The Falling Star

2024 1h 38m FR

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 23

ComedyCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The former activist’s past finally catches up with him when a mysterious stranger appears at the bar, armed and wanting revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom, provides Boris’ cunning partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan. But they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife, Fiona, a suspicious detective on their trail.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Dominique Abel
Boris / Dom
Fiona Gordon
Fiona
Kaori Ito
Kayoko
Philippe Martz
Tim
Bruno Romy
Georges
Bruce Ellison
Homer
Céline Laurentie
Patricia

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Dominique Abel
Writers: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
Languages: French
Countries: Belgium, France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 2 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Belgium, France.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Dominique Abel, shot by Pascale Marin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Rosemary Standley. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Julie Brenta shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon and Kaori Ito carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt21962898 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Dominique Abel directs. Pascale Marin behind the camera. Rosemary Standley scores. Julie Brenta cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Belgium, France. Dialogue in French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Released 2 years ago.
3International production across 2 countries: Belgium, France.
4Directed by Dominique Abel, shot by Pascale Marin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Rosemary Standley. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Julie Brenta shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon and Kaori Ito carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt21962898 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 23 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Pascale Marin
Original score: Rosemary Standley
Editing: Julie Brenta
Makeup / hair: Pascale Guégan
Runtime: 98 min · 1h 38m
Status: Released
Budget: $3,100,000
Original language: FR
IMDB: The Falling Star (2024)

Also by

Dominique Abel

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2024-03-03
★ 3/10
It’s always frustrating to walk out of a movie and ask yourself afterward, “What did I just watch?” That was my reaction to this scattered, unfocused offering from the writing-directing duo of Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon, and that’s unfortunate given that this release has some definite strengths in its corner. This tale tells the story of a radical activist (Abel) who’s been on the run since 1986 and has been laying low of late by working as a bartender in a corner dive known as The Falling Star. However, when he’s approached by a mysterious stranger with a malfunctioning prosthetic arm (Bruno Romy) in search of revenge, he must go back into hiding, although this time he does so by putting up an unwitting, easily manipulated lookalike double (also Abel) in his place. It’s an all-too-familiar narrative in which audiences are bound to know in advance that things are going to go very wrong when the plan is implemented. In this case, though, viewers are unlikely to figure on just how wrong they’ll go – and it has nothing to do with the nature of carefully crafted humorous incidents designed to evoke hearty laughs. Rather, the woefully errant plotline unfolds with a series of disjointed, unrelated bits that rarely work and seldom connect. The picture truly plays like a work that was made up as its creators as they went along, taking a pile of comic possibilities and throwing them all at the wall to see what sticks. There’s an especially heavy reliance on slapstick, some of which is admittedly inspired but most of which plays like the dysfunctional routines Woody Allen tried to pull off in some of his early films. And, the further one gets into the story, the more it comes across like a protracted improv exercise, including everything from music video-style dance routines to surreal flashbacks to embarrassingly rampant silliness. There are also some lame attempts at incorporating social commentary, which largely comes out of left field and has only a tangential nexus to the principal story thread. As noted earlier, all of this is regrettable, too, considering the elements that the film does have going for it – a modestly interesting, potential-filled premise, an exquisite production design, a deftly chosen soundtrack and an overall stylish look, especially in the cinematography. However, the filmmakers don’t know how to harness these attributes and fashion them into a cohesive, attention-holding story. The closer this one got to the end, the more I couldn’t wait for it to be over, despite its comparatively short 1:38:00 runtime. Indeed, there are plenty of falling stars in this cinematic disaster, but I have to wonder how many of them were planned by its makers.

Production companies