“Following” (1998) — Read Along
Christopher Nolan and an intriguing debut from the master
Here follows my original spoiler free love-in appraisal of Christopher Nolan’s debut film first penned and published over a decade ago, links to both the original article and my opus career blog article on a quarter of century of films from the London born filmmaker as well as volume 2 of my “Essential Film Reviews Collection” where you’ll find “Following” among many, many others as well as both my Youtube and Rumble readings of my own review read direct to camera. Then you have a choice dear reader as to whether to indulge in the concept of “Read Along” by watching my video(s) as you read along with the review, dive headlong into the films of the master filmmaker or skip merrily along to your next port of call within our electrical Matrix of doom!
"Christopher Nolan and his entire cinematic catalogue"
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" Vol.2 - Available via Amazon
"Following" (1998) - My Youtube Channel Reading
"Following" (1998) - My Rumble Channel Reading
“When I started to follow people, specific people, when I selected a person to follow, that’s when the trouble started”
Christopher Nolan’s debut feature as director is a low budget thriller shot entirely in black and white and featuring just four main characters in a small cast list of just 26 actors. Sharp editing between the main characters enhances the tension, as does the longer/wider shots of “Bill” aka “The Young Man” (Jeremy Theobald) as he people watches and follows seemingly random people. During the early narration from Bill, he explains, to both an unseen character, then to the audience in general, how, as a budding writer, he uses the act of following people simply to observe their behaviours, actions and everyday life as inspiration for his writing. He narrates his simple rules for the audience, however as he admits during the first five minutes of the film, he breaks an early rule, that of never following the same person twice. As a result, he meets “Cobb”, a standout performance from Alex Haw, as a sharply dressed and self assured thief. Lucy Russell as “The Blonde” is quickly introduced as the third main character, a girlfriend of a local Club Owner and a fourth character “The Policeman”, with John Nolan (Christopher Nolan’s Uncle) in a cameo, yet crucial role.
Regular flashbacks and back to front narratives similar in tone to the coming Memento, there are several plot twists in a film running time of just 69 minutes. This is clearly a forerunner and blueprint for the more successful and polished “Memento” but as a stand alone film it improves still further with repeated viewings. It engages you immediately, with the narration, flashbacks and “looping” between scenes posing more questions than can be answered in one viewing. A low budget gem and a low budget masterpiece in which Christopher Nolan wrote, directed, acted as his own cinematographer and also edited.
A real triumph of a film and well worthy of 69 minutes of your time.
Thanks for reading. If you like the premise of the idea of “Read Along”, then you might also enjoy:
"Amores Perros" (2000) - Read Along
"True Romance" (1993) - Read Along
"Red State" (2011) - Read Along