The “shocking and fascinating” movie that stunned Christopher Nolan: “Extraordinary”
It takes a lot for an auteur like Christopher Nolan to be stunned in the industry.
His near-operatic approach to films is half the reason why many of his biggest works still resonate years after the fact, and even if they aren’t for everybody, it’s hard to deny the lengths he’s willing to go for every shot he gets. But even Nolan knew that he was only coming from the same school of directors that had come before him.
Because if you think about it, Nolan is as much of a maverick as some of the industry giants that came before him. He might not be as clinical as Kubrick or as sentimental as Spielberg can be at times, but it’s clear that he’s been able to take bits and pieces from every performance he has ever seen and channel it into whatever he’s working on, whether it’s a small reference that only a few film buffs will get or a casual wink to the audience.
Which probably explains why his takes on Batman had a lot more weight to them. ‘The Caped Crusader’ had been kept in a virtual movie prison where every one of them felt completely campy, but the version that Christian Bale pulled off with Nolan could only come from watching the greatest crime thrillers ever put to screen. But whereas those were more linear, Nolan could appreciate when a filmmaker could switch things up.
As anyone who’s seen Pulp Fiction would know, not every single movie has to be put in order to be a classic. It’s sometimes more entertaining to help pick up on storylines that collapse in on each other, but even for the era of experimental films in the 1970s, there aren’t many reference points that could prepare the casual moviegoer for what happens in Performance.
Granted, any film that was bringing in Mick Jagger as one of the leading cast members was always going to be a bit more unorthodox. Everything about The Rolling Stones reeked of hedonism circa 1970, but even by the standards of most gangster movies around that time, Nolan was knocked out by the ambition that Nicolas Roeg had putting the entire film together.
There was nothing else out at the time like it, and Nolan knew that he wanted to take the same kind of chances he was seeing onscreen, saying, “I thought it was really extraordinary. Performance was just so shocking and fascinating. It had such an edgy structure and rhythm. I saw it as a kid at school and we were all massively energized by the beginning, with the gangster. I feel that I stand on the shoulders of those experimental filmmakers because they bring new things into the language—they show you the possibilities.”
And it’s not like Nolan ever forgot that sense of possibility when working with the camera. From shooting exclusively with IMAX cameras for some of his greatest films to the non-linear approach to storytelling that he puts in works like Inception, every single piece of his career is about twisting everyone’s expectations slightly so that they’re never quite sure what to be in for next.
In fact, the more you look at how Nolan approaches his films following movies like Performance, the storyline of something like The Prestige might be a bit more autobiographical than most people realise. No matter how you want to look at it, each movie is an opportunity to create magic, and Nolan has done a brilliant job maintaining the illusion in everything he’s ever worked on.
