What do you get when you cross the hardest genre in film, a hungry director and crew, up and coming actors, Buffalo NY, and a film without film? You get The Falls. a dark moody thiller that helps to not only bring back the thought to be dead noir genre, but also shows how every small part adds up to a whole. Not one part of this film overshadows another as everyone involved should get equal billing for the fine product that they have created. The actors dont jump out of the screen and grab your attention, and you might even not remember some of thier names, and if you dont then you can take comfort in the fact that they have done their job then. There is no out-landish, studio happy, need to get their own action figure roles/actors here. What you get instead are actors playing real people, people that you can see on the streets and this lends itself great to the story. The realism of the characters, the grit that oozes off of them, the stone exterior, these are traits that people in these situations would actually display. Fear is a huge underlying emotion in this, and that is a real emotion that hollywood misses in thier films. Nobody is a bad-ass, they are just there, living thier life, doing what needs to be done. But i would like to single out at an actor in it, because of the sandtrap part that he played (this being a role that is so overdone and ruined in hollywood that we have come to see the characters in our sleep). Steve Brisoce who played one of the policemen turned in a perfromance that has so many levels i was refreshed to see a human approach taken to the character. I think that he could have easly turned on the cruise control and make the role average. Instead he chooses to play the role like someone who feels (gasp! a role of a policeman who cares? and not cause his wife and child just died in an explosion! Listen up hollywood, look at this performance and learn!!!) He does one of the most important actions an actor can do (which has become a lost art in movies and performaces today) he reacts, he listens and is reacting to what is happening to the other characters, not just waiting to get his lines in. Excellent performance by Steve Briscoe.
Onto the directing side. The best way that i can sum up Paul Denigris is to say that he has one of the best cinematic eyes that i have seen in a long time. This is not a man that is going to make movies, he is going make films(a word that is much overused talking about todays drudge). Instead of letting the camera lead the actors he wants the actors to lead us. Never at one point in the movie does it feel like you are looking at camera work, it is blending so nicley into the film that it is just our(the viewer's) perspective. He captures the feel of noir without blasting it over your head, or forcing you to feel everything. It all flows natural. I think that his next film will be a tough one for him as he has set such a high standard in my book, but im sure that he will come out on top.
If you get a chance to check this out, take it, and find out what a film should be. Oh yeah, did i mention that this was all accomplished on DV(not that you will believe me when you watch it)?
