Are you watching closely?

I’m a sucker for movies that twist, contort and eventually unwind, only to tangle up again before finally unravelling seconds before the credits; movies that push my mind to the brink of its capabilities and confuse me to no end; movies that I have to watch a second time to completely grasp.

Christopher Nolan is the one director who has perfected the art of making such movies; an art that is appreciated by so many yet practiced by so few. Nolan can tell a story like no other: he can run the reel forward and backward for alternate segments of five minutes each (Memento), flawlessly blend the past with the present in such a way that it seems utterly chaotic, yet makes perfect sense when one reads between the lines (The Prestige), and even immortalize a villain (The Dark Knight).

Nolan apart, how many directors do you really know who can make such movies? Night Shyamalan made the odd one (The Sixth Sense) and Neil Burger (The Illusionist) might just fit the bill if you were a tad desperate. But if you really do think about it, Nolan does stand apart in an intellectual class of his own in the (often mindless) Californian scenery.

Making popular films is an easy task – any plain Joe with an eye for glitz and a penchant for greenbacks can don a directorial cap, sit back on an easy chair, get together a superstar ensemble, and market a movie like crazy. Making intelligent films, however, is a task best left to the wizards of the industry, wizards who operate on frugality in comparison with the Joes.

Mindlessness entertains, mindlessness pays, mindlessness markets. But at the end of the day, it’s brilliance that embeds itself permanently within the eyes of the viewer. Are you watching closely?

~ by leelasn on December 6, 2008.