Saturday, June 12, 2010

Why so serious?

The man on the left is Christopher Nolan, who directed the man on the right, Heath Ledger, in a little film called The Dark Knight.

Today my friend Cameron and I saw Nolan speak at the Hero Complex Film Festival at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. First they screened a thriller he did with Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hillary Swank called Insomnia. Afterwards, Nolan came out for an interview and some audience Q&A, and then the lights dimmed for The Dark Knight.

It's hard to know what to be impressed with about Christopher Nolan first. His intelligence, his talent, his originality, his clarity, his polite-beyond-reason treatment of the stupidest film-geek questions (Hollywood, go figure), his clear love for and trust in actors who know what they're doing or his genuine disdain for 3D movies.

As director of the third highest grossing film in history, the studios pretty much let him do what he wants. As a moviegoer, I feel lucky that what he wants to do is keep making intelligent, entertaining films.

One story Nolan told was about Michael Caine, who's been in his most successful films. Caine told him that the reason those films did well was because he was Nolan's good luck charm.

After listening to Nolan today, I'm pretty sure he's making his own luck.