'Whenever people say to me that all my work looks unique, I say to them originality is the art of concealing your source.'
'You can't see the sources that I take from because usually, they are Indian.'
'But then Indians don't find my work Indian.'
Indian American film-maker Tarsem Singh's visual style is so unique that it often overtakes the narrative of his films. For his style alone, Singh is often hired to make music videos (Lady Gaga, for instance) and commercials for giant companies like Nike and Coca Cola.
People first noticed his style of filmmaking when he directed the award-winning music video for R.E.M.'s song Losing My Religion and then Deep Forrest's Sweet Lullaby.
After directing his first feature film The Cell (2000) with Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio, Singh decided to take on his dream project: A gorgeous fantasy called The Fall (2006).
Critics were divided over The Fall when it was originally released. The late Roger Ebert called the film 'magnificent', but The New York Times critic Nathan Lee called it 'a real bore.'
Time Out, New York gave The Fall a rating of five stars on a scale of six saying that 'so much of it is more virtuoso than anything else out there.'
The Fall is based on a Bulgarian film called Yo Ho Ho.
Singh bought the rights to the film, but barely saw it again.
Instead, he built a hallucinatory story about an injured stuntman (Lee Pace) in a hospital in Los Angeles (the hospital scenes were actually shot in South Africa), who narrates a fabulous story to a young girl (played by a delightful Romanian non-actor Catinca Untaru).
So we meet with an assorted mix of characters, including Alexander the Great and Charles Darwin and his monkey in search of an elusive butterfly. Towards the middle, Singh shows us one of the most magical moments every filmed: An underwater shot of an elephant swimming.
Singh broke one of Hollywood's cardinal rules and self-financed The Fall, since no one in the industry would buy his dream of travels to over 20 countries and sumptuous exotic locations. Some of the best scenes in The Fall were filmed in India.
Despite the tepid box response, The Fall had become a cult film. But while people would talk about it, few had actually seen it.
Now a 4K restored version of the film is available on MUBI. The new version is a treat for the film's fans and it will surely win many new admirers.
Aseem Chhabra spoke to Singh after the restored film's premiere at this summer's Locarno Film Festival where it was screened in the town's Piazza Grande.
Tarsem, congratulations on the Locarno screening. What was it like?
It was quite a visceral and different experience.
I watched The Fall on the big screen when it was first released in New York City -- I think it was in 2006 -- and I remember how stunning it looked. I recently watched the film again on a screener.
Oh, wonderful. So you were one of the eight people who originally saw the film.
Well, that's not exactly true. You know the film always had a fan base.
So let's talk about the restoration. And this was a self-financed project from the beginning.
Yes. I spent all the money, in fact, a lot of money that I made in advertising on this personal project.
Once it was done, I thought that's all we had to do. But nobody wanted it even for free.
Then I realised that I had to work for another two years just to get it exactly where you saw it. I wanted it to be seen on screen. I think it was released perhaps on 12 screens across the US.
But I didn't realise that eventually, all the licenses ran out. There was just no way people could see the film, unless they accessed it on really bad illegal sites from China.
Surprisingly, the film's fan base kept growing despite the restrictions. I had no idea since I am not the kind of a guy who searches stuff on the Internet or has a social media presence.
Last year when I began to travel with Dear Jassi (his 2023 tragic love story set in Punjab), people would keep bringing this up. They wanted to see The Fall. I heard some people had paid up to 300 bucks for poor quality DVDs.
That is when I said to my brother 'Let's just get it out there, so it doesn't disappear.'
I spent about three months to find out how to exactly put it together because the original film was also done in 4K.
The only film on 4K at that time was a small indie film called Ironman, which cost $280 million (laughs).
Then this arrogant little Indian who thought that his film should have the same finish.
But we could not find the original elements. So we had to go back to ground zero because I found a Blu-ray in 4K, but there were some scenes missing.
A lot of cleaning up had to be done. Most of the work was done in Montreal and I think the results are pretty fantastic.
It is absolutely stunning to look at. Every frame is a visual treat. After I saw The Fall again, I revisited The Cell.
That's going to be restored next.
But while watching The Cell, I began to wonder how your style of film=making emerged. There are moments which were similar to the shots in Losing My Religion like the shot of the window and water falling.
It's called self-cannibalisation.
But how did you develop your style?
That's a very good compliment because whenever people say to me that all my work looks unique, I say to them originality is the art of concealing your source.
You can't see the sources that I take from because usually, they are Indian. But then Indians don't find my work Indian. It is from the other places as well and I realised that it's kind of a mishmash.
I grew up in Iran, watched a lot of old films and television shows that were dubbed and I didn't understand the language.
I also traveled a lot because my dad was an aircraft maintenance engineer, and we would travel free.
My sources were from various places; I was stealing or getting inspired by places that people can't put their finger on.
When I was young, I would envy photographers who would just get up and take pictures. And you could see the photographer in the picture.
I would think that was so cool.
You actually look at a picture or a film and people can see that is your eye.
I think over time, I might have overcompensated. That's why some critics criticise me for not putting story ahead of the visuals. It's almost like James Earl Jones who used to have a speech impediment, and then he worked so hard to articulate his voice that he became Darth Vader.
I got my first still camera when I was 24 years old. I had no idea how it worked. So I started so late that I overcompensated and suddenly my references came from different areas.
People sometimes confuse that with originality. Now I get up and things come out naturally.
One of your key collaborators, Eiko Ishioko passed away in 2012. What a huge contribution she made in costume designs for many of your films! I think she worked exclusively with you after she designed the costumes for Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, That must have been such a loss for you.
Actually, she did a couple of operas. Basically, the reason she ended up working with me all the time is that my best friend in school Nico Soultanakis (producer of The Cell, The Fall, Dear Jassi) and I loved her advertising work in the '70s in Japan.
When she won the Oscar for Dracula, I first thought I would never be able to afford her.
But when I was working on The Cell, I bent everything to get a meeting with her.
People discouraged me saying she will not be interested and that she doesn't work at the speed we would want her to. But when we talked, we got along so well.
During that time, she and Nico fell in love. She was probably 30 years senior to him. They got married and from then on, I had her for free!
She would be at my place all the time in London or in LA or wherever. We would talk about my script and the characters I was developing and she would fill up the floor with illustrations.
It was such a two-way street.
I would tell her what I wanted, and she would take it from there and the characters would evolve.
I would sometimes change the characters based on her costume designs.
She would joke that I was made for filming costumes. To that I would respond, 'Yeah, now let's see if we can put actors in there.'
Often, the costumes would be so heavy for the actors, but her designs ruled. The idea was to rein her in, to make it as practical as you can. But also let her be as wild as she wants to be.
Your last film Dear Jassi opened in 2023 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It has traveled to other festivals, but what are the plans to bring it to India?
I hope reporters like you get a chance to see it.
I have already seen it a couple of times and love the film, especially how you have filmed Punjab.
I hope it's not like The Fall, where 20 years later, people say they haven't seen it. At least with The Fall, I owned it. I could dictate where it goes.
With Dear Jassi, my hands are tied.
I want to come to India. Hopefully soon.
I want to hold three screenings, in Bombay, Delhi and Chandigarh.
Some people discouraged me from taking the film to Punjab, but I want to show it to the crew.
It is my only film that critics have liked. Critics disliked all my other films. Then they wait 20 years to like them.
