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| Jeremy Theobald in Following |
Following, Christopher Nolan's first feature, is a clever thriller done in the hashed-up-narrative manner of his breakthrough film, Memento (2000). In that later film, however, the narrative scrambling seems to be done in service of the film's premise, the nature of memory and what might happened to someone deprived of it. If told linearly, Following is a mildly complex story about how an idle would-be writer starts following strangers on the street, only to be accosted by one of the people he's following and roped into a scheme that culminates in theft and murder. The narrative's skips back and forth in time aren't essential to telling the story, the way they are in Memento. Still, as a foreshadowing of Nolan's success as a filmmaker, Following is fascinating stuff, especially since it was made on a shoestring budget, the largest line item of which was the 16mm film stock on which it was shot. The actors are unknowns or amateurs (and sometimes show it). Some, like Jeremy Theobald, who plays the protagonist, and Lucy Russell, who has the leading female role, have gone on to careers in film and television. Both have bit parts in Nolan's Batman Begins (2005). Others, like Alex Haw, who plays Cobb, the man who lures the protagonist into his plot, gave up acting entirely; he earned a degree in architecture and now works for a New York architectural firm.
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