Jason Sondhi

A gripping short film set in the world of finance that just so happens to employ a famous American tragedy as its backdrop, Free Fall is a searing dramatization of the principle, “money before people”. Writer Guillaume Fournier and director Emmanuel Tenenbaum adapt the familiar structure of Hollywood financial thrillers to a real-life story of a young trader looking to make a figurative killing in the wake of real-life carnage. Along the way, they skillfully play with audience sympathies in order to cast the events of the film in a dramatically different light.

Tom works at a London investment bank and his recent performance has put his job on the line. Downcast after a disappointing performance in the morning, he, alongside his fellow traders, are pulled out of their frenzy of focus to enact a scene familiar in memory to those of us who experienced it—rising from their chairs, glued to their TV’s, they witness the initial incoming reports of the first plane to hit the World Trade center on 9/11. Driven by desperation, insight, or some mix of the two, Tom is able to pull away from the screen in order to think through the implications. His knowledge is imperfect, his assumptions are untested, but a lot of money is available to be won if he can convince his team to bet against the market before anyone else does.

Expertly crafted, the film’s 20min flew by for me. Pace, plot, and structure are finely tuned to maintain maximum engagement from audiences. However, reading that summary, there is due cause for immediate discomfort—what the hell is a French production, set in London, doing in exploiting a seminal American trauma?

Utilizing historically traumatic events is inherently tricky, but Free Fall, to our eyes, avoids many of the potential landmines that can accompany the use of real-life tragedies. The film is a small, contained story, where 9/11 is somewhat incidental. Any number of incidents could have been substituted without fundamentally altering the film’s aims or themes. Loosely based on a story reported by the Dutch journalist Joris Luyendijk in his book, Swimming With Sharks, Free Fall is not a grand statement on 9/11, nor are any of the individuals affected that day identified or depicted. 9/11 is a plot point that is evoked as a collective event rather than as a personal tragedy, which differentiates it from other recent short film controversies like that of the Oscar-nominated short, Detainment.  Still, fair warning to those that may be triggered. 

Rather than a “9/11” film, Free Fall is best viewed through the lens of a financial thriller—a morality tale in the vulgar and high-stakes world of finance similar to influential American movies like Wall Street or Boiler Room. This is a rare genre for a short film to traffic in, but Free Fall may change that, as the time-tested appeal of the format translates compellingly. It is easy to see why, as the immense bets placed by the financial industry are adrenaline-inducing, and stories of this ilk commonly employ an aspirational, rags-to-riches bent, where ambitious protagonists overcome difficulties and doubt, eager to prove themselves within a pressure-packed crucible. This is the generic hero’s journey, not unlike any number of adventure or sports stories and, as such, audiences are primed towards rooting for the character’s rise and cheering on their inevitable triumph against caution or conventional wisdom. Embedded within this subgenre is a subversive kicker though, as the films invariably perform judo on their viewers, revealing themselves to in fact be cautionary tales of moral failure. Short films love a good twist, and this trick of luring audiences to identify with the main character, only to then repudiate their worldview, is an enjoyable maneuver. 

Of course, attempting this maneuver invites the classic depiction-versus-endorsement conundrum within art—Scorcese, to pick a name, has walked this tight-rope many times with his similarly themed The Wolf of Wall Street, but also in his gangster flicks like Goodfellas. The high status that society awards to those with money and the debaucherous excess that said money enables can turn these characters into role models for a certain sort of impressionable (usually male) audience. This is not always the audience’s fault though—you can only insist Walter White is actually the villain of Breaking Bad so many times in contradiction to all audience sentiment and loyalty before your protestations lose their luster and you must question your storytelling approach. 

Free Fall, because of its contained scope, does not truly glamorize Tom, yet many of the film team’s choices are weighted in his favor—from the job-threatening hole he begins the film with, to the derogatory put-downs he experiences from his team’s leader. These plot points place Tom in an underdog position, both as a young trader in trouble, but also by questioning his group belonging. Our desire for him to pull out of his financial deficit and to secure his place within this group of alphas is baked into the structure. By utilizing one of the most famous events of recent history, the story plays with dramatic irony—we know Tom’s intuition is correct, but can he convince anyone else? This knowledge gives Tom’s arguments a righteous bent, allowing Fournier and Tenenbaum to co-opt audiences into making the same mistake as Tom—that, in the quest to hit it big, to prove himself the smartest guy in the room, he suborns his humanity to the larger context of his actions. It is heady stuff and the neatness of the construction makes it so that, even if the final twist is obvious, one’s appreciation of the film is undiminished.

Oscar-Qualified at REGARD (our own Céline Roustan was on the awarding jury), Free Fall is in contention for awards season at the moment, so catch the film now, as we cannot be sure how long it will stay online. In the meantime, Fournier and Tenenbaum are already at work on an upcoming project which they expect will become their debut feature. While the plot is still under wraps, they shared with us that it will deal with a familiar topic for them—greed, and how it affects us as humans. Rather than the serious tone of Free Fall, the creative partners hope to return to the humor that typified their early shorts. If you want a taste of what that might be like, we recommend checking out their Vimeo Awards nominated short, Deux Dollars. 

Free Fall is available courtesy of our friends at T-Port, an innovative non-profit online platform aimed at promoting emerging film talent and facilitating the distribution of short films within the professional film industry.