FOLLOWING

UK, 1999, 69 minutes, Black and white.
Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw, Lucy Russell.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.

Following is the first feature-length film by film student, Christopher Nolan. It was made on a very small budget, over a number of weekends when the cast and crew were available. What was produced is quite a striking first feature. It is in black and white, very effectively photographed. It also does not run in linear fashion (although the DVD does have a linear version). The film is something of a narrative jigsaw, moving backwards and forwards in time, making the audience think, reflect on the characters, puzzle over their behaviour and motivation.

The film focuses on a young man who is obsessed with following people. He makes his own rules, not to follow people more than once. However, interested in a young man, he breaks his rule and follows him. However, he does not realise that he has been spotted, that the young man and his girlfriend decide to use the young man for their own purposes. He is in above his head and suffers the consequences. The film is framed by his narrating what had happened to him to the police.

Christopher Nolan then made great impact with his feature film, Memento, with Guy Pearce. It was a film whose narrative ran from end to beginning. He followed this up with Insomnia, with Al Pacino, Hilary Swank and Robin Williams. Then he made the excellent Batman Begins and followed it up with The Dark Knight.

1.The impact of the film? A debut film? Characters, interactions? The jigsaw puzzle structure? Black and white photography, London locations, style?

2.The work of Christopher Nolan and his career? His style and themes seen in this initial feature?

3.The title, the young man and his voice-over, his following Cobb, the girl? Each of them? The visual presentation of his tracking and stalking?

4.The framework of his telling the police, his being trapped at the end? Evidence and lack of evidence? His future?

5.The effect of seeing the different pieces, the different times, the different time logic, the audience having to put them together? The effect of this kind of misplacement of time and place?

6.The young man and his voice-over, his narrative, his reasons for following, seeing himself as a writer, curious about people, his rules about following people and breaking them? Interested in Cobb, his being accosted by Cobb? The effect? The irony of Cobb following him and using him?

7.Cobb, his flair, confronting the young man, talking, explanations, the challenge? Visiting the house, prying into the goods, his philosophy of invasion of privacy, burglary? The girl, her return, her guilt? Rushing to the roof, the explanation to the young man?

8.The girlfriend, in the bar, her friend owning the bar, the young man talking with her, the beginning of the relationship, the effect, seeing her as his girlfriend? The issue of the earring? The initial box in the young man's flat? Cobb, the set-up, the motivations?

9.Cobb and his using the young man, his own robbery, hitting the old woman, under suspicion? Daring the young man to follow through? Cobb with the girl and her being part of the plan?

10.The young man, entering, investigating the flat, taking things, the box, the souvenirs as evidence later?

11.His attacking the man with the hammer, the possible murder, going to the police? The irony that the man did not die?

12.The girl, the revelation of the truth, relationship with Cobb, with the young man, the confrontation?

13.The young man confessing, believed or not? His future?

14.The film as a cinema exercise, but also narrative, character, issues of identity, crime, relationships, sexuality and manipulation?