FILM 1368: THE FALLING
British director Carol Morley’s
follow-up to her breakthrough hit Dreams of a Life is a feverish exploration of
raging hormones and teenage angst set against a brilliantly beguiling backdrop
of a mysterious outbreak of mass-hysterical fainting at an English girls’
school in the late 1960s.
Abbie and Lydia are best of
friends, with a particular intensity that comes with the friendship between
sixteen-year-old girls. Abbie (newcomer Florence Pugh) is the undisputed
leader, full of natural charisma and magnetism. Lydia (Games of Thrones’ best
Bristolian Maisie Williams) is fixated on her friend, having long been
emotionally abandoned by her agoraphobic single mum (Maxine Peake) and a father
she never knew. But when Abbie begins to experiment with boys, including with
her best friend’s magic-obsessed brother, Lydia’s fragile world quickly starts
to unravel. And when first she and then other girls too at the school begin to
faint en-mass, to the consternation of the school authorities, an occult-like
strangeness begins to pervade the lives of all those involved.
Like a British riff on Picnic at
Hanging Rock in its exploration of female friendship (and competition),
burgeoning sexuality, and the supernatural unexplained; this bold head-rush of
a film is confirmation that Morley is fast becoming one of Britain’s most
distinctive and exciting filmmakers. (http://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/6506/the-falling)
TRIVIA: Florence Pugh (Abbie) is a
singer songwriter in real life.
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