The Rough Cut
Written by Kevin Terpstra
Retro Review of Following
Year of release: 1998
Christopher Nolan is the hottest rising director today and that’s an inarguable fact. He’s the man behind the genre-tweaking thriller Memento (2000); the man at the helm of the subtly intense Insomnia (2002); the man who rebooted the Batman (2005 & 2008) series with an incredibly dark take; the man who adapted The Prestige (2006) and made it his own; and the man who gave us Inception (2010), which was a game-changer in its own right.
With his sudden burst in popularity I thought it appropriate to return to his humble beginnings and provide some insight into Mr. Nolan’s first feature film: an independent little ditty called Following.
Released in 1998 and sitting at a 70-minute run time, Following is a thriller that mixes some old with some new to create a hybrid style that is evident in all preceding Christopher Nolan films.
The film centers on a character named “The Young Man” who likes to follow people for material for the things he writes. He doesn’t do anything but follow them from where they begin to their destination. One day, he follows a well-dressed gentleman into a café and sits down at a table adjacent his marks.
The fellow is apparently well aware of his surroundings and confronts The Young Man about why he is following him. After a conversation about following people the man, whose name is Cobb, joins with The Young Man and teaches him the ways of breaking and entering. When they rob the place of a woman, called “The Blonde,” more trouble ensues.
Making use of non-linear story progression and jilted editing techniques, Nolan manages to keep the curtain closed on just what is actually happening. The finished product is something of a dividing line. What I mean by that is the point at which thrillers had reached the end of one period and entered another.
Now, of course I’m aware that this one film isn’t the actual dividing line, but it’s clear that the paradigm shift began right around this time.
In addition to tweaking the style and structure of the modern thriller, Nolan also took from various film movements to craft this piece. There is evidence of the French New Wave (editing), as well as Italian neorealism (content), and even some German Expressionism (camera angles and lighting).
Following is not a perfect film. There is some clumsiness to its structure, but that’s not really something to gripe about. A majority of the greats that came before him had rough starts. I refer you to Martin Scorsese’s Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967) and Quentin Tarantino’s My Best Friend’s Birthday (1987) (Yes, I’m counting that as his first film).
Based on a five star scale I am awarding Following four out of five stars.
Following – 4/5 stars
Official Rough Cut Retro Review
