That's very true, though I I don't think we meet all the layers of Dunkirk at the same time, I'd have to rewatch but I'd guess that the real crosscutting begins in act 2 after you're introduced to all of the players.
i think there is a specific dramatic question to Interstellar’s crosscutting: will selfishness prevail over love? Tom puts his family in danger out of stubbornness as a protest to the way his father left them. he’s being selfish and petty because of his trauma. on an obvious larger scale, but nonetheless treated with the same importance (which is the point of the film), Mann puts the crew and Humanity’s survival at risk, as his isolation has driven him to desperation to go back to earth. i do agree that there’s a discrepancy in instant urgency, but i feel it thematically comes together anyway.
This. All of this. I will say, as someone who loves LFTS and film/screenplay analysis in general: the dramatic question is open to interpretation. If you interpret it as Leko Draws has done, it feels right. If you interpret it as Michael/LFTS does, it feels wrong. So who is right, and who is wrong? It's a matter of opinion. And too often the tone of video essays conveys theory as proof, opinion as fact. There is something to be said for a director repeating themselves in terms of screenplay structure. Interstellar dares to break from the mold, at the risk of being a bit messy and unclear. But for me, it works, and for willing to be different from the cookie cutter of The Dark Knight and Inception, I applaud it.
Spaceship exactly. i appreciate essays from people who know much more than me about the “theory” of the thing, but in the end it is art, and it’s totally subjective. everyone has different standards and sensibilities and we should have that in mind when we discuss the subject.
I caught that the brother and Matt Damon are both mirrored in this sequence; but the Earth side is still too low-stakes. Murph can just break into the room literally any time. If the brother was gonna’ tear down the house and shit on the watch, it’d be one thing; but paradoxically the brother’s made it clear he wants everything to remain as it is. The room is actually safer WITH the brother than if the house was abandoned and left to decay. Murph was in such a damn hurry because extra drama, when the movie really didn’t need it. My suggestion: Matt and Matthew are up talking about hope for the exoplanet - Murph sees coughing people and decides to go back to the house - it seems like the bro’s gonna’ be an asshole but Murph and him have a shouting match but the bro finally caves and the two actually have a sentimental moment of reconnection; Cooper’s family is together again and is willing to figure something out - Hathaway smiles at TARS, signifying that humanity is going to be ok - Matt betrays Matthew; plot twist! humanity is screwed! Murph and her bro’s reunion is futile, they’re all doomed no matter what happens get rekt - entire space-chase with Matt vs Matthew at el. getting all Gravity up in here progresses normally but without the Murph interruptions - movie gets every oscar.
It's great to see someone knowledgeable give insight on how even the greatest filmmakers can still stumble at their highest points. Very inspiring for newcomers who might otherwise feel an unfair amount of burden to produce something perfect or incredible. Love your videos.
I agree about the unfair amount of burden! No one can be perfect, and the best way to improve is to try, learn, and try again. Hopefully these analyses can help with the learning part.
@@RevRyukin7 Well, whose opinion would you expect it to be? It's not as if what works in storytelling can be codified as fact, as some things work for some people but not for others.
@@DrSardonicus "what's the problem" brah he spells out his personal problem in this whole vid haha. his problem isn't that it isn't exactly done like the other two--it's that it just doesn't work as well and he explains why using different examples as backup.
I think the urgency for Murph is less immediate than for Coop, but it’s not any less strong. For her she’s exploring her last resource, while fighting her brother, while people die, after her mentor has died, and when humanity’s time left on earth can be measured in months
Agreed. The problem is that both threads are relatively... independent. They are not entirely part of the same narrative thread. Murph's search for "an aswer" is secondary, her primary urgency is to get her nephew and sister-in-law out of their home. It's once they get them out that she gets that "feeling" to look on her bedroom. Frankly, I don't think you should compare Interstellar and Inception. They are very different movies.
@@LessonsfromtheScreenplay The No Time for Caution scene (when Cooper tries docking right after Mann‘s death) is one of my favourite movie moments of all time.
I disagree with the equality of urgency bit. Here's why: IRL we do a lot of stuff that is full of tension but the physical act may not portray the tension (eg: standing outside a building on the lookout for someone dangerous) but it is equally as important (for eg: a car chase to catch bank robbers) as other adrenaline pumping jobs. I feel like Nolan did justice to the movie by showing how important Murph's job was by using cross cutting. I really like realism in movies and the stakes IRL are often not comprehensive to everyone, but those who get it, really do get it.
As an aspiring editor, I am constantly amazed how Nolan executes these cross cuts between 3 stories. The use of music, editing and rising tension make these sequences on of the best in cinema and my absolute favorites. What a guy.
Inception coming out so soon after TDK may partially explain why the techniques match up so well and are so similar. But yea. That dream heist is probably the most thrilling sequence Nolan has ever done. Hard to compare anything to it at the end of the day.
I think it helps that it's literally a heist film, as Nolan has said that was his primary goal with Inception. It's difficult to compare a superhero movie and a time/space drama in terms of stakes, because heist films will always do it better.
I agree that the equality of urgency is not comparable between Inception and Interstellar, but I think part of that is down to the fact that Inception is a film driven mainly by its plot, whereas Interstellar is driven very heavily by its main character. In Inception, equality of urgency is necessary for us to maintain interest in each subplot, so they all have the same weight; while the Interstellar crosscut has urgency instilled in it because of Cooper’s connection to Murph. The whole movie is about Coop’s desperation to get back to his daughter, and ultimately her working out the gravity equation is the string that guides Cooper back through the labyrinth, so we’re invested because he is. Sort of like how the end of Infinity War was upsetting not because we thought those characters weren’t coming back, but because of how we knew it affected the characters that remained who believed their loved ones were truly gone. The focus on character (and the score) is why Interstellar remains my personal favourite, but if people prefer the plot driven narrative of Inception I totally get that too.
