Christopher Nolanis known as a blockbuster director. His movies tend to be brilliant, yet long and expensive. LikeOppenheimer, his next project,The Odyssey, is expected to have a running time of three hours or more. It also has an estimated budget of $250 million. Studios trust the filmmaker with the big bucks, and he always delivers. Most importantly, all his movies have made a profit, exceptTenet, which was released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given how long Nolan has been a part of the studio system, it’s hard to believe that he has ever made cheaper or shorter movies. Well, he has.MementoandThe Prestigewere all made for under $50 million. However, his shortest and cheapest work is the 1998 debut feature,Following,which has a 70-minute running time and was made for a mere $6,000. How did the celebrated filmmaker even pull it off? It’s a miracle, but if anyone can be counted on to pull rabbits out of hats, it is Christopher Nolan.
‘Following’ Is a Low-Budget Version of Hitchcock’s Classics
While watchingFollowing, it quickly becomes evident that Christopher Nolan was heavily inspired by some ofHitchcock’s greatest hits. The black-and-white neo-noir style? The ordinary man unexpectedly getting caught in trouble? The endless twists? It’s all linked to the Master of Suspense’s style. Events are also based in London, where the Golden Age legend set some of his films.
Events play out in a non-linear fashion, stitching together three timelines to tell a tale of desperation, obsession, and deception. The protagonist, introduced to us as The Young Man, aka Bill (Jeremy Theobald), isan unemployed writer seeking to find inspiration for his first novel. To do that, hefollows strangers through London and observes their lives. Whether Nolan intends this as some form of professional satire or as an odd riff on the madness of the writing industry, it feels bristly and dense, and you find it hard not to feel some type of way if your career requires grabbing a pen.
To avoid getting in trouble, Bill sticks to a few rules. Henever follows the same person twice, and never personally interacts with them. Everything seems normal, but if future Nolan endeavors are anything to go by, we can tell this won’t be an ordinary rise-to-success story. We are heading for the exact opposite destination — something heartbreaking, apathetic, and grim.
Unsurprisingly,Bill’s problems begin when he breaks his rules. One day, he follows a well-dressed man named Cobb (Alex Haw) multiple times, resulting in him being noticed. Cobb confronts him, tells him it’s okay (big lie), and confesses that he is a burglar. Even more interesting is that the criminalisn’t concerned with material gainsfrom his crimes. Hisgoal is simply to drink their wine and make them realize the things they had but never appreciated. This intrigues Bill, so when Cobb invites the author to accompany him to his burglaries, he quickly accepts.
Soon, the blundering, well-meaning Bill becomes indoctrinated into Cobb’s ways. Hestarts committing burglaries on his own, under the psycho’s guidance, changes his appearance, and assumes the name Daniel Lloyd. Bill also becomesThomas Crown-like. He begins enjoying the finer things in life and gets into a relationship with a woman named The Blonde (Lucy Russel), whose flat he burgled. The writer eventually learns that his new catch was a gangster’s moll and that she broke up with her previous boyfriend after he murdered a man in her apartment.
When The Blonde confesses that her ex is blackmailing her with incriminating photos, Bill chooses to go after him to defend her honor. That’s where things go terribly wrong for him. In a major twist, we learn that The Blonde isn’t really who she says she is. Will Bill really get out of this mess and go back to writing, or will he end up in jail?
Nolan Funded ‘Following’ From His Salary
You probably would have put it past Christopher Nolan to make a 70-minute film about thieves, but inFollowing, circumstances forced him to throw caution to the wind. Many first-time filmmakers are always lucky enough to find someone willing to fund them, but not theOppenheimerdirector. When he chose to make the movie, hewas working as a corporate video director. He thustook $6,000 of his salaryand budgeted it for production. Additionally, Nolan had no choice but to film on weekends because his day jobcalled for his full attention on weekdays. Most of the crew members also had weekday jobs. Because of this, filming took over a year.
