Reviews & Ratings for
The Fall More at IMDbPro »Pád (original title)

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
The Impeding, 27 October 2002

Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

If you have been following Czech animation, you'll be excited by this. The promising flash of Wallace and Gromit has passed into bland commercialism, and the torch now passes to Klimt. His earlier 'Bell' was still overly preachy. But this is something else. This is art, the use of the method to create a world and out of that world a disturbing cosmology emerges. This is different from Svankmejer who starts with a moral and then illustrates it. Instead, we have the entry into the world that reveals its dynamics.

These dynamics are truly hypnotizing, and allow us to see and laugh at the still strong Soviet mentality. This is very rich writing, apparently simple and effortless. Worth watching as a film and as a promising trend for the art.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
An interesting political statement in animated form..., 10 September 2009

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This is an interesting film if you give it a chance. However, considering it looks pretty bleak, I could see someone giving up on it quickly--particularly if they know nothing about recent Czechoslovakian history. Stick with it--it's an excellent bit of parody.

The film begins in a depressing town. There are lots of rusty looking homes and a man sits on the room of his apartment building with his cat. It's obvious that this was set during the Soviet era when Czechoslovakia was still a nation and not two separate ones like today. In the street below are lots of poor women doing what is common during this time period--standing in lines. As they wait, an officer of the regime looks on impassively. Suddenly, the man on the roof starts to fall and is hanging on for dear life--at which point, the system goes to work. Instead of doing anything competent to help, a couple guys with a coffin wait below. And, as the man hangs, women looking out their apartments into the street below occasionally fall out of the buildings to their deaths--and no one seems to notice or care. When an ambulance finally comes, the men from it watch the man--ignoring the dead or dying women. Talk about incompetence and ambivalence! This is a political statement about the old inefficient and uncaring system. It's obvious due to the occasional inclusion of Soviet images, such as a picture of Lenin and the shining red star. It's all very clever.

As far as the animation goes, it is stop-motion but not at all like the work of fellow Czech Jan Svankmajer--which tends to be even darker and less cartoony. Also, I was quite impressed by the sets and care that went into creating this dark view of the past--though I could have done without the cat sex scene!

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