Agreed, when Hans Zimmer was asked to write the score for this movie, he was simply told that it was the story of a father and his relationship with his son (ended up being a daughter instead). Thus, the unified dramatic question in Interstellar is whether Cooper will see Murph again, and vice-versa. I think when you begin to think about Interstellar with that lens (like Ben mentions), then a lot more of these objectives of crosscutting are fulfilled. At the end of the day, I think Interstellar is just a more thematically complex movie (or at least it's difficult to immediately identify its central themes) than Inception, the Dark Knight, and Dunkirk. During initial viewings, it may seem like the urgency is about saving humanity, but the thesis of the movie is that love is more important than we know, that it is a tangible force (spiritual, biological, or otherwise) that is beyond our comprehension, and that the connections that bind us to each other will ultimately be the thing to save us from extinction. Murph's love for her father and her father's love for her are what save humanity, but the central question is that of their journeys back to each other.
Totally agree. I know that crosscut is a very distinctive trademark from Nolan and he’s quite good at it but to establish a set rules and call it “The Nolan Crosscut” is just adding constraints to different possibilities in film, narratively speaking. If there’s a medium where there’s a lot of room for plasticity in the storytelling is cinema, and first we need to identify what kind of film we’re analyzing instead of fitting a set of rules designed by yourself; which is exactly the opposite of what you have to do.
You definitely have a point, but I personally rather preferred the staggered crosscut in Interstellar. It seems to me sort of like part of a musical work that is played in two different keys or time signatures simultaneously before returning to a more symmetrical configuration - granted, it's challenging, but also rewarding if you stick with it, and can be quite artistic. Admittedly, I had to watch Interstellar twice before I understood it, but I enjoyed it both times.
I completely agree with you. I love LFTS and its dissections, as I would never know these mechanisms in storytelling, but I don't think (in this video in particular) that checking boxes is always the goal of a film sequence or film. I can see why Michael's opinion and analysis is very accurate, but I don't know if that is a good marker of "good or bad" in every case. I love Interstellar much more than Inception or Dark Knight, and it is as you said: the artistic asymmetry or the staggering of information in Interstellar gives me a much more fulfilling experience than if it had been like the other two crosscuts.
Micahel (and co.) this is possibly your best video/argument/cinema lectures you've ever done. Phenomenal job. I love this channel and a video like this why. Keep it up!
As excited as I am to see Tenet and as much as I love his recent films, I hope Nolan goes back to doing smaller/more character driven films like The Prestige, which, imo, is his best work.
just saw Tenet this past weekend. Couldn't agree more! He's become too little self-indulgent it seems and man, I couldn't hear half of what the characters were saying..his worst film to date probably although it had its moments.
@@toxic1strike167 well not from a production quality or acting level obviously. And the concept is fantastic, I love the world that Nolan builds in Tenet. As a narrative that doesn't work sadly, yes. I'll rewatch it maybe again to see if my opinion changes when grasping more of the details etc. but it was just not enjoyable either for me. And I'm a big Nolan buff!
I don’t think Nolan is trying to live by a set standard for how he presents his movies. Just because it’s different from the others doesn’t mean it is ineffective. Take The Empire Strikes Back: when the climax of the film crosscuts between Han, Leia, Chewie, R2, 3PO being led into a trap and Luke stuck in training with Yoda on Dagobah, we feel the impatience that he feels when he knows his friends are in danger. This shows the method still works that way, but just to a bit of a lesser extent
Yes, but the point of that sequence in Empire is to make us feel Luke's impatience, the out-of-sync crosscut exploiting our innate sense of what a "proper", i.e., fully entrained, crosscut should be. It has a purpose, one that is in service to the full effect of the film. The example from Interstellar, here, has no such justification. All it achieves is to detract from the headlong momentum of the space-hijacking half of the sequence, and create an atmosphere of breathless suspense in the Earth half that the actual scene doesn't merit. I remember the first couple of times I watched Interstellar, I thought I was missing something crucial from the great muggy drifts of the film's exposition--why was everything on earth happening so urgently? But it's just a kind of halo effect from the urgency of the space sequence it is (mis)matched with. Patrick does a great job figuring out why it doesn't work.
Actually disagree with your thoughts on this. While I do agree that the cross cut sequencing is more clear cut in both The Dark Knight & Inception, I think what Nolan did in Interstellar is still rather impressive. He meticulously wove both scenes together and allowed the cooper situation to give rise to the Murphy scene. Almost as if they both filled in the gaps of each other. Separately I don’t believe they would have impacted the same way as they did together. In it’s own way I believe it worked.
You have your fanboy goggles on. I love Nolan and Interstellar, but this has always been a glaring flaw in this movie. Michael did a wonderful job proving that.
AweRenj Gonna have to disagree, I believe the audience could tell from first watch that it’s pretty clear that both Cooper and Murphy are doing their best to save humanity in their own way.
AweRenj I thought that was the intention Nolan was trying to convey. Murphy states she has a feeling and throughout the scene we try to puzzle in the clue as to why there’s a connection and it’s brilliantly delivered when we realize it was her father reaching out to her.
Max Monas the only thing he proved is that interstellar is not edited or written the same way as the other two. He thinks they need to be equally urgent. They don’t.
I usually like your takes but the most urgency I felt out of all Nolan movies was in Interstellar in that sequence, I guess everyone experiences things differently and it's perfectly fine.
The docking sequence in Interstellar is not part of the cross-cut. The cross-cutting is limited to Cooper being prevented from leaving the planet by Dr Mann, while we see Murph being prevented from evacuating her brother's family from the house. I think there is some similarity in both characters' struggles at that moment. The difference in stakes however, I would argue, is part of the theme of Interstellar, which at its core is a family drama. Just because the cross-cuts in The Dark Knight and Inception operate based on similar mechanics (that you have very clearly and coherently outlined), doesn't necessarily mean all Nolan films must do exactly the same.
Indeed - I get the impression that this video took an observation and then sought to explain that feeling, rather than questioning whether that feeling was necessarily correct in the first place.
He’s saying the cross cuts are much more effective when the urgency between the cross cuts are equal which I completely agree with. When there’s one part of the story that is not convincingly urgent, it completely slows the momentum.
summary from my lenghty post is this: TDK and inception are both a clear cut genre piece , that genre being action thriller and the crosscut of matching highstakes life or death sequences is a technique that plays well to making an ENTIRE piece feel cohesive as an action thriller piece. However, interstellar isnt an action thriller, so matching those two scenes like that would affect the overall cohesive soul of the movie. The entire thing would have to reshot and rewritten even, especially the first act. interstellar is an extremely carefully crafted mix of genres and genre souls that are really sorta opposites, its mix between a deeply moving emotional dramatic movie with an uplifting soul and a deep scifi thriller with a dark soul, thats really hard to pull off. it is probably one of the most audacious and complicated TECHNICAL mix of genres i'd ever seen a filmmaker pull off but like nolan does with anything complicated he simplifies it in such a way that u dont even realize how complicated it is. This movie is a masterclass in how to achieve cohesion while being extremely daring.