Nolan designed the neo-noir crime thriller to be as cheap as possible so that he wouldn’t have to look for more money.Actors were required to heavily rehearse the scene so that only one or two takes would be needed. This was doneto economize on 16mm film stock, which was his greatest expense during production. The Nolan of today would have been increasingly eager to stretch and wrench this kind of narrative for the sole purpose of accommodating the objects of his desire — roads, vehicles, and buildings — but he just couldn’t do that here.
At times, you get the feeling that the film yearns to be much more than a neo-noir thriller — it wants to diagnose the ailments of its characters (at least show us their backgrounds) and convey the nobility of their anguish. But there was no money to make that happen. The irony is that, as a neo-noir thriller, it works just fine. Elongating it would have ruined it. The conversations and the twists are all adrenaline dreams.
According to the filmmaker’s personal website, hecouldn’t afford standard professional lighting equipment, either, so he relied on available light. This was easier to do because of the movie’s reliance on 16 mm black and white film. Because of monochrome, Nolan didn’t have the pressure to match the light color. On top of that, hedid the writing, photography and editing himself.
Regarding the settings, theDunkirkdirector admits that he had to rely on begging, borrowing, and even hurriedly shooting on locations that were forbidden. He thanks his parents for lending their house, noting that not only was it great, but it also meant free catering from mama.
In a spooky development, the house ended up getting burgled. He recalled:
“ The only hitch came when the house was burgled and ironically enough, some of the items which are stolen in one of our fictional burglaries, were stolen in real life. Thankfully we had most of what we needed although some of the inserts I had planned were now impossible to shoot.”
Nolan also credits lead actor Jeremy Theobald for his large contributions to the movie’s success. He notes thatbecause Theobald had stage experience, he helped find extra cast members. Having known Nolan for a long time, the actor had appeared inLarceny, a short the director made while in the UCLU Film Society, andDoodlebug, another short by Nolan. Theobald never seriously pursued an acting career afterFollowing, but he has made cameos in some of Nolan’s popular films, including as a Gotham water board technician inBatman Beginsand a steward inTenet.
The Timeless Plots and Themes of ‘Following’ Shield It From Expiry
Followingwasn’t widely watched when it came out (it only made $126,000), but it washeavily appreciated by critics, industry insiders, and award show organizers. It won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the “Best First Feature” prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and was nominated for the Black and White award and Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance Film Festival. “We’re going to hear from this guy, big time,”director Joel Schumacher predicted at the time. And he was right.
The movie’s only flaw is that it’s perhaps too short, but it’s very watchable today. This is because its themes of identity and morality fit into any era. Whether it’s the 18th century or the 23rd century, there’ll always be people like Bill who are fighting to make it in life… people who are easy targets for manipulation.
The lack of a decent budget was also somewhat of a blessing for Nolan. Because he didn’t have money, the director channeled all his energy into storytelling instead of special effects. This is a good thing in a world where film technology changes very quickly. No one will ever look atFollowingin 2040 and say its CGI looks bad compared to what will be present at the time. Regrettably, many other great movies will be subjected to such a judgment.
Despite its minimalism,Followingremains an important film in Christopher Nolan’s catalog because itforeshadows a few crucial techniques that he has come to rely on. In the movie, he deliberately scrambles the timeline so that audiences can have a harder time piecing together the tale. Thenon-linear stylecan also be seen inBatman Begins, Memento, Dunkirk, The Prestige, Tenet,andOppenheimer,where Nolan equally loses us in a forest of hints and ambiguities.
The reliance on manipulation and twists to push the narrative forward is also a technique used in many of the filmmaker’s works, includingInception, The Prestige,andTenet. The more the protagonists keep getting pulled into dangerous worlds, the more interesting the story becomes. The city also tends to feel like a character in many of Nolan’s films. Bill lives and breathes London, the same way Batman lives and breathes Gotham City. Make time forFollowingwhen you can.
