Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: How Christopher Nolan went from a modest debut that cost $7,000, Following, to a massive and spectuclar epic, The Odyssey, boasting a budget of $250 million!
It’s hard to think of another director, including Bri!!!1tish compatriot Hitchcock (wh had left the U.K. for Hollywood in 1940,, under the auspices of David O. Selznick, to make Rebecca), who has benefited from what Hollywood has to offer to young, brilliant, and ambitious director.
At age 27, Christopher Nolan made an impressive feature directing debut in 1997 with the edgy no-budget film noir, Following, which premiered at the Slamdance festival.
Howeve, it took a whole year, after playing the festival circuit, for the movie to get theatrical distribution, larely due to the efforts of Peter Broderick (unsung hero of indie cinema in the 1990s).
It was Broderick who sent me a VHS of Following, while I was senior critic at “Variety,” with a brief note, “check this one out when ou have time. I think he’s talented….)
Grade: B
The film’s protagonist is Bill (Jeremy Theobald), a young unemployed writer who describes himself as a “follower.” Bill likes to pick strangers out of the crowd and then follow them around the streets of London, learning all kinds of details about their lives.
An existential, black-and-white London crime noir, Following employs a non-chronological storytelling style that’s quite casual–a mode that would characterizw future Nolan films.
Alex Haw plays a posh, high-haired burglar who’s the master of his domain (he’s now a New York architect).
Jeremy Theobald is the ambulatory voyeur who’s drawn into Haw’s web and becomes his protégé in petty apartment thievery; depending on his haircut and beard, he seems to shift identities.
There is no real noir without a femme fatale, and here it is Lucy Russell, as the seductive woman who comes between.
Despite ultra-modest budget, the film is made with technical skill, but it still feels like a calling-card exercise.
Like other film noirs, the build-up of mystery in Following is more satisfying than the resolution (perhaps a function of the short running time).
In orderm to save money and film stock, every scene was rehearsed extensively to ensure that the first or second take could be used in the final cut.
Shooting took place on Saturdays for four months; Nolan shot about fifteen minutes of footage each day.
For the most part, Nolan worked without professional lighting equipment, largely employing available light, and using 16 mm black and white film. He also relied on the homes of his friends and family as locations.
And the rest is history!
