Following

Following (1999) is about a man who follows people in the street, and it is Christopher Nolan's first film. Bill is an out of work writer. Looking for material, he starts following strangers. He sets a rule: never follow the same person twice. He breaks it, and the man he follows notices. The man is called Cobb and his profession is entering houses. His purpose is not theft; it is going through people's things in order to know them and to disturb their order. He teaches Bill. The film is told out of order. Three separate periods interlock and you know which one you are in from how the character looks: his hair, the bruises on his face, his clothes. Nolan kept that structure in his later films. The budget was around six thousand dollars. He shot at weekends and it took a year; the cast and crew were his friends and everyone had ordinary jobs. It was shot on 16mm and, because stock was so expensive, almost no second takes were possible. Every scene was rehearsed repeatedly before the camera ran, which is why the shooting ratio is extraordinarily low. The locations were friends' flats and Nolan used his own. It is in black and white. It is very short and never slackens. Nolan also photographed, edited and wrote it. It runs 69 minutes. Good for: independent cinema, the start of Nolan, and structure. Less good for: the technical quality is low and the characters are thin.