Following **** (1998, Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw, Lucy Russell) – Classic Movie Review 802

Christopher Nolan’s 1998 neo-noir crime thriller film Following is his promising feature film debut. It is now acclaimed as one of the most notable no-budget films, showing Nolan’s flair, but it is an excellent little noirish thriller in its own right. 

Writer-director Christopher Nolan’s 1998 no-budget independent neo-noir crime thriller film Following is his promising feature film debut. There is much evidence of extraordinary talent here and promise of greater things to come. But it is still an excellent little noirish thriller in its own right. This virtually one-man-band tour-de-force is written, co-produced, co-edited and directed by Nolan. He paid for the 16 mm black and white film stock from his own day-job salary, used the homes of his friends and family as locations, and couldn’t afford professional lighting equipment so he uses available light.

A young man named Bill (Jeremy Theobald) likes to go following people he sees in the street around London, using the ideas he uncovers as ideas for the books he writes. One day, he gets challenged by one of his subjects: a burglar thief called Cobb (Alex Haw) who inveigles him in to his crooked world, showing him how to break and enter.

Bill is excited by Cobb’s way of life and attempts his own break-ins, while Cobb encourages him to alter his appearance, cut his hair and wear a dark suit, taking on the name of Daniel Lloyd from a credit card Cobb gives him.

After the duo burgle a a blonde woman’s flat, full of photographs of her, Bill gets intrigued with her. So he follows The Blonde (Lucy Russell) and chats her up at a bar owned by her nasty ex-boyfriend, a small-time gangster known as The Bald Guy (Dick Bradsell), who killed someone in her living room with a hammer. Then break-ins lead to set-ups, as Bill volunteers to do the woman a favour involving a break-in.

Nolan’s teasingly clever crime story is all compellingly told in grainy black and white and in a taut 70 minutes.

Following is dark, sinister and gripping, and, though obviously made on a low budget, its sleek monochrome cinematography makes it look dangerously inviting. David Julyan does the score and Tristan Martin is the production designer, but otherwise it is pretty much a Nolan one-man show. Jeremy Theobald and Emma Thomas are co-producers, and Gareth Heal is co-editor.

Nolan uses a non-linear plot, as in Memento, The Prestige and Batman Begins, to reflect film noir. He recalled: ‘In a compelling story of this genre we are continually being asked to rethink our assessment of the relationship between the various characters, and I decided to structure my story to emphasise the audience’s incomplete understanding of each new scene as it is first presented.’

It was filmed in London on black-and-white 16mm film stock, the production’s greatest expense, and using mostly natural light.

Release dates: 24 April 1998 (San Francisco) and 5 November 1999 (UK). It won the Best First Feature prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival,

The restored film with a new 5.1 sound mix was released by The Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD in North America on 11 December 2012. Included are Nolan’s commentary and interview, a chronological edit of the film, a comparison of three scenes and the shooting script, Nolan’s 1997 short film Doodlebug, and the original and re-release trailers.

Nolan went on to Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Following cost around $6,000 as opposed to Inception’s $160 million. It was fortunate to gain proper cinema distribution, Zeitgeist in the US, Momentum in the UK. Nevertheless, its US box office take was only $43,ooo.

Theobald plays the younger Gotham Water Board technician in Batman Begins.

Nolan’s story came to him after he had his home broken into and wondered what the burglars thought as they went around looking at his belongings. Photography of this film took over a year between 1996 and 1997. Cast and crew had full-time jobs so were only able to film on Saturdays.

Cobb tries to break into a flat using a credit card, the same method as used in Memento and Insomnia. The clock Cobb steals is the same one as in Memento. Cobb has the same surname as Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Inception.

The cast are Jeremy Theobald as The Young Man (Bill / Daniel ‘Danny’ Lloyd), Alex Haw as Cobb, Lucy Russell as The Blonde, John Nolan as The Policeman, Dick Bradsell as The Bald Guy, Gillian El-Kadi as Home Owner, Jennifer Angel as Waitress, Nicolas Carlotti as Barman, Darren Ormandy as Accountant, Guy Greenway as Heavy #1, Tassos Stevens as Heavy #2, Tristan Martin as Man at Bar, Rebecca James as Woman at Bar, Paul Mason as Home Owner’s Friend, and David Bovill as Home Owner’s Husband.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 802

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