We can all agree at this point that a certain sub-set of Christopher Nolan‘s fans are out of hand, what with the death threats to critics and all. But even if we were one of those who didn’t like “The Dark Knight Rises,” or indeed the rest of Nolan’s output, we suspect that we’d still be glad he existed. While some might find his movies humorless (though we’d disagree), or chilly (though we’d disagree), or overly rigid (we’d… mostly disagree), no one else is making films like Christopher Nolan, taking nine figures ofWarner Bros.’ money, pairing it with big ideas and concepts, and making resoundingly entertaining and thought-provoking blockbusters.
It’s almost easy to forget that before he was making some of the biggest-scale movies in history, Nolan made his name on low-budget, ingenious film noirs. And yet, when you looking at the sub $10,000 “Following” or the $200 million “The Dark Knight Rises,” you clearly see that it’s from the same filmmaker. We’re dying to see where Nolan goes from here, but in the meantime, with “The Dark Knight Rises” hitting theaters at midnight (read our review here), and feeling like the end of the first act of Nolan’s career (the end of the franchise that made his name, seemingly his last collaboration with DoP Wally Pfister, who’s heading off to become a director himself), it seemed like the right time to look back at the director’s last fifteen years or so of movies. Check them out below, and let us know your own thoughts on Nolan in the comments section below.
“Following” (1998)
A writer (Jeremy Theobald) falls under the spell of a stranger, Cobb (Alex Haw, with a character whose name would return for the protagonist of “Inception“), who breaks into strangers’ houses. The young man starts following in his new mentor’s footsteps, only to fall for The Blonde (Lucy Russell), one of his victims, and ends up way over his head. A simple enough premise, but as we’d all come to learn about Christopher Nolan, that simplicity is deceptive. Shot on weekends on a tiny budget (about $6,000) over three or four months, not long after Nolan graduated from University College London (he was only 27 when the film was made), “Following,” a nifty but rough-edged neo-noir, is certainly a victim of its limitations. Nolan served as his own DoP, and some of the handheld compositions are striking, but it occasionally feels a little amateurish, never coming close to the work Nolan would later do with Wally Pfister. The acting — mostly by non-professionals (lead Jeremy Theobald is now a psychologist, Alex Haw is an architect, with only femme fatale Lucy Russell continuing to act — she later led Eric Rohmer‘s “The Lady And The Duke”) isn’t the strongest, although partly because Nolan only shot one or two takes to conserve film stock. But the script does also showcase much of what would bring Nolan to fame; a fiendishly intricate structure and a taut pace that rattles along all kinds of twists and turns (though, there is arguably one too many) in a leaner-than-lean 70 minutes. It’s a sketch for what would follow on, but one that shows the immense promise he held even at such a young age. [C+]
“Memento” (2000)
“Following” might have been scrappy, but it was impressive, and long before the film started doing the festival rounds, Nolan had his follow-up ready to go. His producer and then-girlfriend-now-wife Emma Thomas had sold Nolan’s script, “Memento” (based on a short story by his younger brother), toNewmarket Films, and it quickly became a hot property around Hollywood. According to James Mottram‘s “The Sundance Kids,” Brad Pitt was interested in the lead role with Aaron EckhartandThomas Janealso in the running. But it was Guy Pearce, hot off “L.A. Confidential,” who took the lead role of Leonard Shelby, a man unable to create new long-term memories, on the hunt for the man who caused his injury and killed his wife. It’s in many ways a true successor to “Following,” in the same neo-noir metier (though this time a gloriously lit California, courtesy of Wally Pfister, in their first collaboration), and with an even more intricate structure; Shelby’s story is told backwards, from his execution of pal Teddy to a beginning/ending that reveals that much of what little he knows about his existence is a lie. It’s an infinitely more confident film than Nolan’s debut, controlled and playful, and the structure (perhaps bar the black-and-white segment, which feels a little too much) is far from a gimmick; a sad and ingenious series of snapshots that drip-feeds the torturous plot while putting the viewer in Leonard’s disorienting shoes. Pearce is terrific, and in support, “The Matrix” graduates Carrie-Anne Moss andJoe Pantoliano got to show they were far more than sci-fi sidekicks. It might not be as rewatchable as some of his films (and watching it “forwards” as it were, is educational, but rather robs the film of its point), but it’s a pretty astonishing leap up the ladder, and it could be argued that it’s the director’s most complete film to date. [A-]
“Insomnia” (2002)
Praised hugely on release, Nolan’s studio debut has slipped in critical standing over the last decade. Looking back on the film, that’s somewhat unfair — it’s a very strong little thriller, with some of the best acting in any of Nolan’s films. But it’s a hard film to truly love, perhaps because for arguably the only time in his career, it feels like a gun-for-hire job, a chance to prove himself with big names and more scope. Nolan had been picked out by Steven Soderbergh — who had raved about “Memento,” helping the film to get a U.S. release — and hired him to direct a remake of the Norwegian thriller of the same name for hisSection 8production company and Warner Bros. Stellan Skarsgårdtook the role in the original, but here it’sAl Pacino as the LAPD cop sent to Alaska with his partner Hap (Martin Donovan) to help with the enquiry into the death of a 17-year-old girl. Chasing a suspect, Pacino accidentally shoots his partner, who’s just told him that he’s going to testify against him to Internal Affairs, an incident witnessed by the killer (Robin Williams), who blackmails him into helping frame the victim’s boyfriend for his own murder. Nolan handles everything handsomely in an old-fashioned way, but sometimes feels a little disengaged (it’s the only time he’s not worked on a script himself), and the screenplay by Hillary Seitz occasionally inches into cop movie cliches. But at the same time, Nolan gives the story a wonderfully creepy atmosphere (again, as with “Memento,” the film takes place entirely in daylight; few filmmakers can make the sun as menacing and bleak as the nightime), and coaxes very strong performances out of his cast. Robin Williams was near-revelatory (this and “One Hour Photo,” released the previous year, remain his best dramatic turns), and it’s to date the last true Pacino turn of greatness, the actor perma-tired and letting a lifetime of sins catch up to him with quiet dignity. It’s a world away from the Shouty Al we get more often than not these days. So in retrospect, yes, it’s minor Nolan, but it’s still markedly better than 99% of Hollywood procedurals these days. [B]