Sebastian Kirsch: Blog

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I went to the cinema yesterday evening, to the sneak preview, and they were showing Following. It’s a film noir by Memento’s Christopher Nolan. A rather unusual movie, but the clues (70 minutes, thriller, rated R) made the choice clear; it had also been shown in Bremen (according to sneak.de) a few weeks ago. A friend tipped me off (thanks, Mira!), and so I won a t-shirt, because I was one of three people who correctly guessed the title.

And what about the movie itself? It was short, it was black and white, it was in English with German subtitles – better suited to my tastes than I’d expected. The storytelling was reminiscent of 21 Grams in that it was highly non-linear: The very first scene is set at the very end of the storyline, and the movie wraps up with the continuation of the first scene. In-between, the movie follows two different timelines with heavily interleaved scenes, and in the end one realizes that the one picked up where the other ends. The viewer is left to piece together the scenes and predict the course of the story from the hints.

Overall, it is a good movie. Shorter and more minimalistic than 21 Grams, but definitely worth seeing.