#38 We just watched this on Netflix streaming: Following

The Film: Following

I was fascinated with Christopher Nolan after I saw Momento. After that he went on to become the most important and financially successfuly director of his generation, however, he began with a modest little film-noir movie called Following.

I somehow got my hands on a bootleg years ago in college and was surprised at really how modest the movie ended up being. This movie has no budget to speak of. It even used the aspects of film-noir to stylistically swing black and white film – which is a cheaper stock.

Despite its budgetary constraints, the movie ends up being pretty damn good. The movie is crime drama about a man who follows people for ideas for his new book, however, he ends up getting wrapped up in crime and with a devilishly clever criminal.

Why to watch it: To see Nolan forming his famous narrative style.

You can tell in this film that Nolan was bound for greatness and not just because of his visual style, but because of his ability to build a story out of an unusual, jarring narrative.

The most obvious example is, of course, Memento, but the narrative structure can even be seen in Batman Begins and certainly Inception.

Pay attention to this: The way Nolan sidesteps his budgetary constrictions to make a movie.

The best way to gauge a filmmakers talent is the way she or he is able to make a pretty good movie with not much money. Even for low-budget, Following is cheap.

Nolan uses camera techniques, a b/w film stock, street locations, and, most of all, a really unqiue, odd story structure. This makes the movie watchable.  A lesser filmmaker, with similar resources, would have made complete shit.

Lastly, don’t expect the best movie you’ve ever seen. The movie feels long, even at like seventy or eighty minutes. The acting also isn’t fantastic because they couldn’t really afford to do multiple takes. First features of great directors are always fun to watch, this is one of the better ones.

-Collin