Guillermo del Toro, Kim Novak, and Ari Aster are among several star “witnesses” already lined up for Alexandre O. Philippe’s two-parter doc feature “The Fall,” which is set to be unveiled July 22 at Fantasia’s Frontières as part of its International Co-Production Market pitch event.
A two-part film, “The Fall” will be produced by Medianoche Productions, behind Philippe’s 2025 Venice-premiering doc “Kim Novak’s Vertigo.” Medianoche producer Terri Piñon and writer-director Philippe are reunited with France’s Tell Me Films, their producing partner on the Novak film. The partners are also teamed up with France’s Thunderbug Productions for the new title.
With a pre-sale to France’s Cine+ also locked, Piñon and Philippe land at Frontières looking for an international sales agent and financing partners for a project that is not only in production – with roughly a year to go – but also gathering momentum as it moves towards a milestone plot point in cinema history.
“We’re building ‘The Fall’ as a two-part event, with separate premieres for Part I and Part II, for ‘Vertigo’s’ 70th anniversary in 2028 that will be the cinephile event of the year,” Piñon said. “With the cast we’re securing, the French pre-sale, the co-production structure, and early interest from some of the most prestigious festivals, it’s set up for a spectacular rollout to ride the ‘Vertigo’ anniversary buzz throughout 2028.”
The working title “The Fall” refers to the iconic and fascinatingly ambiguous finale of Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” When Judy plummets to her death from the belltower, the viewer is never shown exactly how it happens, and instead is shown 57 frames of Scottie’s face as he watches.
The film is structured as a film-noir investigation of the fall and the emotions and ideas it inspires. Philippe, whose 2024 Venice Classics Lion winner “Chain Reactions” explores the impact of Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” 50 years after its release, said he wants to “inhabit” rather than solve the riddle of the fall.
Each interview subject offers “a different version of the truth,” said Philippe, who has called te “Vertigo” finale Hitchcock’s ‘biggest mystery.’ “Each version reveals something intimate about the person telling it. It’s the culmination of everything I’ve chased for 20 years: the film I was born to make.”
Fantasia’s four-day Frontières Market runs July 22-25 in Montreal.
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