criterionforum.org

Chris Nolan's Inception has been shrouded in some secrecy ever since Variety first announced the project, which Warner will only say is "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind."

Leonardo DiCaprio stars, and is joined by Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, and Tom Hardy. Joseph-Gordon Levitt recently replaced James Franco, and Michael Caine has a bit part. The film reportedly has a $200 million budget, and will shoot in six countries. Filming began this month, and the film is slated for release on July 16, 2010.

The studio should have read one of those "What your individual body parts are worth" things first, because paying $200 million for the architecture of someone's mind is highway robbery

The description makes me think this will be very Solaris like.

If Chris Nolan has an insanely expensive uncommercial dream project he wants to do, now is certainly the time to do it. Coming off Dark Knight and not having officially signed on for the next Batman, the Nolan Bros. have the Warner Bros. over a barrel. Still, I'm going to have to go all Alan Moore on this and say spending this much money on a movie (again) is sorta unconscionable.

I recently saw Chris's low-budget debut, Following, and I really liked it. It has all the trademarks of his later films (philosophizing criminals, psychological themes, scrambled chronology, a heavily noir-tone, narrative twists and turns), but far more compressed, less ponderous, and enjoyable. In (the architecture of) my mind, it's his best film so far.

Word is that the first teaser will unspool in front of Inglourious Basterds.

knives wrote:The description makes me think this will be very Solaris like.

That sparse description made me think of William Gibson, though if it is anything like that hopefully it will turn out better than Johnny Mnemonic. [-X

The first trailer has arrived. Fuck Avatar, this is the film I can't wait for.

Also, it looks like Hans Zimmer is doing some more of his atonal stuff this time around as well.

Wow. I'm sold.

Looks quite interesting. Haven't really been impressed by any of his other work but hopefully this'll be a turnaround.

Antoine Doinel wrote:The first trailer has arrived. Fuck Avatar, this is the film I can't wait for.

Also, it looks like Hans Zimmer is doing some more of his atonal stuff this time around as well.

Goddamn. Nolan's doing really interesting stuff between his Batman films. I thought The Prestige his best film, by a good margin, and that Inception trailer has me excited. It's as tho' his Batman films were warm-ups for the really good stuff.

Couldn't agree more Sausage, sadly my computer can't play the video, but I have no doubt Inception will at least be Nolan's most unique.

Mr_sausage wrote:The Prestige his best film, by a good margin

Bingo! Can't wait.

Great teaser.
I'm not a big Chris Nolan fan, but this really sells the atmosphere, which is a nice change for a blockbuster trailer.

WB really know how to sell their product. The trailers they put-out are always phenomenal, and early. This film hasn't even finished shooting yet and they're already selling it really well.
The only negative is that the score gave me a Transformers trailer flashback.

Poor, poor Mister Nolan has yet to live up to his initial and even better sophomore success of "Memento". I remember shuddering at his remake of that nice little Scandinavian film that floats about in the earlier numbers of the Criterion Collection into a bloated and messy thing with Al Pacino. I became more worried when he became a franchise director and then appalled at his the success with the too overhyped and overlong second Batman movie. Does anyone really get any pleasure watching "The Dark Knight" over, except for the infrequent moments when the Batman and Joker banter back and forth with real dialogue instead of all of that smashup going on all around the movie?

This director is another good case where giving him money only cheapens his output. Please put him on a very small allowance and I am sure we will see talent return that was present in his first two outings.

so lightly here wrote: Does anyone really get any pleasure watching "The Dark Knight" over

Oh, only a few million people

domino harvey wrote:

so lightly here wrote: Does anyone really get any pleasure watching "The Dark Knight" over

Oh, only a few million people

Well, yes of course. But doesn't the ever constant dumbing of the "American Public" worry you? I know I am in a state of constant sorrow at the loss of any kind of diversity that this once proud nation had in fits and starts throughout its meager and usually culturally starved history. That's why I only wish what is best for Mister Nolan - less cash, better output. I guess in heart I am really an optimist or else I wouldn't even worry about these things. Flat out pessimism and constant irony leave me high and dry.

There are far dumber movies that the public could rewatch than The Dark Knight.

kaujot wrote:There are far dumber movies that the public could rewatch than The Dark Knight.

Ditto. Plus I would think that The Prestige absolves him of at least Insomnia if not a few other films.

I have had to rethink my short comment on Christopher Nolan's body of work and perhaps better explain my regret for the avenues he has chosen for himself in his relatively short but lucrative film directing career. I had never heard of him or seen his first effort when finding myself intrigued by a short description for "Memento" in the notes to our mid sized city's annual film studies center's international festival. I have always had a flirtation with noir in even its neo and most sunny and colorful incantations. I went to the screening without overly high expectations due, as I have said, to my complete lack of knowledge about the man. I thought that movie leapt from the screen with a certain panache that I found quite exhilarating. The next time I read about him, an article said he was charging directly into the big-time with a remake and Al Pacino. This news hit me with a certain sense of disappointment and the once the arrived movie ended I found the disappointment not undeserved, as the film sat there quite leaden on that big screen.

