MovieChat Forums > The Fall (2008) Discussion > The 5 characters representation

The 5 characters representation

posted 10 years ago by girlingreen
1 reply | jump to latest

Roy briefly described each member's loss and need for revenge. Did their back stories reflect Roy's own history?

The Indian's loss of his wife could refer to his metaphorical loss of his girlfriend to the lead star.

Charles Darwin could be a representation of Roy's own curiousity or education.

The Slave could possibly refer to a difficult childhood or loss of sibling.

The Italian was shunned by his town and his own priest. Since Roy was knowledgeable about the Eucharist, he may have been Catholic and felt the disapproval of his priest over his suicide attempts.

What do you think?

[–] toonhut 10 years ago

Hello GirlInGreen,

I just saw the film so I am on IMDB trying to find other people's opinions :-)
Yours is a very good perspective! Honestly, I did not even see these five characters as manifestations of the needs of a single mind. But now it makes sense, since he was the storyteller.

I agree with you on the Indian and Italian. So the Church is explosive :) And Roy/Indian was too shy/modest to talk to his beloved until it was too late and someone took him from her. They took photographs together but I suspect the relationship did not progress much.

I see the slave as his disillusionment with his work environment. Roy risked his life for the scenes, slaving away in front of the camera, working the fields in the background and never getting his moment of recognition like a lead actor. The loss of sensation in his legs was like the loss of a sibling.

Darwin and Mystic... argh! I am not sure :-) I really wish I had something on them. I feel like it's at the tip of my tongue but I can't find their reasons. The Mystic for the girl is obviously the old man with the false teeth. Maybe because he made the girl feel better, so he walked with nature and birds inside him -- he was a sign of happiness though looked charcoal burned and fossilized (elderly) at first impression. (I don't mean to sound crude but I'm just throwing ideas out :) )

Here are a few things I found interesting:

1. The death of the monkey kind of symbolized how we always look for something far away and never fully appreciate what we have in front of us. He was after the butterfly but never took the time to appreciate the monkey.

2. What is said and what is received are two very different things in life. Roy projected these characters based on quite sad recesses of his life, yet the girl received them as beautiful, epic images.