The dramatic question that holds the crosscut in interstellar together isn't "Will humanity be saved?" it's "will cooper return in time to see murph again?" This is the stakes that the audience truly cares about. The internal and primary conflict of the movie. And this is the common thread between the two streams of the crosscut. Each one poses a threat to the goal of the main characters reuniting.
Well, cooper lost hope of seeing his daughter in the wave scene itself. He specifically states this in the film too. The dramatic question during crosscut scene therefore is what will cooper do to save humanity. But hey the crosscut scene worked perfectly fine with me. I enjoyed it full but the insight is always appreciated.
@@gauravtiwari7627 I don't think at this point he really has given up seeing Murph again, considering he wants to go back to earth when he learns that plan A was a scam, knowing that Murph is still alive !
@@gauravtiwari7627 Have you ever given up hope of seeing/having something you loved before... only to catch a second wind and choose to fight for it again? Whatever a character says about his feelings at that point in a story doesn't inform where they will be by the end.
Totally agree, the two examples he used had a glaring difference from Interstellar that it wasn't an equal comparison. Both sequences from TDR and Inception were of events happening concurrently. In Interstellar we are operating relatively outside of time so the 'crosscutting' wasn't a matter of dramatic stakes in an immediate sense because the two events aren't concurrent --- the main stake and motivations were established and remained singular throughout the film (saving the world/keeping a father's promise) --- the crosscutting tension here is meant to exemplify ratcheting emotion, not urgency, but hopeless frustrations, new obstacles, and mounting setbacks.
Seth Price I see Tenet on Friday and the only one I hadn’t watched yet was Insomnia, so that was fresh to witness. Definitely my favorite part was watching the masterpieces that is The Dark Knight and Inception back to back, that is such a great experience.
You are the only youtuber that tops your videos every single time!! I have said that many videos here are your best ones. And you always top yourself. Thanks so much for this!
I think the main issue is that while The Dark Knight's and Inception's sequences are both dramatic climaxes to the films, the Interstellar sequence arguably isn't the climax. Yes it is the moment where the most action happens, but the climax of the story is when Murph solves the equation. In order for the cross cutting to work in the same way, Dr Mann would have to be directly stopping Cooper from sending the message in some way, which obviously wouldn't work within the story. For me, Interstellar's main flaw is that it tries too hard to be an action movie like Nolan's previous work in moments like this where in reality the themes of both these situations are human beings putting their own selfishness over the greater good (in a small way with Tom and the kids, and in a bigger way with Mann taking the ship), rather than of imenant personal danger. I would be fascinated to hear Nolan's own take on this sequence and whether he was actually satisfied with it, because it comes across as though he was trying to do something with far more meaning than his chosen tools had allowed, and so I suspect he was always less than satisfied with it.
I'm sure he looked back and said he could've done better but haven't yet talked about it in public. To me, I thought I he took note of this in Interstellar because Dunkirk had none of these problems.
Remember people, we don't have to follow the formula. It doesn't matter if it falls under the rule or not - what matters is how the movie makes you feel
I love the sound score when Brand rushes to save Cooper and when Cooper docks. Greatest thing ever. My fav Chris Nolan film still has to be the Prestige. Love that movie much
When we consider this aspect of Nolan's filmmaking we can realize what a masterpiece the The Dark Knight is & what all went into making it. Not just for the Joker or such a realistic picturisation of Crime World but such tiny nuances which deserve their own appreciation.
Abhinav Banerjee TDK was his most solid movie in a standard way, but missed inception magic IMO. The entire movie feels like inception on your own mind. It’s really ambitious like most of Nolans movies, which means that he has a lot explain and a lot of holes to seal for the movie to not fall apart. Inception is best i’ve ever seen this executed in a movie period. It never falls short from start to finish, which makes the ending all the more weighted and intense. It’s ending matches if not surpasses the build up by far. Interstellar did slightly lack in that department in certain parts of the closing act, which really stopped the movies ending from hitting me like the other ones did. which after all gives the after taste.
Honestly, no one on earth would have thought that there’s no urgency in Murph’s scene. The sequence worked so good for me while watching the film. No complaints!
As a father of a 6 year old, what keeps me on the edge of my seat in Interstellar, as well as tearing up repeatedly, is the question of will Cooper see his beloved daughter again, ever, or before she’s very old, and even once we know that he won’t, the tragedy of this loss is what keeps me wanting to continue to watch his journey. (And this had me even prior to becoming a dad, when it came out in 2014). And then the whole mystery of the circularity of time. The lack of equality of urgency didn’t affect me that much. --But: Amazing analysis, well done!
I feel like in the case of interstellar, you left out more context than you did with the other two movies batman and inception. When I watched interstellar, I viewed those intercut sequences as more of a juxtaposition to raise a deeper question: who is Cooper really fighting for? When cooper left earth, the relationship with his daughter was left in shambles. While on the surface his desire was to save humanity, the deeper desire was to save his daughter so he can return to the relationship they had. Meanwhile, her surface desire was to save humanity with the deeper hopes that her father would return to her. So what the dramatic question now becomes is, “can this father and daughter reconnect to the relationship they had” for me Murph’s urgency is equal to that of coopers for the fact that if he dies, he can’t return home and if she can’t break that code, he can’t come home. They both need to do these things now because her family’s health is a pressing issue as is the world’s, while his ability to stay alive is just as pressing. If neither thing happens, they don’t reconnect and the entire world dies.
I really appreciate this video for actually talking about Nolan's filmmaking techniques. I've been tired of hearing how people treat his films and how he seems to be a little pretentious at times. Thank you, Michael for making a video reminding me that Nolan isn't just a pretentious guy, but a good filmmaker. This channel is the best!
Even though Murph's storyline in the 3rd act isn't very strong (especially the watch being the solution), the scene actually worked for me not because of the sense of urgency but because of the sense of uncertainty. It's like the feeling you need to catch a plane and someone is still looking for that piece of clothing that can't be found in the house. Still my favourite of Nolans films because of the aesthetic, music and emotional weight. Ok and a little because I like space movies.
