Christopher Nolan’s Top 10 Film Recommendations
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Christopher Nolan is a generational talent with a superlative understanding of the visual medium and a gift for creating intricate puzzle box-like narratives.
Undoubtedly one of the most influential filmmakers working currently, and quite possibly the greatest of all time, Christopher Nolan manages to genuinely shock and awe his fans time and again. His uncompromising style, an eye for amazing visuals, and a talent for creating complex yet elegant narratives put him in the upper echelons of cinematic greats
10. The Hit:
This underrated British road crime film starring Terence Stamp and Tim Roth shows the inception point for Nolan’s gritty and stoic lead role choices. A film that is not seen by many outside the cinephile elites, the film is usually held in high esteem by its audience.
9. 12 Angry Men:
Sidney Lumet’s freshman attempt at feature filmmaking is a testament to the true power of visual storytelling. Essentially contained inside one room, the narrative and the film thereof use crisp dialogue and brilliant performances to forever etch its name in the hall of great films.
8. The Thin Red Line:
Normally you don’t associate the abstract visual genius of Malick with a topic as binary, as black and white, as war films. But that’s the thing about great filmmakers and genii, they understand the rules of their medium so well, that they are then masterful at breaking them. Watch it to witness a never seen before taking on the frivolities of war.
7. The Testament of Dr Mabuse:
It is a hallucinating and horrifying story, depicted with great power and the extraordinary beauty of photography that Lang has led his admirers to expect. A dazzling visual inspection by the great German filmmaker, Fritz Lang.
6. Bad Timing:
Nic Roeg’s films are known for their structural innovation, but it’s great to be able to see them in a form that also shows off their photographic excellence. Told through a dizzying array of flashbacks and fleeting memories, the film presents an honest and real picture of what trauma and turbulence can do to a person’s life.
5. Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence:
Here's a movie that is even stranger than it was intended to be. "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" is about a clash between two cultures (British and Japanese) and two styles of military service (patriotic and pragmatic). The film deals with political topics on the broad shoulders of a superlative musical score.
4. For All Mankind:
There’s not much to say about this one except that it is a masterpiece and a must-watch for every self-respecting cinephile (and everyone else too for that matter). The greatest visual rendition of Mankind’s Greatest exploration voyage, the documentary is breathtaking in all the good ways!
3. Koyaanisqatsi:
An incredible document of how man’s greatest endeavours have unsettling consequences. Art, is not propaganda, emotional, not didactic; it doesn’t tell you what to think—it tells you what to think about. Drawing its title from the Hopi word meaning "life out of balance," this renowned documentary reveals how humanity has grown apart from nature.
2. The Complete Mr Arkadin:
This fractured Citizen Kane, built of frames within frames and mirrors within mirrors, is aptly brought to life by Welles's later style, born of low budgets and high anxiety, its grotesque closeups and cocked angles suggesting worlds and minds askew. A look inside the broken human mind like no other, this is another must watch that you just can’t miss.
1. Greed:
Greed is a 1924 American silent psychological drama film written and directed by Erich von Stroheim and based on the 1899 Frank Norris novel McTeague. The original version of the movie has largely been lost and what survives has not multiplied in its myths and urban folklore. But the great Chris Nolan claims to have seen the movie, and who are we to argue with his choice.
Read more: Interstellar: Around the Cosmos and back
