The Falling

[kevinknapman]

Saw this at a packed Ritzy this morning.
A beguiling, mesmerising and troubling film, it benefits from beautiful cinematography, wonderful music and songs from Everything but the Girl's Tracey Thorn and outstanding performances from Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams and newcomer Florence Pugh. Plus an excellent supporting cast including Maxine Peake, Greta Scacchi and Monica Dolan.

As is now obvious it's not going to be to everybody's tastes, being quite slow paced, repetitious and ambiguous but I felt it had more than enough going for it to be well worth a look.

[stuartboy]

I have to say that on a second viewing (yes - really!) I found this far better. It retains its mystery and somewhat ambiguity, but knowing to expect this allows one to appreciate the other nuances. I particularly liked the rasping sound of the headmistress's cigarette as she inhaled and as whichever girl in close proximity to her perpetual smoking would hear.

I have to wonder though about the intensity and increasing frequency of the somewhat epileptogenic flashing images that are used throughout. Can this even be safe? We are always being warned of the risk of flashing images, flash photography or strobe lighting effects on television broadcasts. I noted nothing of that ilk prior to this film. Maybe they want us to suddenly stand up in the audience, look around blankly before collapsing to the floor twitching and jerking in a tonic-clonic seizure?

[alythonian]

Sounds like the Christening I was at this morning was by far the better event. Don't think I'll chase thus one fion when it comes out.

[D-Fens]

I don't think people will be falling over themselves to get to the cinema, if you know what I mean :twitchy wink:

[prettyxcool]

Clapham Picturehouse was packed this morning.

Was I watching the same film, as I was thoroughly entertained and captivated.

It is bizarre, sensual, dreamy and dramatic, a coming of age story of a group of girls getting to grips with their sensuality. Was there a silent pack to have these fainting spells, to pit against their teachers' patience and the strict school rules or was it a prank gone too far, hence the teachers did nothing? There was one funny scene when the chain-smoking head teacher (Monica Dolan) used the pin of her brooch to prick awake the girl. Nevertheless, it felt quite spooky too with the mass fainting. The young cast were good, both innocent yet a bit twisted, and Maxine Peake, chilling as the mother with the disturbing relationship with her daughter, and the teachers were well acted by both Greta Sccachi and Monica Dolan.

The scenery is mesmerising and stunning. The psychological drama was interesting, compelling and fascinating, and had me hooked. 8/10

[ladams888]

Saw this yesterday in a completely packed Clapham Picturehouse. It was quite slow-moving and had a dreamy, soft-focus quality – lots of views of trees and sky. Despite that I quite liked it – apart from the strobe-effect flashbacks which were pretty annoying and unnecessary. I went away from the film thinking about how no-one is who they seem as there seemed to be a lot of secrets lurking in the background.

Maisie Williams played Lydia, who was very deeply affected by her friend’s death. She is a great feisty little actress (no doubt her GOT training comes in hand here). Maxine Peake was very believable as her agoraphobic mother – I must admit that I didn’t even recognise her until the end titles came on. I kept thinking that she looked like Twiggy (but knew it couldn’t possibly have been Twiggy, as she is much older) – so all I could see was Twiggy! Greta Scacchi was almost unrecognisable as the spinster Miss Mantel. Monica Dolan was Miss Alvaro the sinister, chain-smoking headmistress. Both reminded me of teachers I had at school. I absolutely loved the sets, wallpaper, curtains etc. I can’t believe that our houses really used to look like that! One goof (I think) – I don’t think the scene shot in the chemistry lab was accurate as all the students were wearing goggles. This legislation about goggles didn’t come in until much later – maybe late-seventies.

For those of you who got fed up with all the fainting – there are some well-documented cases of mass hysteria fainting fits in girls’ schools. So the subject-matter was actually based on true incidents. 7/10.