The Fall

Watching director Tarsem Singh's "The Fall" is like paging though a great photographer's portfolio while listening to The Arabian Nights merged with The Wizard of Oz. A relatively simple plot becomes a highly imaginative story as suicidal paraplegic Roy Walker (Lee Pace) spins a tale for whimsical 5 year old patient Alexandra (Catinca Untaru) to con her into stealing drugs from the hospital dispensary. This film is visually engaging right from the punchy B&W initial credits all the way through the gorgeous color settings in South Africa, India, Bali, Romania, to the great costumes of outsized characters in the "tales". Even small props are treated with photographic respect. Those who appreciate great color and creative visual twists, should put this on their list of must-see movies.

You can see some stills from "The Fall" at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/mediaindex

Harry

Harry Orlyk is an artist friend who is currently showing his wonderful works at The North Main Gallery in Salem, NY, a small farm community where Harry has been painting the local landscape for many years. I've admired his paintings ever since I became aware of him almost twenty years ago. His current creations are absolutely gorgeous! Here on high quality canvas we see low winter light (Harry says it's ALL about light) slashed across work-a-day farmyards, illuminating otherwise unremarkable fields and pointing up the weedy backsides of small village barns, giving us renewed appreciation for the transforming power of the sun's warmth and for Harry's own remarkable eye.

The selection from this past snow season's daily production affirms the strength of long term commitment and the truth of "just showing up". Harry is out there everyday, year round, in rain, snow or sparkling sunlight making color filled impressions which in this show really bowled me over. Perhaps attendees of this May 2nd opening were looking in wonder at me as I moved around shaking my head, muttering about the spectacular light and gorgeous color of his impastoed pictures. Unlike other times when I'd mostly been impressed with the lovely result of his technique, this time I saw a fully accomplished, mature artist whose mastery of a seemingly informal handling of oils produces consistently beautiful pieces of inherent veracity.

See more of Harry's landscapes at www.harryorlyk.com and at www.artinsalem.com