“Following” by Christopher Nolan Essay (Movie Review)

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Introduction

Following was the first feature by Christopher Nolan, English writer, cinematographer, and producer.

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Like Memento, its plot seems convoluted but is simple. An aspiring writer, Bill (Jeremy Theobald), tells the story: having become obsessed with following strangers his life takes a dramatic turn when one of his subjects, Cobb (Alex Haw), approaches him and leads him into a life of petty crime. Featuring the customary characters – gangster boss and femme fatale – and the requisite double-crossing, the theatricality of the piece tends towards the melodramatic, and at times the acting seems stagey and stilted.

However, given that the shoot of twenty days took place over a year, with only one or two takes of each set-up, this is hardly surprising. Variously touching on issues of class, identity, voyeurism, and the nature of illusion, the film is well sustained by its intriguing premise (Allon, 251).

On the one hand, the film draws our attention to the fact that we approach it intellectually. On the other hand, it seems reasonable to conclude that our emotions are engaged as much as our intellects are. To prove this idea, we consider some film points.

Analysis of the movie plot

Though the movie conception does not provide a strict plotline, it offers a lot of curious complex puzzles. For the first time, we see Bill long-haired and crumpled. Further, he appears with a nice haircut, normally dressed, but having livid spots on his face. Here appears a question: when and why? Nolan’s conception of misrelated scenes makes the film to be more dramatic and psychologically captivating. Quick changing of scenes and shots adds more action and the feature film does not seem to be silly. Other narrative discourses such as shot, medium-shot, and close-up diversify the action of the plot.

Moreover, close-up help to demonstrate appropriate emotions revealing on characters’ faces such as the shock and desperation of Bill in the final scene, or the vicious grin of Cobb when he was talking to blonde and told her about his brilliant plan of deceiving. The high-angle shot is used in a scene where gangsters fracture a man’s fingers with a hammer. And then a high-angle shot is changed by a low-angle shot to demonstrate the blonde’s fear and disgust.

Analysis of the intellectual and emotional response

Only with a few main characters, Nolan succeeded in the creation of a convincingly claustrophobic world similar to one depicted in classical thrillers of the 1940s.

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“As a director, says Christopher Nolan, “I’m a sort of human lens through everyone’s efforts are focused” (Rabiger, 5). The viewer does not have the slightest idea about the upshot of the movie. Noir aesthetics has a thrilling effect till the last second of the last scene.

Following is the brilliant example of a new wave in low-budgeted feature movies that allows creating a full-fledged work even possessing quite modest means. Such narrative discourse as contrast and parallelism are efficient in making total effect. Contrast scenes where Bill follows different people firstly confuse the viewer. It is hard enough to understand the general idea of the movie. But the further parallelism and final scenes make the plot to be unique.

Noir narration and aesthetics were chosen not accidentally. This method allowed the director to increase the informative and emotional movie message to the viewer. Like the image is shown in two colors, black and white, the human relationship, attitude, emotions are described using those two colors as well. Nolan shows only two sides of this world: good and evil, reality and illusion, honest world, and criminal one.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to say that the contemporary movie industry has not aimed to produce feature films for the sake of entertainment only. New technologies and narrative discourse techniques give unlimited opportunities to film directors. The most brilliant ideas with deep philosophical and psychological implications may be implemented into artwork worth to be watched.

Bibliography

Allon, Yoram, et al. Contemporary British and Irish Film directors: a Wallflower Critical Guide. London: Wallflower Press, 2001.

Rabiger, Michael. Directing: Film Techniques and aesthetics. Burlington: Elsevier, 2008.

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"“Following” by Christopher Nolan." IvyPanda, 11 June 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/following-by-christopher-nolan-review/.

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IvyPanda. (2022) '“Following” by Christopher Nolan'. 11 June.

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IvyPanda. 2022. "“Following” by Christopher Nolan." June 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/following-by-christopher-nolan-review/.

1. IvyPanda. "“Following” by Christopher Nolan." June 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/following-by-christopher-nolan-review/.


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IvyPanda. "“Following” by Christopher Nolan." June 11, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/following-by-christopher-nolan-review/.

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