That particular crosscut in Interstellar, especially in regard to the lack of urgency on Murphy's side, as you so accurately pointed, has ALWAYS bugged me! Thank you for compiling all these narrative issues from that sequence in such a visual, eloquent manner. One for the favorites, no doubt!
Great job! When I watched Interstellar in the theatre way back when, I knew something(s) were missing in this film compared to his previous ones. Narratively, it was a bit uneven. TDK, Inception, and all his previous works along with most recent Dunkirk, are so flawlessly put together - like watching someone solve a Rubik's Cube and you see how each move came together without any lapses. This one had its ideas, visuals, and themes reach just beyond the stakes it set, like the crosscut you showed. But let's face it -- this (imperfect) crosscut is still done WAY better than how most other blockbuster movies do interweaving storylines.
This topic, and the structure of your video, is mind-boggling in the best way possible. Good to see you back, Michael! Can't wait to see what you have coming next.
Hi Michael, I have a question, so recently I was watching this one scene from toy story 4 and there was one scene that really intrigued me. It’s the scene where Woody and Bo beep finally meet after a long while. Upon first view, the thing that really sets the scene apart is how it handles tension. The context of the scene is that Woody and Bo beep haven’t seen each other in a long while and when the finally see each other again, there is this form of tension that manifests. However what interesting is the fact that they are frozen/emotionless because they are toys being played with. Because they can’t show any expressions, the tension is elevated even more. It’s a similar senario in one scene in pixar’s Coco, where Mama Emelda and Ernesto de la Cruz are performing on stage but what they’re really doing is struggling over a photo, but the fact that they can’t express that tension, just elevates it. My question is, what do you call this type of scenario?
LOVED this video! I always felt something was off with the Intersteller sequence, but never gave it much thought nor tried to examine it and understand why. This was so eloquently put, thank you for it.
I'm gonna try writing a script using these lessons from you. Not only had I entertained myself watching these clips, but also taught me the beauties and dangers of writing a movie script. Thank you for the tips and breakdowns of screenwriting, Michael! ❤️
This has got to be my favorite channel on UA-cam, hands down. I don't usually comment on videos but the way I'm which you narrate your analysis while also visually showing your narration for us to understand what you're talking about is art in itself. I always look forward to your videos and I also listen to your podcasts. I love the variety of content that you explore. Just thought I'd let you know. One happy subscriber. :)
I just want to say your content is amazing. I stumbled across it by accident a year ago as someone who didn't really think about movies outside of the post-theater trip discussions. But since then I keep finding your analysis and insight into how films have gripped me all these years has kept me coming back over and over. Not to mention the consistently awesome production quality. Keep it up and can't wait to see what you put out next!
While I've always agreed with you Michael, it seems you are giving technicalities more weight than human emotions. Yes, there is no, technically, a unifying urgency in both the sequences. But the urgency lies in the emotions it wants to convey. The docking sequence is a literal act of saving humanity's future. While Murph's sequence is about saving her brother's family. Although the urgencies have different weights, the unifying theme is that both Murph and Cooper will do anything to save people, be it an entire generation or a handful of them. Both the sequences also have Mann and Murph's brother Tom: two men too adamant on listening to reason and this is another powerful unifying subtext. This is again followed by the sequence of the black hole where Cooper has to go in to "find something which he does not know anything about". Parallely, Murph is also turning her room upside down to "find something which she does not know know anything about". So why are the characters searching for something of which they have no idea of? It's emotions. They feel something. A connection. Just like a gravitational anomaly, they are drawn to each other which transcends space and time (which has already been setup earlier in the film when Brand gives her "Love" monologue). Interstellar is essentially a film about emotions. While Inception's and Dark Knight's plot focus heavily on logic, Interstellar focuses heavily on emotions instead. And this why applying the logic of the first two films to Interstellar fails in my opinion. Interstellar is a film where every character makes the rashest decisions. Murph out of frustration destroys the crops without any thought of the repurcussions. Mann (whom I definitely think is synonymous to "Man") willingly murders a crew member, destroys a station all because he was alone. Tom's toxic self destructive behavior is killing his own family. Cooper takes the mission, leaving his own family, to fly once again. Professor Brand lies to Murph till his last breath. It's a film about imperfect characters, mirroring how humanity willingly destroys itself even when it's aware of it's own self destruction. This is not the usual crime/heist film so it should not be judged as such. Just my two cents.
Your video essays have taught me the finer points of storytelling, and although I’m not writing screenplays, they’ve helped me finish my first novel. Thank you!
CONSIDER this about why your argument in the video is kind of irrelevant...Interstellar's overall style (unlike Inception) is not ONLY about parallel storylines staying spatially connected. Interstellar is equally about GAPS in time that JUMP due to RELATIVITY. We are primed through the water planet sequence in which over 20 years evaporate in minutes. This makes the audience subconsciously aware of relativity at all times afterwards. There is still a slow and steady bending of the storylines towards one another until they meet at a common "AHA!" moment in the tesseract. The cross-cutting doesn't have to fulfill constant tension and stakes because at certain key points, not knowing what is going on back on earth creates MORE stakes. You are absolutely right that all cylinders aren't firing in the earth story, which makes Nolan's usual parallel tension feel off-game. But you also can't ignore that the sequence of docking & entering the black hole was designed as an unbroken time bubble so that we feel DISTANCED from earth again, so that we're unsure that there is enough relative time left to even complete the mission. Interstellar works. It doesn't work as an ultimate exercise in tension. It doesn't work to fit your narrow video thesis that all Nolan films create stakes the exact same way. Or that using parallel editing means that you have to use it all the time until the conversion point. Interstellar still excels at communicating the stakes, through relative time anxiety misdirect.
Yes!! Thank you!! That crosscut always bugged me since I first saw the movie in the theater! It just doesn't feel like the two ticking clocks are ever connected in any way!
If you manage to keep up with the story and understand the plot well enough in the closing act, there is a really enjoyable and satisfying crosscut sequence. All though it might totally not feel this way if you lost track half way through the movie. The same applies to the conclusion which explains and wraps up the movie amazingly, but only if you caught on to the right things.
