juanmuscle Yes this tale unfolded with a methodically slow narrative with intermittent splashes of scenes that make one start but it does not satisfy the viewer with a clear cut explanation of the preceeding seemingly ceaseless turmoil, pandamonium, yet above the din of the main plot ensued the reticulate threads that serve to perhaps "hint" or intimate the powerful undercurrent surging faster than the actual plot we see develop before us. I personally feel this is a story that wants to expose the hypocricy, the absurdity, the injustice of this academic institution. The girls firstly, were getting their periods at the same time, then they begin to faint by the by most of them, at the same time yet the older "mature" adult figures do not suffer from these ailments. But what they do suffer from is the "refractory" uniqueness, vitality, virility, and everything that stands for youth, The Matrons lofty aims crave indolence, self-aggrandizement, self-righteousness, indignation, anything that forces them to "work" or think outside the box, god forbid they see these girls delicately or outright eclipse them in any aspect of their lives. So they maintain this authoritarian rule under the yoke of their self-gratified hatred misplaced sadly upon the students as an easy effigy. This is why it did not happen to other students, it is because their souls had already been crushed "as good students who care about their future should", thusly their precious youths were extrapolated from them without a chance, so what you have are young students assuming the role of an adult to ingratiate themselves with their superiors, or slave-masters. There is no satisfying ending, we can only guess that the protagonist will be OK, that she can overcome, we are not privy as in a novel to a 20 year leap into the continuity of her life, no it ends harshly and stark like it began, but where the idea, the unique tale , the crafty stylistic writing subsists is where the heart of the tale presides over the abstract beginning and the so called "un-satisfying" ending, the soul, and it is beautiful. I thought it was a brave and triumphant attempt at telling it how it is, but in a more artistic way with the vehicles it chose it only showcases the raw talent of the writer/director... I would love to see more work from this highly intelligent super creative person.

bob the moo I was curious to see The Falling because of the near universal praise that it got from critics; when I saw that the opposite tended to be true when it came to viewers. With the director's previous film (Dreams of a Life) I had liked what it did well, but didn't feel it wholly worked. With The Falling, I can see a lot of interest in there, and an inherent sense of beauty and sadness in the delivery – and a big part of the snob in me wants to side with the critics in saying how fantastic this film is. However the truth is that it constantly left me on the outside looking in, with mysteries around the characters that were never really satisfied, and a final reveal that comes out of nowhere and does little to nothing to fill the void retrospectively.The plot centers a group of school girls growing up, who fall into a rash of fainting when one of their number suffers a tragedy. There is a lot that can be read into this, and I did so much want to connect to this occurrence as part of a story of the girls struggling with more than they can cope with – more feelings, desires, pain etc that they hadn't ever been able to quantify, now all hitting them at once. This was the most obvious connection/thread that I found, but I didn't find it to engage or interest me. Too much of the film was spent flowering up the story with arty shots, a "pained yet beautiful 101" score, and I had too many obstacles to getting into the heads of the characters. The cast did not seem to have this problem, and there are many strong performances across the film, but I was left cold.The final moment of the film also seemed out of nowhere and didn't work for me since I was not invested in the characters by this point – only watching things play out. Certainly the film has a beauty to it (although personally I hated the music), the performances are strong, and the concept has potential; but it gets tied up in itself, forgets the viewer, and doesn't offer a way in, leaving an infuriating experience for me, although perhaps for a small audience this will amaze as it hits every mark.

paulg-67221 The plot of this film revolves incidents of pupils fainting at an all girls school in the 1960s. Sounds interesting but this film is executed poorly.The most obvious error in the film is the cinematography. The images look good but I imagine this is due to the resolution the film was shot in and colour grading. If I were watching a YouTube video I would be very impressed. The reason I am not is because the lighting is poor (at least for cinema). While everything is crystal clear, there is no depth to the lighting, the light looks the same throughout the shot. A good cinematographer would create dark and light areas within the same frame. After seeing this film I watched the director's short film The Madness of the Dance which is much more visually interesting so I looked up the cinematographer and discovered it was Christopher Doyle (that explains why it looked good). That film used different colours of light (red and blue) within the same frame and had areas of shadow which gave the shots depth.The film is also boring. Some may say this is because I am male and didn't go to a boys/girls only school but I feel that is a cheap excuse, I have enjoyed many films where I have never had the same experiences as the main character. Very little of anything of interest happens throughout the movie. It is later revealed the cause of the faintings is mass hysteria. I would have preferred a more supernatural explanation, still would have been ridiculous but at least it would be more interesting.Sorry Game of Thrones fans but Maisie Williams is bad at acting. Let's be honest she was only cast because of the marketing appeal being in GoT brought.A thing in the movie that was annoying was that the main character had sexual feeling for her own brother and the brother did not object. Seriously he does nothing to stop her advance, he even goes along with it. They even have sex only to be stopped by their mother. The relationship between the main character and the mother was meh. The revelation that the main character was conceived through rape which is why the mother is too scared to leave the house and is dismissive of the main character was alright but it is done so poorly. It made sense but the scene had no punch. Had it shown both the characters having mixed feelings about each other throughout the film, it would be more impactful. All the daughter does is whine and the mother and insult her and the mother, like I said, mainly dismisses her. There is no real development between the two.Speaking of lack of character development a male teacher kisses a female teacher in the movie, she rejects him. But their relationship is not shown before or after this scene. It doesn't even have any effect on the narrative or main character so there was no point in the scene even being in the movie. I gave this film a 3/10 overall because it's still a competent movie (for the most part), editing is fine, costume is fine and music choice is fine.

jongreatorex Regardless of how beautifully filmed; wonderfully acted; craftily directed, and sympathetically scored a film may be, without a half decent plot and script, it will 'fall' flat on it's face. I think that the majority of reviews here, question the credulity of those individuals and organisations who deemed it fit to invest good cash in this farrago of misplaced ideas and concepts. Sad, really, because, retaining the cast and film-crew, (not the film editors, or appalling film score), with a good, powerful, intelligent script, this could have been so much the better. Instead, what we get are anecdotal stereotypes of stock characters, uttering senseless, sixth-form 'man that's sooo deep', lines, with every metaphorical visual cliché that you could imagine. And the ending? someone could have had the decency to properly edit Maxine Peake's movements, even if that was the most predictable cliché of them all. I'll tell you what would have been better - final close-up of Lydia's sleeping, twitching face. Slowly, she opens her eyes and stares into camera. Ultra CU of one final, heroic twitch as she mouths the line..."And yeah, it was all a dream" CUT!