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14. Following (Christopher Nolan, 1998)
Hands up how many of you MoFo's saw a Nolan film making it towards or in the top 10?? I would bet my left bollocks that it's more than zero.
Drawing from his experiences when living in London's West End, The Talented Mr Nolan's very first feature length film sees him use the basic tool young film director's tool of 'doing what you know'. That he does. Nolan's home was broken into prior to watching this film and apparently, the only thing he could think about was what was what his intruders were thinkin' about when they took his stuff. And this is one of the reasons why this film is so interesting...it says a lot about us and our voyeurisms.
Whether we admit it or not, we are all interested in other people's lives. There is a curiousity about people that we just can't help as human beings. It's that same curiousity that drives us to watch the news, to watch other people doing stuff on the street..the same curiousity that compells us to watch films and television. We are all voyeuristic - but anything to excess is dangerous. Anything. And Following is the story of a young man's voyeurism that eventually leads him to experiencing choatic
events.
Those who have already watched or will watch the film after my review will probably be baffled as to why this ULTRA low budget 70 min feature that was only shot on weekends throughout the course of an entire year is so far ahead of the much more visually pleasing films that have appeared earlier on my list. But my reasons are pretty much simple and maybe even a little biased: Yes, i'm aware that it should probably be somewhere between 100 - 70, but I feel like I have to judge it on the fact that it's a debut. I may not be the kind of Citizen Kane debut where it has completely rewritten the rules of film, but it's still an astonishing, personal piece of work that deserves a much more higher place in cinema history. And unlike Kane, this film is far more effective in giving aspiring filmmakers a cheap, easy guide to making a first film feature.
EVERYTHING about this film is just so ******* charming, including it's budget. There is just something remarkable about it. I mean, the film was made for a little less than £6000! That's the type of budget that makes films like The Blair Witch Project look like a practise in super big budget spending. It's wonderfully scripted and meticulously planned yet it feels very improvised and loose. However, as with some of the best of Nolan's films, it's greatest and cleverest weapon is Nolan's experimentation of different time periods. Three different time periods to be specific that oscillate back and forth intercutting between each other. Now, this narrative fracturing technique isn't as skillfully implemented as it was in Memento, but it's still done with complete faith in the viewer and Nolan allowing us to follow these time periods through visual gestures in the protagonist's appearance. So yeah, I guess it does serve as a blue print for Memento . And it's almost perfectly shot when you consider it's content. It's told in black and white and is often dark and moody to match the affairs.
The characters themselves are persented as brilliant noir archtypes. The femme fatale, the detective, the questionable 'hero', etc. And as a little creepy as he is, we can't help but respond and eventually care about 'Bill' (must be pointed out that he credited as 'The Young Man') because of the fact that we are no different to him. We follow him as he FOLLOWS other people, y'see. So we are just as guilty. It's a fascinating process. Alex Haw, the actor that plays Cobb, only appeared in this film as he is uni mates with Nolan and went on to be a great architecture in Pennsylvania. But man is he immensely charismatic and could have been a successful actor with more training. His Cobb represents the kind of bloke you know could get you into a bad spot, but you can't help but follow because of his individuality and because he represents social freedom. I don't want to say too much about the character, but he isn't too disimilar to Heath Ledger's Joker as far as outlook is concerned.
Ultimately, Following is all about invasion. The invasion into people's personal lives. It's a concept that should be explored me often.
A lot of critics have argued that Following attemps one twist too many. And I guess that may be true to an extent, however, I think the originality of the film and the overall execution, despite the laughably low budget, FAR outweighs the slightly excessive twists. Truly excellent stuff.
Hands up how many of you MoFo's saw a Nolan film making it towards or in the top 10?? I would bet my left bollocks that it's more than zero.
Drawing from his experiences when living in London's West End, The Talented Mr Nolan's very first feature length film sees him use the basic tool young film director's tool of 'doing what you know'. That he does. Nolan's home was broken into prior to watching this film and apparently, the only thing he could think about was what was what his intruders were thinkin' about when they took his stuff. And this is one of the reasons why this film is so interesting...it says a lot about us and our voyeurisms.
Whether we admit it or not, we are all interested in other people's lives. There is a curiousity about people that we just can't help as human beings. It's that same curiousity that drives us to watch the news, to watch other people doing stuff on the street..the same curiousity that compells us to watch films and television. We are all voyeuristic - but anything to excess is dangerous. Anything. And Following is the story of a young man's voyeurism that eventually leads him to experiencing choatic
events.
Those who have already watched or will watch the film after my review will probably be baffled as to why this ULTRA low budget 70 min feature that was only shot on weekends throughout the course of an entire year is so far ahead of the much more visually pleasing films that have appeared earlier on my list. But my reasons are pretty much simple and maybe even a little biased: Yes, i'm aware that it should probably be somewhere between 100 - 70, but I feel like I have to judge it on the fact that it's a debut. I may not be the kind of Citizen Kane debut where it has completely rewritten the rules of film, but it's still an astonishing, personal piece of work that deserves a much more higher place in cinema history. And unlike Kane, this film is far more effective in giving aspiring filmmakers a cheap, easy guide to making a first film feature.
EVERYTHING about this film is just so ******* charming, including it's budget. There is just something remarkable about it. I mean, the film was made for a little less than £6000! That's the type of budget that makes films like The Blair Witch Project look like a practise in super big budget spending. It's wonderfully scripted and meticulously planned yet it feels very improvised and loose. However, as with some of the best of Nolan's films, it's greatest and cleverest weapon is Nolan's experimentation of different time periods. Three different time periods to be specific that oscillate back and forth intercutting between each other. Now, this narrative fracturing technique isn't as skillfully implemented as it was in Memento, but it's still done with complete faith in the viewer and Nolan allowing us to follow these time periods through visual gestures in the protagonist's appearance. So yeah, I guess it does serve as a blue print for Memento . And it's almost perfectly shot when you consider it's content. It's told in black and white and is often dark and moody to match the affairs.
The characters themselves are persented as brilliant noir archtypes. The femme fatale, the detective, the questionable 'hero', etc. And as a little creepy as he is, we can't help but respond and eventually care about 'Bill' (must be pointed out that he credited as 'The Young Man') because of the fact that we are no different to him. We follow him as he FOLLOWS other people, y'see. So we are just as guilty. It's a fascinating process. Alex Haw, the actor that plays Cobb, only appeared in this film as he is uni mates with Nolan and went on to be a great architecture in Pennsylvania. But man is he immensely charismatic and could have been a successful actor with more training. His Cobb represents the kind of bloke you know could get you into a bad spot, but you can't help but follow because of his individuality and because he represents social freedom. I don't want to say too much about the character, but he isn't too disimilar to Heath Ledger's Joker as far as outlook is concerned.
Ultimately, Following is all about invasion. The invasion into people's personal lives. It's a concept that should be explored me often.
A lot of critics have argued that Following attemps one twist too many. And I guess that may be true to an extent, however, I think the originality of the film and the overall execution, despite the laughably low budget, FAR outweighs the slightly excessive twists. Truly excellent stuff.