Very well made video, I didn’t notice the cross cutting sequence the way you pointed out. Hans Zimmer’s music was so beautiful and dramatic in Interstellar and the spaceship scene was so intense that I forgot about the earth story line altogether until they brought it back. Christopher Nolan knows really well how to keep the audience engaged. Interstellar is one of my all time favorite movies.
I think the whole focus of Murph's earth bound story, as you put it, is to build the tension. The tension for Cooper's present predicament is already there. As you say, the stakes for Murph's predicament arent as clear cut and so i think her sequence is about building that tension in the moment. Cause the room is still there, the house is still there. She could technically go back whenever, but because her brother told her to leave and never come back, and she sets his crops on fire, it builds a tension in the moment thats clear; Murph has to figure it out, HERE AND NOW, just like Cooper is in his story, and neither of them have time, but not just any time; Future time. Cooper cant come back later and dock. He cant come back later and go through the black hole to get the information. Similarly, i think, the dealing with keeping her brother at bay, was to incite that notion- that Murph cant ever come back later on to figure it out. That the fate of the future of human life lies not just within that room, but within it here and now, and will only ever be available to be accessed, here and now and in that way raises the stakes to the same level. The scene may be, on the surface, concerned with her brother and his family, but thats just to build the tension because what Murph is doing (simply lookin around in her room to figure something out) isnt all that dramatic and Murph herself is not concerned with her brother really, and so, we are not. It was to fill and otherwise mundane action- looking around on her bookshelf- with tension because again as you say, the stakes arent as clear, and are far more abstract than Cooper's situation. I think thats how we were supposed to understand it structurally. I think it worked fantastically, i was tense through it all. Also, im kinda biased because Interstellar is LITERALLY my favorite film ever and so far, it seems it always will be.
Wow, I've had that feeling that something wasn't quite right in this film's sequence but couldn't figure out what it was. What an amazing analysis . Every video you make is an amazing essay. Thank you for your time and effort. It's so enjoyable. I learned a lot.
Love your videos. I enjoy and usually agree with your conclusions. Here with Interstellar I’m not calling you wrong because this is subjective, but I think that the whole world/Murph’s threat crosscut in this film is brilliant and makes more sense to me because it isn’t a direct equal. The whole film is about Coop’s struggles with his family versus humanity. Choosing between them. And so in this scene we get a crosscut literally between the two sides. Not sure if that was Nolan’s intent or not. And again, not saying this is better or worse. But I truly enjoy this scene because of this crosscut. Having two totally different stakes balanced like this makes you see the struggle between the two. And since stopping Mann not only rescues humanity but also affords Coop his chance to get back to his kids, I feel both scenes crosscut need each other to help add to the tension. Just my opinion. But again, love your content.
Another great episode with a true takeaway. Every time I watch one of your videos, I become a little better at writing. Thank you for the time, care, and craft you put into your channel.
Thank god for directors that choose not to follow the standard formulas for movies. Both Interstellar and Inception were fantastic films regardless of your need to have everything fit into your plan for the perfect movie. The scene in Interstellar creates an eddy in the flow of the film that hints toward a fix or solution based on her actions, the sense of urgency is there and just as important as the other scene. Why can't they flow differently? Why should they all have the same level of intensity? I enjoyed the slow burn of her quest tangled with the tense and desperate actions taken off-planet. Loved it! I enjoy creative work that pushes the viewer to look deeper into the film, work that isn't predictable or based on what was done in the past. Keep them coming Christopher Nolan, and keep me guessing.
I think such “broken” crosscutting in the Interstellar creates a certain mental delay which adds to the story overall if not immediately after watching it.
Perfect timing. Just got back from watching Tenet and was completely blown away. Did it have certain elements missing from previous Nolan films? Yes. But I went in with the expectation of wanting to watch a big screen, mind-bending, meticulously crafted action thriller and I was not disappointed.
Thank you very much for your analysis on Nolan's films, as always, they are great. I think, based on what I've learned from this video, it is safe to say Tenet has an effective Nolan Crosscut. Keep up the good work, Michael!
This essay beautifully explains why I am unable to immerse myself in Nolan's lat minutes rescues - they are so overt and explicit and spelled out that I am constantly reminded of the filmic construction
I agree about the equality of urgency in Interstellar. But its easy to point this out, I think your point will hit harder if you give a suggestion on how you would solve it. What would you have done differently ? The crosscut in Interstellar was definitely disjointed, but I think that was Nolan's intent. Do we really need to know the stakes in every cross cut sequence? Not really. The threads connect later anyway - and frankly that worked well for me. I think its to our detriment to compare and contrast all Nolan's crosscuts to Inception and TDK. Almost every Nolan movie will be doomed to fall short. I try to see every Nolan movie with a fresh set of eyes. And it works (if you let it ). I actually love this video, and all your videos. I find it very intriguing and expertly made. ❤
It was a fluke that I watched Inception again for the first time in years, only to come on UA-cam and see this video. Thank you for explaining some of the reasons why I love that movie so much.
The lack of a dramatic question in Interstellar I'd argue was sort of the point of the story. The lack of a wonder if humanity will survive elevates the audience's wondering of hoe the story is going to pan out. We know humanity in the film is on the brink of collapse, but like in real life, there is always a layer of uncertainty of how the future will serve us whether it be good or bad. The fact the film is about the uncertainty of our future creates that unique parallel of how Cooper doesn't know if he will find a habitable planet or how Murph doesn't know if she will solve the theory of gravity.
