserved for the news at ten. Here, Greenaway's goal is to create a visual essay based around word games, numbering, bizarre family lineages and a random outburst of 'Violent-Unknown-Events'. With this in mind The Falls (1980) could be seen as not only the director's first stab at feature-length storytelling but also something of an introduction to a number of subsequent Greenaway trademarks, characteristics and idiosyncrasies that would become more apparent in the later, more superficially linear film.So, we have the preoccupation with numbers and cataloguing, with 92 being our focal point (92 deaths that are chronicled throughout, 92 disparate languages, some fictitious, 92 different types of bird, and 92 known instances of Violent-Unknown-Events, or V.U.E.). Greenaway pieces the whole thing together over the course of the film's epic, multi-faceted narrative, which the director has himself stated can be enjoyed at the viewer's own leisure. This means that we can enter and leave the proceedings whenever we feel compelled, creating a form of cinema as encyclopaedia, with Greenaway creating a shattered mosaic of wavering strands and themes running parallel through the 92 various plots and sub-plots that are documented in the film. Though it clearly won't be for everyone, The Falls will certainly appeal to fans of Greenaway's other short form experimentations, such as the aforementioned Dear Phone and other films like Windows (1975) and Water Wrackets (1976), which create similarly intellectual, arcane and satirical scenarios rife with humour and imagination.

Andrew Schneider This movie has my vote for the worst movie ever made. Other candidates, such as "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Manos: The Hands of Fate," are at least amusing, if unintentionally so. "The Falls," however, doesn't even have this advantage. Instead it is just excruciatingly long, boring and repetitive, telling an absurd number of supposedly linked vignettes about victims of some undefined apocalyptic event. The victims profiled, most of whom have developed some sort of bizarre physical or psychological handicap as a result, have nothing in common other than that the first four letters of their last name are "F-A-L-L," hence the title. There is a theme, but no plot and no particular reason to care about anyone in the film. I sat through this monstrosity while in college. When the theater brought up the lights for an intermission, halfway through the 185 minute film, at least two-thirds of the audience got up and walked out. It was that bad.

Infofreak I must admit I find most of Peter Greenaway's movies to be too much hard work. They are usually visually stunning but ultimately too cerebral and contrived for my taste. However I was pleasantly surprised with 'The Falls', his little seen feature length debut. This is one mighty strange movie, even by Greenaway's standards! A mockumentary concerning the mysterious and unexplained "Violent Unknown Event", or V.U.E. Approximately 92 short biographies of V.U.E. victims are presented, the people being selected in alphabetical order, surnames beginning with "Fall", hence the title. We never quite know what the V.U.E. is other than it tends to make people exposed to it mutate, speak previously unknown languages, and become obsessed with birds, flying and/or water. The film goes for over three hours and very few viewers will be able to watch it in one sitting without being driven slightly bonkers. Monty Python fans will probably "get" it as much as postmodernist artheads, but beware it isn't easy viewing, and requires some perseverance. Greenaway says fast forwarding is acceptable. I say almost obligatory! I watched it in three or four sittings, and when interrupted for a minute or two kept the tape running. You really have to watch this profoundly eccentric movie to understand why it's not the kind of conventional narrative that demands your complete and utter attention. At times I was bored almost to tears, at other points almost angry at the pointlessness of it all, but then on the other hand at certain sections you almost get into a Zen-like state and the whole thing becomes fascinating. And I must point at it is often very, very funny. Finishing 'The Falls', even with breaks, was a pretty exhausting experience, and not one I'm in a hurry to repeat, but it's a movie I'm glad I watched, and I recommend it to anyone looking for something (completely) different.

kdufre00 I consider myself a fan of Peter Greenaway, and maybe since I only sat through 20 minutes of this movie, I shouldn't be giving it such a harsh review. But I can't help myself. I can't believe people actually liked this movie. I thought it was sheer torture! I went to a screening of this movie with my sister at the Harvard Film Archive a few months ago. After ten minutes of sitting through unintelligible dialogue and grainy photography, I thought to myself, "I have to sit through 3 hours of this?!" To my relief, my sister shared my feelings about the movie and we left the screening after another generous ten minutes.I hope I am not offending any ardent Greenaway fans out there. I like his movies too! I even met him 3 years ago at the Boston premiere of "The Pillow Book." I consider myself an intelligent person, and I like to see plenty of experimental movies. After reading the above comments on "The Falls" however, I am amazed that other people understood what it was about....and actually sat through it!