the mesmerising opening titles of tarsem singh’s the fall: i’m surprised, googling later, that the contemporaneous reviews had been so mixed. on the fourth watching i was still finding new things to love, new details. of course i am partial to the scheherazade gambit but any narratologist ought get hours of teaching out of it. (there is also something unspeakably touching about shooting a film of this type in this day and age without green screens.)