About Fallen
Perusing through the synopses of
the films screening in the 19th SIFF, I
was caught by the boring description of
Fred Kelleman’s film in the festival
booklet. It seemed like the worst synopsis
as compared to the other films, so I had
to find out why.
As the film started, it was getting clear
that the screening of the actual film was
in fact starting to get as boring as its
description in the festival booklet. Bombarded
with long takes, unnecessary sound effects
and deep dialogue sessions between characters,
some viewers took the choice of leaving
the theatre after a full half an hour of
pulling through the arts house film. As
for me, I literally ‘died’,
but for a good cause.
The film travels with an employee of the
Latvian National Archive in Riga, Matiss
Zelcs, after his failed attempt at saving
a middle-aged woman from suicide turns into
a personal guilt trip of investigating into
the victim’s life. Ultimately, Matiss
ends up dissatisfied with the results of
his investigation and concludes in his own
misery and loneliness, of which in his own
words he describes as “the next thing
to death”.
The overall theme of Fallen is summed
up by a police investigator in the film
– that “we only notice life
when we die or see another die”. The
message I received from the film was simple,
that ‘we are to appreciate our life,
not taking it for granted and to constantly
remind ourselves of its reality instead
of waiting for death to help us do so.’
This is very much supported by Matiss’
statement in his concluding monologue that
“throughout this journey of loneliness
and misery, I have finally experienced life
through my own death”.
So what made it such a bad film? There
are two answers I would give to this erroneous
question; one, I never said it was bad in
the first place, two, it was bad due to
the necessity to make it good.
With regard to conveying themes across
to the audience effectively, I feel that
Fallen is an extraordinary example. The
film communicates its theme blatantly and
drives the audience to accept this theme
and message through the choice of its content
and film form.
In terms of using film form to bring out
the theme, Kelleman chose to shoot Fallen
in a rather unconventional style. Long takes,
still framing, deep dialogues and rigid
direction all channel the audience to the
catharsis of understanding their existence.
One particular scene, for instance, that
really drove me into noticing what life
really was, took place near the closure
of the film. This was the point where Matiss
tries to confront the lover of the woman
he had failed to rescue into divulging why
this woman decided to take her own life.
The whole scene took place in an isolated
club and was intentionally set up by Kelleman
for the dull conversation between the two
men to take place there. A long take (about
5 minutes) covered the whole conversation,
which was, in itself, filled with deep philosophies
and suggestions that one of them was about
to commit suicide. This scene represented,
for me, the ‘transition’ from
life into death and vice versa. It was appropriately
presented with the dull approach of using
a long take with deep dialogues to bring
out the film’s theme. Just like how
death evokes a certain dull feeling in any
of us on a usual day, Kelleman’s choice
of long takes and deep dialogues evokes
in us the exact same emotion. This to me,
was truly a wonderful experience.
The film was shot in black and white with
many low-key scenes, a common choice to
represent death and its elusiveness. This
form further enhances the audience’s
feeling of them literally ‘dying’
in their seats, bringing out the theme of
‘dying to notice life’.
In addition, the film intelligently used
asynchronous sound effects and ambient sounds
to further enhance its theme. The sounds
itself represent life, throwing to the audience
the audible experience of barking dogs,
laughing gulls, screams, trains, playing
children and even a crying baby. The sounds
are from objects and everyday things which
we encounter in life but do not consciously
notice. It was surreal when I started to
notice these sounds as I ‘died’
from the over-excessive long takes and unconventional
style. These sounds of ‘life’
had a sudden effect of resurrection in me,
canceling off all other claims that the
film was murdering. I started to notice
life through death, just like the protagonist
said I would. The boring sequences and mundane
style was necessary for the overall experience.
However, it would be unfair to praise
its boring style without tying it with the
content. In terms of content, the main idea
was to let Matiss go through the journey
of seeing the others die (the woman and
subsequently, her lover) and experiencing
loneliness (which is interestingly used
as a metaphor of death) through his investigation.
Matiss then concludes to see the importance
of life through experiencing these death
cases, that “humans are really so
fragile”. The theme of the story is
also brought out in unconventional ways.
In fact, the lady who was allegedly suppose
to have committed suicide was presented
again to Matiss, in the form of another
woman with her family (the actress doubled
up), signifying that it was really through
death that life could be ‘resurrected’.
The overall plot worked in hand to the film’s
form, choice of format, sound and colour
to build up to the ultimate experience of
‘noticing life’. As such, the
journey which Matiss went through, in dying
first and seeing others die, is actually
our own journey and we can thus further
relate to him, noticing life along with
him at the end.
All in all, the film is great not because
it has adhered to the conventions of film
form to make it an entertaining film. The
film is great because it has broken the
conventions to reveal an enlightening experience
to the audience. This is also probably what
defined the core of the film’s theme:
To notice life, you must experience or see
death. To notice the beauty of the film,
you must experience and see the death of
the normal film conventions.
Written by: Josiah Ng
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