WHAT IS THE FALL? What does the Fall mean to you? To others? What have artists before you done on this theme?
The fall in my eyes could ne interpreted as the season ‘fall’, where the weather changes, a fall in temperature, the fall of leaves from trees.
When i think of the fall i think of falling in love and the opposite to, falling out of love.
- When you think about Falling in love, it seems weird as falling out of love would make more sense. Falling in love, can be interpreted as an accidental stumble into it, but the saying is not a bad thing, its just a figure of speech. So therefore this interpretation of the fall is good and bad and to fall is not necessarily meaning something bad. As to fall in love is like an elevation in your life.
Famous celebrities have fallen into troubles like Amy Whinehouse and Rehab, due to her intoxicant addiction. Likewise George Michael, crashed into a shop under the influence of drugs and sentenced to 8 weeks in prison. Lindsy Lohan another big celebrity that stumbled as a Hollywood star into a jail sentence. This is another interpretation of falling.
Basic ideas of the fall are falling ill, falling asleep, the fall of rain/snow.
Other things that i relate ‘the fall’ to are songs.
- One song in particular, ‘Alicia keys – Fallin’
This song is about her falling in and out of love. But the video showed the image of her emotionally ‘falling’ repeatedly throughout.
The types of shots are a lot of the times high angles. Where she looks up to the camera as if she’s already fallen. Another image of her ‘falling’ is through her positioning and body lan
guage, she’s sitting a lot of the time, showing she’s reached the bottom, a low level, she’s ‘fallen’ to it. Other images of the fallen effect is created through the papers falling off the table.
In other shots shes sitting ina surrounding of fallen papers on the floor. her body language is in a half layed down position on the couch as if she has fallen.
Other interpretations of the fall that came to mind are, falling down, death (the fallen), the fallen soldiers over time. For example.
Disabled by Wilfred Owen a famous war poet. He wrote many poems and what became really significant to me was how his poetry described and created imaginations of the soldiers falling to their death, falling to their illnesses e.g. trench foot and diseases or conditions which are described in one of his poems ‘exposure’ (http://www.poemhunter.com/wilfred-owen/poems/page-2/ ).
The fact that a lot of the poems are in the location of the trench gives us the imagery of a deep hole that they have stumbled into, symbolically showing their fall to their death.
One poem i would like to show of his is Disabled
He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.
About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,-
In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands.
All of them touch him like some queer disease.
There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.
One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
After the matches, carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,
He thought he'd better join. - He wonders why.
Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,
That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts
He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,
And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears
Of Fear came yet. He drought of jewelled hills
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.
Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then enquired about his soul.
Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,
And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don't they come
And put him into bed? Why don't they come?
- This poem to me hugely relates to the theme of falling. The poem begins in day and ends at night. It shows the fall of day, the sun going down. This shows him falling into his situation, his disability whereas during the poem it describes his fall from his strong whole physique to his disability, (no legs, and no now one arm). He has fallen from his independent self to now a dependent person, he’s fallen in popularity with women etc. From this the idea of ‘Fall’ is the idea of things going downhill, no progression.
So how can this help me in my silent film?
- Well, what i noticed is that strong imagery and meaning in a story can be created through writing, through written words that are put in front of us to read. I also found that it is powerful as when u read it u understand it in your own effective way, as you can hear your own voice reading and creating a tone to the story. E.g., some poems have staggered structures, short verses and short words, harsh edgy words and a lack of soft ones, this creates an edgy effect and when u read it in a staggering non-rhyming tone to yourself, you understand the struggle the poet is creating in your mind. The staggering structure and language in Dulce et decorum Est shows the jerky march of soldiers in the mud.
This becomes a more effective and natural approach in creating authentic atmospheres in the readers mind. And the same approach can be used in silent films to portray the story more effectively.
It not only teaches that language can be used craftily but also it gives simple ideas that would be very helpful in areas such as cinematography. The theme of day falling into night, is a subtle yet effective way in which THE FALL can be shown.
In disabled, the man once stood on his own two feet but now sits in a wheel chair. The fall in height shows his fall in his ability to his disability, these comparisons of before and after are significant in portraying, a ‘fall ‘.