I'll admit up front, I've been told I have a different understanding of things than most people, so my interpretation of and experience with this movie probably won't match up with anyone else's, but with that being said: The way you open about Interstallar it seems like you may have misunderstood large parts of the film or may have been trying too hard to put it into some sort of preexisting mental mold. For example, you describe Coop's mission as "finding a new planet for human kind" even though his words and actions show it's more about saving humanity than finding a planet. Similarly, Murph's mission isn't to "solve the gravity equation" but, like Coop, to save humanity. For each of them, they're both doing work that are just different means to an end: Saving humanity (and each other). They're trying to achieve the same goal through different means in case either method fails (remember, the plan Murph tries to fulfill is described in the movie as "Plan A" and Coop's plan tries to fulfill what's described as "Plan B", although [sploilers].). Indirect cuts start tying the two plotlines together about an hour or a bit into the film when the correlations between Murph's struggle against Michael Caine's apparent lack of progress start to juxatopose Coop's lack of progress at finding a sustainable planet after visiting the planet near Gargantua (notice the age of the characters throughout the cuts? Once Coop ages Murph ages proportionally). Each is making their own independent efforts to keep humanity alive, each facing their own seemingly-insurmountable odds. For some reason some people block this while others dont, but...🤷♂️ As another example, Man's efforts to take control of the Endurance correlate well with Tom's efforts to take control of his burning crops, both in terms of effort and in terms of relative time: Without control over the crop situation there's a high probability that humanity is doomed, same thing is there's no control over the endurance. I'll give Marvel the chance to react about who they fink the Black Panther is. In the end it's through both of their efforts they're able to feel the love each being put into each others' actions, and it's a strong enough feeling to influence each others' reactions. I definitely think Nolan tried to reduce the number of back-to-back cuts specifically to emphasise the increasing time lapse between the two timelines of the film, and to great effect. Coop's actions in the movies seem more and more like they're leaving Murph behind, but it's through "love" that Coop's efforts to save humanity (which haven't stopped for him, but since "love" experienced a brief time fluctuation have lapsed for Murph for a while until Coop's had a chance to catch up) influence Murph to act accordingly since both of them believe that saving humanity will save each other.
Thank you for covering this. I felt something was really amiss about the Intersteller Murph story too but I couldn't really explain it. You completley nailed it! Forced urgency on the Murph story to try to match what was going on in space.
sorry but you're wrong . the underlying questions are different because in the Dark Knight and Inceptions are action-driven simple questions... straightforward questions, consequentially in the case of Interstellar it's more of an esoteric or better say abstract question and therefore it takes longer to reach it... but the payoff it's higher... much higher. Interestelar is a master piece of movie making... that cuts deep in our emotions of the human quest for survival and deeper still in our quest for Grace.
Great video! I will use this whenever I’m planning a cross-cutting sequence. I also have one extra thing that I apply to heighten tension: make the time spent on each section get shorter and shorter as the sequence builds in a crescendo of suspense. I love the channel and look forward to new videos 👍🏽
Interstellar is not only Nolan’s best movie to date, it’s also one of the greatest movies of the 21st century (and there are many of them). Masterpiece.
This video actually crystallized everything I had a problem with in Cloud Atlas. That movie had a ton of cross-cutting sequences between multiple unrelated timelines, which could have been cool but there was never a unifying dramatic question. And to make matters worse, cross-cuts would frequently happen right as one of the story threads was reaching a dramatic moment, sucking all of the tension out of the scene. Basically, if you thought the cross-cutting in Interstellar wasn't done well, imo Cloud Atlas does it much, much worse.
i dont know about this, it makes sense but in the context of the overall...soul of interstellar i'd argue matching the life or death urgency of cooper with his daughter's story would seriously detract from the vibe/soul of the movie, so much, that i think the entire movie would have to be rewritten and reshot in an entirely different way especially the first act that shows what life on earth is like. Matching those two stories with the same high stakes life or death situation would make the entire movie feel more like a dooms day action thriller of some sort which isn't really what interstellar is. Also a change like that will change the meaning of the soundtrack and how we perceive it. i think part of the reason this soundtracks works so well is because of the contrast between the sonic qualities and the overall meaning nd soul of the movie. Basically its sort of like a deeply dramatic movie that is scored like with a giant thriller with horror elements, i mean we have never heard those two things combined together before let alone in a sci-fi movie and it requires a story that has to be extremely carefully woven together. its like jazz, u take chords that give you the slapstick happy or sad feelings nd u add a note/s on top of those chords that just contrasts and transforms the entire feeling of the chord and also where u place them in your melody matters so its a very delicate thing and i think its the same with interstellar cause technically this movie is really mixing alot of things that is just crazy to mix together so it has to be extremely delicate and careful. The earth sequence i'll argue is THE jazz notes cause without it, the entire thing would feel a lil bit on the nose like the usual way we expect sci-fi thrillers to be presented. i mean if anything this really just proves nolan's extreme understanding and mastery of his craft, at the end of the day one of the most difficult things a director does is creating a single cohesive feeling from start to finish in all departments, camera angles, lighting, wardrobe, writing, music etc and deviating from the standard ways of making all these things come together to feel cohesive in a particular genre is extremely difficult etc.
I think the crosscuts in interstellar are non-comparable on purpose. To reinforce the fact that time flows differently in each storyline. As in, in the same time frame, Cooper only spent a few days awake in space, but Murph waited decades, so I think it's purposefully made to be a parallelism (of theme) but also a dichotomy (of time scale). As in, Cooper has no air and is choking to death, his grandkids are slowly choking to death on dust. Cooper rushes to get out of the planet, Murph tries to get her nephews out of the farm. Once the ship enters the atmosphere it'll burn and they'll die, once Murph's brother is back from putting out the fire her nephews will be stuck in the farm and eventually die. etc.
I disagree with your critique of clear and comparable stakes in Interstellar. I feel as though the theme still holds up because the whole point of Interstellar was that any and all events, no matter how mundane, contribute to the inevitability of a predetermined future destiny. In this way, Murph's smaller earthbound goals really do bear a greater significance to humanity's fate than their seeming lack of urgency.
I was just watching Interstellar for the first time yesterday and I noticed that something defibrillator felt off during this sequence! This has put it into words
This video is correct. _BUT,_ do you think Mr. Nolan did it on purpose? You know to _command_ a 2nd & 3rd watch? After all, there's _so_ much going on. These scenes you've talk about are _so_ intense.... the Murphy time line allows the audience to breath. While _still_ keeping our tension up. Once you watch Interstellar the very 1st time, you _need_ to see again. You know, to focus on _all_ those things you _must_ have missed, the 1st time round? Thank you so much, for your channel. You always get the 'good' brain juices flowing! 😘💋 Oh, I just _have_ to mention, that _Epic_ score by Hans Zimmer! Omg! Put on Hans' scores from Nolan movies & read a Thriller novel. What an _amazing_ experience! Or _dare_ I say, "a novel experience?" 😂 Sorry, I'll show myself out...😏
I watched Tenet tonight and was able to better appreciate it thanks to this video! Thanks for enriching my experience with your content, I watch every one of your videos!
honestly i don't understand the hate that interstellar gets. the themes are new but still profound, and the allegory is informative of human behavior. but now that I've seen this video, i can understand that the structure of the film is way less than perfect.
