Christopher Nolan on 'Following' - Conversations Inside The Criterion Collection

Always interested in crime and justice, Christopher Nolan’s first film (a whole seven years before he made Batman Begins) is a curious black and white head-scratcher about a writer who, obsessed with following people, subsequently gets caught up in a life of crime.

In this interview, Nolan explains his key to success and ends up revealing many of the DIY filmmaking techniques he used to make Following.

[ItsWilheim]

I dunno about anyone else here, but this is one of the most inspiring films to an aspiring filmmaker/filmmaker starting out.

[bodge]

I feel like he would be a brilliant therapist, just listening to his calm voice explain his directing really mellowed me out

[ImNotThere]

Mr. Nolan changed how I view film. My all time favorite director.

[gothamknight]

17:31 Nolan talks about Sound and how important it is

23:31 I need to learn this. I gotta stop thinking about imaginary future projects when i haven't even thought about how I'm realistically going to make my first feature film.

[garruksson]

My personal favorite director! The prestige is my favorite movie of all time

[ZthaIncredible]

Nolan is not the greatest director of all time, but his film record is speaks for itself. The man has never made a bad film, in fact I would argue that all his films are worth seeing given how short life is.

[moviemanwill]

Following is, no joke, one of his best films.

[LaneCarter]

Fantastic! It's great to hear such a widely renowned director talking about how he covers things up with editing. Such an honest interview. He doesn't seem pretentious at all.

[auggiecontreras]

I'm 45. I was once fascinated enough by a guitar, that I practiced playing it for 2 or 3 months. Once I tried to learn Spanish, that lasted 2 or 3 months. Dido for painting and gardening.

It absolutely blows my mind how people can get obsessed with something like film making (or art, or music, or programming) and it literally lasts their entire lives. Very fascinating breakdown of Christopher Nolan ❤

[kickdogseal]

Following is THE movie that aspiring filmmakers should watch on repeat.

[alphacause]

Its always a treat to hear an individual, who is so highly regarded for the art he produces, to speak about the details of his craft. Thank you for this. 

[orr]

Such an amazing person. You can see how he understand and knows everything about every aspect of what he does. So brilliant and pleasant and polite and humble.

Chris Nolan is the best director in the world. Climbed his way from a low budget film to enormous films.

[HenOutOfHen]

i feel smarter just listening to him talk

[infamousroy]

He is basically Albert Einstein of film making.

He didn't learnt film making, filmatography embraced him be a medium to broadcast it's eloquent beauty.

[MelanieAnneAhern]

Such a brilliant, humble man. He doesn't look down on budget filmmakers, but truly just appreciates a story well told. That's what it's all about.
I bet if you gave a lot of people twice the budget of what he spent on this film, they wouldn't come out with a product half as good.

[asdwaetd]

no other directors can do sequels lije christopher nolan, nolan did batman begins, and then did a masterful piece The Prestige, then he went back and did the dark knight, then he did inception, then went back and did TDK rises. no other director can do that, i mean even james cameron is shooting avatar back to back, nolan created one of the best trilogy and in between also produced two masterpieces of cenima the prestige and inception, he is the most versatile director right now

[chiztrix]

Amazing director. All his movies have been great so far and I'm sure Interstellar won't disappoint.

[arnoldrivas]

I've found a copy of this film and watched it. Very well done. And was also surprised this was his first feature film before Memento which I also loved. Add to the fact Nolan never went to film school? Wow. Perhaps after Interstellar which I have yet to see he might go back to the small film format just to get a breather from the big blockbusters before making another one. But who knows. Nolan clearly knows what films he wants to film and what stories to tell. More power to him.

[BlondeManNoName]

A cunning man, got to give him credit for that. Not really a director, more like... a *magician*.

_"The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"._

[Everyday_prophetic]

I love interviews like this where they edit out the interviewers questions and allow the interviewee to really expand. Allows you to hear their authentic views in a relaxed way rather than being driven by an interviewers scripted narrative.