Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I can’t find it using the search feature. Following is Christopher Nolan’s first film, two years before Memento, produced for only $60K and lasting 70 minutes. The initial conceit is that unemployed writer Jeremy Theobald (simply called “the young man”) likes to follow random people. He breaks his own rules and repeatedly follows a man named Cobb, who turns out to be a thief. The premise serves only to set up the rest of the movie, which is pure and enjoyable noir as Theobald gets sucked into a a series of underworld crimes and a relationship with a woman (Lucy Russell) who is credited only as “the blonde”. What makes this worth watching, beyond the simple craft, the gritty black and white photography, and the fine performance from Theobald (who seems to have never acted again except for a bit part in Batman Begins), is Nolan’s trademark shattering of time. Scenes are played out of order so that we see elements of the story in fragments; Theobald appears with a different haircut and suit, then returns to his goatee and leather jacket; we see bruises on his face, then they disappear. It is all tied together at the end in far too neat a package, but you admire it nonetheless.
I remember liking this for the reasons Chris lays out — its confidence in structure, particularly.
I’m currently teaching another small-budget B&W noir, which plays some other structural games (with race/casting), that I think deserves some love — Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s Suture. The film has an almost tediously-familiar set-up: long-lost half-brothers, one raised rich and the other a poor working schmoe, the former of whom has killed Dad and is now standing accused. So rich brother brings unknown poor brother to town, then rigs an explosion to kill “himself” — and escape. But poor bro lives, but with amnesia, and tries to recover a sense of whether he killed Dad. The twist here is that the brothers are played by a white and a black actor, and that “in” the film there is no marker of racial difference.
So pardon me going way off-track from the original post, but I so love Nolan’s early experimentation I thought I’d toss out another gem…
Christopher Nolan seems to have great confidence in structure, if nothing else.
‘Suture’ is a lovely piece of noir (as it were). The absence of a racial marker is striking, but I was surprised to find that by the middle of the film, that twist no longer seemed very important. The real strength of the film is the lengthy process of the reconstruction of the identity one of the brothers as he recovers from injuries: his own dreams; sessions with his therapist; physical markers, all contribute to a hallucinatory atmosphere. And of course, it is filmed in black and white… Oh, and who knew Mel Harris still had an acting career? Thanks for the rec.