A lot of ppl dont like it because of its false pretense of being a scifi film while being completely inaccurate (at least thw ppl i know) but it is a good film
I loved both of these movies, but I definitely felt a disconnect between the crosscut sequences in the middle of "Interstellar". Now I know why. Your analysis was very clear and logical as always - great job!!
You know when you have a masterpiece in hands when, after 12 years, people still study everything about it, maybe forever. TDK is the Citizen Kane of CB movies. All hail it.
Alright, let's hear it: What is your favorite Christopher Nolan Film?
Interstellar
The Dark Knight
Memento
TDK.
inception
I like how every Nolan film has these crosscutting sequences, but Dunkirk IS a crosscutting sequence. 24/7 drama.
Memento also is!
That's very true, though I I don't think we meet all the layers of Dunkirk at the same time, I'd have to rewatch but I'd guess that the real crosscutting begins in act 2 after you're introduced to all of the players.
True
Literally 1/24/7 :-D
(one hour/day/week)
Dunkirk was kind of tiring to watch, even the second time
That TENET homage at the end when you say "next Nolan crosscut" and the van comes back up inverted in time... Well done! 👏
I didn't notice that lol
That's actually a homage of Memento itself whose entire intro is a reversed shot
@@omarvasquez6607 The intro of Memento is reversed in the movie.
@@hollowludens5861 Memento is backwards throughout.
God the music from interstellar. I can't hear it without feeling emotions well up
Hans Zimmer’s best score
@Adithya Nair I cry my ass out everytime x) There is nothing I can do about it
@@evan3155 He should have win the oscar that year, but at least he has another for Dune
i think there is a specific dramatic question to Interstellar’s crosscutting: will selfishness prevail over love? Tom puts his family in danger out of stubbornness as a protest to the way his father left them. he’s being selfish and petty because of his trauma. on an obvious larger scale, but nonetheless treated with the same importance (which is the point of the film), Mann puts the crew and Humanity’s survival at risk, as his isolation has driven him to desperation to go back to earth. i do agree that there’s a discrepancy in instant urgency, but i feel it thematically comes together anyway.
This. Well said
This. All of this. I will say, as someone who loves LFTS and film/screenplay analysis in general: the dramatic question is open to interpretation. If you interpret it as Leko Draws has done, it feels right. If you interpret it as Michael/LFTS does, it feels wrong. So who is right, and who is wrong? It's a matter of opinion. And too often the tone of video essays conveys theory as proof, opinion as fact. There is something to be said for a director repeating themselves in terms of screenplay structure. Interstellar dares to break from the mold, at the risk of being a bit messy and unclear. But for me, it works, and for willing to be different from the cookie cutter of The Dark Knight and Inception, I applaud it.
Spaceship exactly. i appreciate essays from people who know much more than me about the “theory” of the thing, but in the end it is art, and it’s totally subjective. everyone has different standards and sensibilities and we should have that in mind when we discuss the subject.
Thank for the saving this film student the time from explaining the different scales of drama
I caught that the brother and Matt Damon are both mirrored in this sequence; but the Earth side is still too low-stakes. Murph can just break into the room literally any time. If the brother was gonna’ tear down the house and shit on the watch, it’d be one thing; but paradoxically the brother’s made it clear he wants everything to remain as it is. The room is actually safer WITH the brother than if the house was abandoned and left to decay. Murph was in such a damn hurry because extra drama, when the movie really didn’t need it.
My suggestion: Matt and Matthew are up talking about hope for the exoplanet - Murph sees coughing people and decides to go back to the house - it seems like the bro’s gonna’ be an asshole but Murph and him have a shouting match but the bro finally caves and the two actually have a sentimental moment of reconnection; Cooper’s family is together again and is willing to figure something out - Hathaway smiles at TARS, signifying that humanity is going to be ok - Matt betrays Matthew; plot twist! humanity is screwed! Murph and her bro’s reunion is futile, they’re all doomed no matter what happens get rekt - entire space-chase with Matt vs Matthew at el. getting all Gravity up in here progresses normally but without the Murph interruptions - movie gets every oscar.
Easily one of the consistently best screenwriting channels on UA-cam. Well done once again.
Thank you!
god this channel makes me really miss Every Frame a Painting, and i mean that with the highest praise to lessons from the screenplay
@@SuperMastermindx both channel names even have the same number of syllables. They sound like long-lost brothers.
It's great to see someone knowledgeable give insight on how even the greatest filmmakers can still stumble at their highest points. Very inspiring for newcomers who might otherwise feel an unfair amount of burden to produce something perfect or incredible. Love your videos.
I agree about the unfair amount of burden! No one can be perfect, and the best way to improve is to try, learn, and try again. Hopefully these analyses can help with the learning part.
Interstellar is still one of my favorite Nolan films. It’s phenomenal.
Ehhhh no. Stumble... in his opinion. Not actually.
@@RevRyukin7 Well, whose opinion would you expect it to be? It's not as if what works in storytelling can be codified as fact, as some things work for some people but not for others.
@@DrSardonicus "what's the problem" brah he spells out his personal problem in this whole vid haha. his problem isn't that it isn't exactly done like the other two--it's that it just doesn't work as well and he explains why using different examples as backup.
I think the urgency for Murph is less immediate than for Coop, but it’s not any less strong. For her she’s exploring her last resource, while fighting her brother, while people die, after her mentor has died, and when humanity’s time left on earth can be measured in months
Agreed. The problem is that both threads are relatively... independent. They are not entirely part of the same narrative thread. Murph's search for "an aswer" is secondary, her primary urgency is to get her nephew and sister-in-law out of their home. It's once they get them out that she gets that "feeling" to look on her bedroom.
Frankly, I don't think you should compare Interstellar and Inception. They are very different movies.
LFTS: ~extremely valid criticism against Interstellar~
me: I pretend I do not see
haha. Only for one sequence of the film! I love a lot of that movie. -Michael
@@LessonsfromtheScreenplay nothing but love
But how was it valid, though ... he's not correct.
