In Contention

Tag: The Prestige

  • SANTA BARBARA: Nolan crowned as Modern Master

    “He no longer challenges our ideas about film,” actor Leonardo DiCaprio said of Christopher Nolan tonight, before presenting him with the Modern Master Award.  “He has helped define them.”

    It was a great bow on a fine evening meant to celebrate the director’s work over the last decade.  The Modern Master designation is Santa Barbara’s highest honor and, despite an unexpected Oscar snub for Best Director from the Academy last Tuesday afternoon, this is certainly the year to single him out in such a light.

    Pete Hammond served as moderator for the evening as he queried Nolan on his brief if dense career to date.  It was shrewd to note that “Following” in 1998, a $6,000 movie that grossed $40,000 and “Inception” in 2010, a $160 million movie that grossed $800 million worldwide, only have 11 years separating them.  The director’s latest “has been successful on its own terms, not on Hollywood’s,” Hammond said by way of introduction.  It’s a good way to put it.

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 performances in Christopher Nolan films

    The word of the day Friday will most certainly be “Inception,” as casually interested movie-goers and anxious fanboys alike line up to take in Christopher Nolan’s latest effort.

    Now, I have suggested in this space that the film’s ensemble is an organic one, alive and driven.  And that the performances are separately less than their sum impact. It nevertheless seemed a good time to look back over Nolan’s septet of offerings thus far and cherry pick the best portrayals for a return to this semi-regular feature at In Contention.

    Nolan always puts together a great cast. His carefully selected leads tend to ably balance themes of identity, control and psychosis, while highlighted supporting parts always prove to be charming outside-the-box considerations.

    With the latter in mind, I’d have loved to make room for the Steven Tobolowskys, Rutger Hauers, David Bowies, Ritchie Costers and Tom Berengers, but I naturally kept settling on the larger roles when push came to shove.

    So, without further ado…

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  • Standing up for Bale

    Christian Bale

    Even the Batman thing is a collaboration with an artist, Christopher Nolan (as Cage tried to support The Pangs and LaBute – amongst others – and make commercial cinema with edge, like Burton’s non-starting Superman). Do we need to beat up a guy who did two Batman movies and a Terminator while also doing I’m Not There, 3:10 to Yuma, The Prestige, Rescue Dawn, New World, Harsh Times, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Machinist, Equilibrium, Reign of Fire, Laurel Canyon, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Shaft, and American Psycho?

    Look at the list. High-artistic-ambition directors Haynes, Mangold, Nolan, Herzog, Malick, Miyzaki (sic), Brad Anderson, Cholodenko, Mary Harron, plus artistically ambitious commercial directors like Singleton and John Madden in his Shakespeare In Love follow-up.

    David Poland’s defense of Christian Bale against a mean-spirited, thoughtless attack on the actor by The Wrap’s Deson Thomson.