MovieChat Forums > The Fall (2008) Discussion > I don't understand this...

I don't understand this...

posted 11 years ago by nasloranger
3 replies | jump to latest

in the Trivia section for this movie it is stated:

A miscommunication between the casting agent and Catinca Untaru led her to believe that Lee Pace was a real-life paraplegic. Director Tarsem Singh found that this brought an added level of believability to their dialogue, so he decided to keep almost the entire cast and crew under the same impression. Singh had to speak to the actor playing Alexandria's father and explain that his role was smaller than it appeared, since the script implied that he played the role of the bandit (actually played by Pace) in the fantasy scenes. Apparently it was hard to keep up the lie - a makeup artist walked into a room to find Pace standing and almost passed out from shock.

also, in the "Special Features" on the DVD it showed the director, Tarsem Singh, "surprising" Cantinca (after the movie was completed) by revealing to her that Roy/Lee Pace could really walk...then Lee got up from the wheelchair and Cantinca seemed happy to see that...

now, i can understand how a small child might not realize that Roy and The Bandit were not the same actor - she was an innocent little child after all (was only about 8 at the time of filming)...

but to say the entire crew believed Lee Pace was a real-life paraplegic just doesn't make much sense...
how could they not know that Roy and The Bandit were being played by one & the same actor?
in addition, didn't any of them know about Lee Pace's past works? it's not as if he was an unknown who was making his first movie...

this continues to confuse me - it makes no sense!

what am i missing here?

i just wish i hadn't watched those Special Features after watching the movie...
they kinda' ruined "the magic" for me...

if it ain't broke, you can't fix it!

[–] nhwa 11 years ago

All of the hospital scenes were filmed first, and Tarsem lied about Lee Pace's identity to the cast and crew, so they didn't know who he was. He really wasn't that famous when the film was shot.

They shot the fantasy story later, after Pace revealed his true identity and the fact that he wasn't a paraplegic. Tarsem talks about letting Catinca determine how the fantasy story is going to play out by her conversations and interactions with Pace in the hospital, so they had to film the story-within-a-story afterwards anyway.

I think the story of how the film was made is as interesting as the film itself!

[–] nasloranger 11 years ago

All of the hospital scenes were filmed first, and Tarsem lied about Lee Pace's identity to the cast and crew, so they didn't know who he was. He really wasn't that famous when the film was shot...

...I think the story of how the film was made is as interesting as the film itself!

@ nhwa

ahhh, that makes more sense...

either i misunderstood the Special Feature segment when they revealed that Lee Pace was not a paraplegic - or you got more info on the movie from another source...
i thought that whole "reveal" was made after the completion of the entire filming...(at my age, i'm easily confused )

true, Pace didn't have too many acting cred's to his name before filming The Fall (2006), but my-oh-my what a great actor he is!
his performance in Soldier's Girl (2003) was stunning!
if that had been a big screen movie instead of a made-for-tv flic, i'm sure more people would have known his name...

yes, the "Special Feature" was interesting, but somehow it took away from "the magic" of the story...it showed how grueling "the making of..." had to be at times...
kinda' like watching the "Special Features" for The Life of Pi...
i really didn't want to know about all the CGI in the movie; i preferred to believe it was all "for real", ya' know?

if it ain't broke, you can't fix it!

[–] Shimmer_Me_Timbers 10 years ago

They let her believe it because it added to the realism of the situation. At the time of filming she didn't really understand the concept of acting so they had to manipulate her a bit for certain reactions they needed. They had to keep pretty much all of the cast and crew in the dark as well because they were worried that Catinca would over hear a joke or catch on.

Once the hospital or "reality" scenes were filmed they let the cat out of the bag so they could finish filming the imagination sequences. Appearently half the people were overjoyed that Lee wasn't paralized and the other half were pissed that they were lied to.

I don't think that the special features ruined the fact that Lee could actually walk - I mean you do find that out later when he is the bandit.