Contextualizing Insomnia - Nolan's Secret Gem | The Director Project
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- Опубліковано 4 січ 2021
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Month 3 of The Director Project is all about the internet's favourite (or least favourite?) blockbuster auteur, Christopher Nolan. For my part, I shine a light on one of Nolan's least celebrated movies, 2002's Insomnia. All too often dismissed as just a pretty decent mystery-thriller, this video essay looks at just how crucial Insomnia was in Nolan's evolution from hip indie director to seasoned studio filmmaker. Includes contextualization within Nolan's filmography and comparison to the original Nordic version of Insomnia.
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Music Featured:
Both Flanks by Small Colin
Love Him by Loyalty Freak Music
Serial Killer by John Bartmann
Symphony No. 1: Hope? by Steve Combs
Set Up with an E by Small Colin
Escaping Like Indiana Jones by Komiku
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#ChristopherNolan #TheDirectorProject #Insomnia
What's your favourite Nolan movie?
I like the one with the twist.
Tenet!
I actually really like Insomnia, it’s in my top four Nolans. But my favourite is Inception
A toss-up between The Dark Knight and Interstellar
Memento and The Prestige(tied)
finally someone gave this movie the credit it deserves
I just loved watching Pacino put all those pillows over the window
I'm glad you mentioned Nolan's focus on hope. I always hate it when people say his movies aren't human or his characters are undeveloped. Like Interstellar and Inception are both about a guy trying to get back to his kids.
Yeah, his movies may not ve Spielbergian sentimentality, but there's always a very human and emotional core.
I'd say Tenet is really the only movie of his that doesn't have a human and emotional core. Kind of a baffling movie. Cool concept. Amazing Cinematography. Solid acting. Awesome set pieces. It's fantastic in every single way except for the hole at the center of it all where the emotional core should be and then some admittedly poor sound design.
@@jasonshaneyfelt1039 I'd argue that most of his films are like that (minus the terrible sound design). It is only very blatant in Tenet.
@@Bale4Bond There's definitely an emotional human core in movies like Inception, Interstellar, the Dark Knight Trilogy, and Dunkirk. This very video goes into depth on quite a few of them.
I've personally not really seen the lack of character in his movies. I can empathize with the characters in inception and interstellar, but even tenet I felt like I got to know the characters pretty well and felt the ending with Neil. Just my take but I like the way he does characters
Saw this recently and couldn't believe Robin Williams is essentially Proto Joker and they even do the Two Face "all the prisoners will get out if he goes in." So well made too!
Nolan’s most highest grossing film is actually The Dark Knight Rises. It made more money than The Dark Knight, so his most financially successful film has an uplifting ending.
Which is kinda lame, seeing as Dark Knight Rises is the worst movie he ever made. Not even close
@@DarranKern I think Insomnia is the most non nolan and most bland Nolan made
Holy crap, it’s an absolute crime that you’re channel is so small. I absolutely love your videos and love your generous and open minded perspective even more. You’re an absolute gem
Hey, thanks Lady Stoneheart. That's very kind of you :)
Part of the reason for similarities of the look of The Dark Knight Trilogy and Insomnia could be that they all share the same Cinematographer too
Thanks for making this, been waiting on an Insomnia video essay period!
From what I red, this is one of Nolan's most personal films, although many leave it for granted due being a remake. Great analysis!!! Thanx!!!
Personal how? It’s a remake of an older movie
Great video to start off the year. While I’m not the biggest fan of Insomnia, it’s amazing how important this film is in Nolan’s filmography. Memento might be the movie that put Nolan on a close eye and Batman Begins put him firmly on the map, but Insomnia was the transition that needed to happen. It brings many of the elements we know Nolan for today and how he remains such a prevalent director in Hollywood. Plus, this has some of the most underrated performances by Pacino and the great Robin Williams. Honestly, after Tenet, I would love for Nolan to go back to smaller films. Not that I don’t enjoy what he always has in store for Hollywood blockbusters, but doing something like Insomnia or Prestige again would be interesting. Maybe that’s just me, I don’t know :)
Thanks Matt! And yeah, the performances here are really solid. Nolan's movies have gotten so big that it's easy to forget he often gets really good work from his actors.
Now we have Oppenheimer
Great Video again! Just watched it recently for the first time and really enjoyed it...got also blinded by the "lesser Nolan" label that surrounds this Movie. It's a solid thriller, great acting, cool setting and some fantastic camerawork.
Just watched this for the first time yesterday. I knew I would like it since I really like Christopher Nolan movies. It was a good movie I really enjoyed Insomnia
Guess I need to see Insomnia. Really great video as always!