I, too, went with the masses (who I sadly think have no sense of history now that isn't over 24 hours old) to see the both "Batman" films. The second had moments of kinetic energy in it that resembled those I felt in most all of "Memento", but those moments were far to few, and only between Heath Ledger and Christian Bale. When I clicked on the link on this page to the view the preview of Nolan's newest work I only saw CGI, the most overused and mishandled tool of almost every mid to large size movie made these days. This digital overkill seems to drain every spot of spontaneity or real thrill out of most every film it touches even when used by the most careful director. So let us just say I was disappointed. I was, however, happy to note the name of Leonard DiCaprio who has frequently and usually against my will, surprised me. I do hold out a little hope for this endeavor because of him and will most probably go and see it.

I guess I grow too nostalgic theses days when many years ago the same movie theater in my city played both Vincente Minnelli's Liz & Dick disaster "The Sandpiper" and Antonioni's "Blow Up" to very similar crowds. I, too, remember hearing on our, at that time lone pop radio station, Lieber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is?" sung with Miss Lee's usual minimally seductive and now mournful voice followed in quick succession by the Kinks' masterful Ray Davies' ode to the then already adrift British Empire, "Waterloo Sunset". Those kinds of juxtapositions just don't happen in America's ever broadening but very thin middle range with any degree of pleasurable frequency today.

When I see someone like Nolan making choices that to me only say only "more, more, more money" I stop and think about the directors, artists, singers that whose oeuvres I respect and I can usually see that their primary choices were not so much the dollar as the art. Call me a hopeless romantic and I will gladly plead guilty as charged.

You're a hopeless romantic.

However, I wouldn't say that Inception screams money, money, money.

kaujot wrote:You're a hopeless romantic.

However, I wouldn't say that Inception screams money, money, money.

I just re-watched the preview with its personalized WB logo and coming this far in advance, it most surely is screaming $$$$$!

That's a great teaser. It's surreal to watch, though: that scene in the hallway with the constantly shifting source of gravity is straight out of a movie I was thinking about 5 or 6 years ago that also could have been said to take place largely "in the architecture of the mind". The score even reminds me of a piece of music I always imagined going along with it (the last movement of Michael Nyman's trombone concerto, which features a row of percussionists banging on filing cabinets). And since I can recall little else about the idea, the effect is sort of like having deja vu based on a barely-remembered dream. All of which is to say, I'm eagerly looking forward to this.

From the little I know about Nolan's ambitions, he has no interest whatsoever in going back to films on the scale of Memento. He's very much about making massive films in the studio system. And I'm all for it. While I agree The Dark Knight was a bit of a bore on repeated viewings, he's still one of the only reliable filmmakers working with big budgets and stars who consistently provides somewhat thoughtful entertainment. Memento was completely overrated anyway, for what was basically a nice little gimmick film. The Prestige was far better.

rs98762001 wrote:From the little I know about Nolan's ambitions, he has no interest whatsoever in going back to films on the scale of Memento ...

It is indeed it disheartening to hear of Nolan's "ambitions". That does, however, make his choices now easier to understand. So then I guess he will remain a lesser David Fincher who despite having the distinct disadvantage of those pesky Madonna video's like "Vogue" in his youth (instead, of say, the more interesting and decadent "Justify My Love" which at least had Tony Ward helping out the proud material girl) has managed at least managed a few entertaining large and CG-Ied affairs like "Fight Club" and "Zodiac".

I still wish Nolan would entertain the thought of taking a little walk down memory lane as Gus VanSant has frequently done to recharge his dusty old batteries. I will hold out hope that there is some semblance of character development and extended dialogue in "Inception" that these kinds of movies (well, I guess, most all of what Hollywood produces) that are surprisingly so hardily defended despite their blindingly overriding flaws. I guess there is little fanboy in me. Though if there was, I would love to see the as yet third un-helmed Batman be directed by VanSant as a small domestic melodrama titled "The Private Lives of the Batman and his Boy Wonder".

edit: As I ponder this fantastic scheme of teaming of VanSant with the DC/WB machine I now realize that some amount of CGI will be demanded. I propose getting VanSant's sometime camaraman Mr. Doyle together with Doyle's old friends Tony Leung and the late Leslie Cheung whose face and expressions could be inserted with more subtle ease than those blue creatures in the "Avatar" preview and continue a shaky bat-cave romance not unlike the one they had in "Happy Together". Now that I would happily go to and pay my twelve smackaroos.

kaujot wrote:However, I wouldn't say that Inception screams money, money, money.

Uh, with that cast, a $200 million budget, around the world locations and people running up walls, if it isn't showing the money shots yet, don't worry, it will.