Since it came out on DVD this movie was and is my fav Nolan flick. It's not one that is as rewatchable as say inception or tdk, but it is a more subtle movie that gets under ur skin as u watch it. Imo one of Pacino's underappreciated performances. One of my fav of Williams, it's a more low-key but effective psychopath role by him, he could have easily been more over the top but the more controlled performance is so damn good. The way the film is shot is damn good also.
That series of cross-cuts of the teen girl's murder traumatized me when I saw the film, maybe because I was barely more than a teen myself then. It is just about the only thing about it the film that has stuck with me until today, so much so that I didn't really want to watch this video. But since you do such quality essays, I finally clicked on it after it had been out a few days. I made sure to play your entire video in the background so I wouldn't see any part of the murder again (I still don't know if you showed it or not). I even had my hands poised over my ears when you started describing the crosscut scene, because I still remember the sound of the girl's choked off screams during it, and did NOT want to hear it again.
I guess that says something good about Nolan's filmmaking here...? Or just how much those moments traumatized me... or both.
1) It's freaky that you put up this video after I've been obsessively watching reaction videos to the Tenet trailer.
2) Ironic that the more uplifting "Hollywood" ending has the main character die. Not your usual Hollywood ending.
3) In terms of visual similarities, there's one shot I remember from the chase on the floating logs where you've got Dormer moving one way and Finch moving another, and even though there isn't a moment like it in Inception, that framing just felt very Inception-like.
Excellent comparison to Inception. I didn't pick that up on my last viewing but now that you've seen it I totally get it.
I went to buy this dvd when Williams passed away and had to order it . When actors die their films sell . He was a great comedian and actor.
That outro music is very nice. Thanks for the video. As a person who prefers a dunkirk or endgame movie ending I am okay with NOLAN taking this path. Positive does trump negative, everytime.
Thanks, Mouse. I'm also okay with Nolan's optimistic endings. They feel earned within the narrative.
Just discovered your great channel and Idk if you read comments of 2 year old videos but I disagree that insomnia doesn't have that Nolan feel to it.. I'm a huge Nolan fan and rewatched this one after let's say the time it came out and I didn't have a clue about Nolan. What drawed me in was of course Pacino and williams at that time. Rewatched it recently and I couldn't believe that this movie isn't named when people talk about his best works.. It's actually a worthy start excluded following cause I haven't seen it yet of his career. It does have that slick Nolan direction in it. Insomnia definitely belongs in his list of masterpieces and imo every movie he made so far excluded following is a masterpiece in one way or another.
I see insomnia as an almost early Bat Man, Detective comic style grounded! Great review.
I watched the original version and I have never even wanted to watch the remake.... Seems like it might be worth a watch! Great channel BTW you deserve more subs.
Remake is better than Original. I bet
@@tomhardy8834 I haven't seen Nolan's version but the Norwegian original is a great film that's earned it's spot in the Criterion Collection and the BFI's 100 Essential Thrillers list.
@@tomhardy8834 you couldnt be more wrong...
@@silverking6970 He's not wrong, though the original is a fine film
9:50 Wtf, did Nolan play the cop in the Swedish version himself?
That’s Stellan Skaarsgard.
Lol
@@cheezyfilmsproductions1842 Amazing actor! Goodwill Hunting. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
I just watched this movie for the first time as the last Nolan movie I had to see to complete his filmography and I really liked it. It’s obviously a work-for-hire gig, using few of Nolan’s usual collaborators (aside from Wally Pfister), but he does it so well and the other elements are so well done that it befits from the director of Memento, and seeing the evolution of his style from Following all the way to Oppenheimer is beautiful. If anything I’d like to see Nolan do something like this again.
Robin Williams is also awesome in this. I wish he did more villainous roles.
Edit: this video’s actually a lot more interesting after Oppenheimer, which arguably goes back to having a very cynical ending (pretty unavoidable given the story, really), but there’s also the idea that corruption can be overcome in that as Strauss fails to gain a position in the cabinet. Interesting stuff.
I love this movie, just rewatched it last night. I think it's one of Al Pacino's best roles and he's one of my favorite actors of all time. I much prefer it to some of Nolan's high concept stuff like Inception.
Excellent video
Discussions of Christopher Nolan...on UA-cam?!? (Sorry I had to)
In seriousness, that’s an interesting point about Nolan’s shift from R to PG-13. Its funny though, I’ve always considered many of his movies, especially the Batman trilogy, to be “hard PG-13” if that makes sense. I don’t quite know what to make of that, but I guess it could illustrate how Nolan seems to evolve with each film rather than radically changing necessarily.
It's an interesting point in that his Batman movies do feel harder PG-13 within the realm of superhero movies but a bit soft in terms of crime movies. I guess it all depends on the context you're looking at.
Eyebrow Cinema though it is 100% possible that I think that purely because my parents were reluctant for me to see it when I was in elementary school lol
Insomnia was the movie that convinced me that Nolan was going to be good for Batman. This is also your funniest video.
If anyone wonders about Insomnia's absence of the Nolan trope of playing around with time: watch it with the commentary. For this the movie has been re-edited to match the shooting schedule.
Everybody put this movie as one of his worst, when it is his best written. I'd put it in my top 5, behind Memento and The Prestige.
I think it has his best script along with the first 2 Batman movies.
Ummm, Nolan didn’t wrote the script for Insomnia. It was Hilary Seitz.
@@aandwdabest Makes sense
Insomnia is very much underrated, I even rate it above Batman Begins and Tenet.
That eckhart joke 😂😂👌🏼
good video
Huge Nolan fan. Never saw The Following and I'd have to say Insomnia is the only Nolan film I didn't thoroughly enjoy. In fact I very much dislike it. I had high expectations with Pacino and Williams attached and I remember it being such a meh experience I didn't even bother discussing it with anyone after. And that is very rare for me. I don't know what possessed me to watch the original afterwards, but I'm glad I did. I absolutely love the original. I believe for the very reasons you pointed out. They are basically the same story, but one director had the courage to actually go to a place where most of us feel uncomfortable going. I felt Nolan's version seemed to play it too safe. Almost felt edited for television. And maybe you're right. Maybe he did do it for money or was afraid going to edgy might get him labeled as a "horror suspense" director. I can completely understand. And I feel I can appreciate the Nolan version a bit more after watching your video. Nolan is one of my favorite directors. I just don't feel this was the right project for him. Most of my favorites have at least one film that just doesn't feel right. Whether it was made for money or to simply hone their craft.
This
Is okay to both enjoy a downbeat ending and an upbeat ending and is okay to be a fan of both Steven Spielberg and Stanly Kurbrick. In fact, the two were close friends in real life and respected each other work. Not knocking you Eyebrow or your channel, I just need to vent that out a bit.
Ironically this movie always puts me to sleep
When the detective was writing down the address on the back of the novel. It did not give the apartment number. How in the world did he know exactly where to go? It was just the name of a town, no street address. No apartment number. Huge plot hole.
I would never call Insomnia a "lesser Nolan".
I like revisiting Insomnia when I feel the symptoms of insomnia..like right now
When I first learned the guy who directed Insomnia was going to be directing a Batman movie, I couldn’t see why he got the job. I enjoyed Insomnia, but there was nothing about it that made me think the person who directed it would be the ideal person to take on Batman. Thanks to this video,I now see just how much of Insomnia predicted The Dark Knight trilogy. I just wish that the three main actors in this movie made an appearance in those films. Other than a cameo by Nick Katt, nobody shows up a Nolan Batman movie. That’s a shame cause all three actors were great in this movie. Pacino could’ve played the mayor of Gotham, Williams could’ve been Maroni, and Swank would’ve been far more credible as a DA than Katie Holmes. Given Nolan’s habit of reusing actors from his previous movies, the omission of these three stands out.
Not such a fan of the film, but I think you did a great job making sense of the contexts
It's one of the best drama film
I think it’s his best film have done for a while
This was filmed in British Columbia 🤫
Squamish!
3:37
9:37
As someone who struggled staying awake thru this movie twice, it sounds like the original would be more my cup of tea. It feels like by being more unflinching, the original creates a stronger connection with the killer.
Agreed
If you haven't yet, I highly recommend it.
2:33
11:42
This movie made me wish Robin Williams had done more villain roles
I thought it was watching a video about insomnia. Seems like this is about Batman
2:33 Sounds like my ex. Am I right?
It is _WAY_ more than a "procedural".
Liked the Swedish original more.
I prefer this Nolan over Inception and Tenet Nolan...
1. The Prestige
2. Memento
3. Following
4. Insomnia
5. Tenet
6. Dunkirk
7. The Dark Knight
8. Inception
9. Batman Begins
10. Dark Knight Rises
Tenet might rise over time. The hate is way over blown, although the inaudible dialogue is one of the dumbest creative decisions of all time.
"Insomnia is his last movie to be rated R" that didnt age well
Side note i absolutely loved Oppenheimer
@@officialrhythmicthoughts so did I.
I think, critics disliked it (in general), because it was "just" a remake. They seemed to think, that therefore Nolan's movie lacked creativeness. I saw both movies and I think, Nolan's version is more encompassing and somehow more to the point.
I gave insonmia 6/10only because of Al and Williams did good despite the wack story. The original ending was 100x better. I can't even recommend that movie tbh.
it's a great example of a movie with "training wheels" for the audience🤡... the US version is quite dumb
Why is this movie underrated? Al Pacino, robin Williams what more do you want? People don't appreciate art they want to see bs like la la land
Nolan's version actually sucks so much
This movie was horrible. Sorry Nolan!
K
Yeah, I love the original. But Nolans version felt like a TV movie of the week directed by DJ Caruso.