@@LessonsfromtheScreenplay The No Time for Caution scene (when Cooper tries docking right after Mann‘s death) is one of my favourite movie moments of all time.
It was this reason that a few felt the movie to be a bit slow & a bit unengaging at certain. Glad it has pointed very well.
This was so brilliant... I hadn't thought of crosscuts like this..
Me too!!
soo true. The sense of urgency in the earth plot is slightly forced by using the same background music, which btw works for some extent!
Always been bored by Hans Zimmer's work in Nolan's movies. Very much the same. But all suspense AAA movie music is the same anyway.
Haha the Hanz Zimmer cheat code
I disagree with the equality of urgency bit.
Here's why: IRL we do a lot of stuff that is full of tension but the physical act may not portray the tension (eg: standing outside a building on the lookout for someone dangerous) but it is equally as important (for eg: a car chase to catch bank robbers) as other adrenaline pumping jobs.
I feel like Nolan did justice to the movie by showing how important Murph's job was by using cross cutting.
I really like realism in movies and the stakes IRL are often not comprehensive to everyone, but those who get it, really do get it.
"surprise matt damon"
The Best kind of Matt Damon
I was really surprised first time I watched it. Like, I never heard/read he'd be in the movie.
As an aspiring editor, I am constantly amazed how Nolan executes these cross cuts between 3 stories. The use of music, editing and rising tension make these sequences on of the best in cinema and my absolute favorites. What a guy.
Inception coming out so soon after TDK may partially explain why the techniques match up so well and are so similar. But yea. That dream heist is probably the most thrilling sequence Nolan has ever done. Hard to compare anything to it at the end of the day.
I think it helps that it's literally a heist film, as Nolan has said that was his primary goal with Inception.
It's difficult to compare a superhero movie and a time/space drama in terms of stakes, because heist films will always do it better.
I agree that the equality of urgency is not comparable between Inception and Interstellar, but I think part of that is down to the fact that Inception is a film driven mainly by its plot, whereas Interstellar is driven very heavily by its main character. In Inception, equality of urgency is necessary for us to maintain interest in each subplot, so they all have the same weight; while the Interstellar crosscut has urgency instilled in it because of Cooper’s connection to Murph. The whole movie is about Coop’s desperation to get back to his daughter, and ultimately her working out the gravity equation is the string that guides Cooper back through the labyrinth, so we’re invested because he is. Sort of like how the end of Infinity War was upsetting not because we thought those characters weren’t coming back, but because of how we knew it affected the characters that remained who believed their loved ones were truly gone.
The focus on character (and the score) is why Interstellar remains my personal favourite, but if people prefer the plot driven narrative of Inception I totally get that too.
Agreed, when Hans Zimmer was asked to write the score for this movie, he was simply told that it was the story of a father and his relationship with his son (ended up being a daughter instead). Thus, the unified dramatic question in Interstellar is whether Cooper will see Murph again, and vice-versa. I think when you begin to think about Interstellar with that lens (like Ben mentions), then a lot more of these objectives of crosscutting are fulfilled. At the end of the day, I think Interstellar is just a more thematically complex movie (or at least it's difficult to immediately identify its central themes) than Inception, the Dark Knight, and Dunkirk. During initial viewings, it may seem like the urgency is about saving humanity, but the thesis of the movie is that love is more important than we know, that it is a tangible force (spiritual, biological, or otherwise) that is beyond our comprehension, and that the connections that bind us to each other will ultimately be the thing to save us from extinction. Murph's love for her father and her father's love for her are what save humanity, but the central question is that of their journeys back to each other.
Totally agree. I know that crosscut is a very distinctive trademark from Nolan and he’s quite good at it but to establish a set rules and call it “The Nolan Crosscut” is just adding constraints to different possibilities in film, narratively speaking. If there’s a medium where there’s a lot of room for plasticity in the storytelling is cinema, and first we need to identify what kind of film we’re analyzing instead of fitting a set of rules designed by yourself; which is exactly the opposite of what you have to do.
Exactly
Ultimately, all of Nolan's films are different and that's a good thing. Not all of them need to be Inception or Dunkirk to be good.
Whenever you cut into Interstellar's background score with it's scene, it makes me fall in love with the movie all over again..
You definitely have a point, but I personally rather preferred the staggered crosscut in Interstellar. It seems to me sort of like part of a musical work that is played in two different keys or time signatures simultaneously before returning to a more symmetrical configuration - granted, it's challenging, but also rewarding if you stick with it, and can be quite artistic. Admittedly, I had to watch Interstellar twice before I understood it, but I enjoyed it both times.
I completely agree with you. I love LFTS and its dissections, as I would never know these mechanisms in storytelling, but I don't think (in this video in particular) that checking boxes is always the goal of a film sequence or film. I can see why Michael's opinion and analysis is very accurate, but I don't know if that is a good marker of "good or bad" in every case. I love Interstellar much more than Inception or Dark Knight, and it is as you said: the artistic asymmetry or the staggering of information in Interstellar gives me a much more fulfilling experience than if it had been like the other two crosscuts.
To be honest, I loved the cross-cut in Interstellar the most, the music just gave me goosebumps.✌🏻
I feel like the more emotional family drama nature of the interstellar crosscut scenes reflects the tone Nolan wanted for the movie well actually
Micahel (and co.) this is possibly your best video/argument/cinema lectures you've ever done. Phenomenal job. I love this channel and a video like this why. Keep it up!
Plot twist: Christopher Nolan directed this episode of LFTS
You mean he pulled a temporal pincer on us?
As excited as I am to see Tenet and as much as I love his recent films, I hope Nolan goes back to doing smaller/more character driven films like The Prestige, which, imo, is his best work.
just saw Tenet this past weekend. Couldn't agree more! He's become too little self-indulgent it seems and man, I couldn't hear half of what the characters were saying..his worst film to date probably although it had its moments.
Nicolas Waldvogel wow really? Worse than Following? I really hope I don’t see it that way
@@toxic1strike167 well not from a production quality or acting level obviously. And the concept is fantastic, I love the world that Nolan builds in Tenet. As a narrative that doesn't work sadly, yes. I'll rewatch it maybe again to see if my opinion changes when grasping more of the details etc. but it was just not enjoyable either for me. And I'm a big Nolan buff!
Nicolas Waldvogel Well, I’m seeing it tonight, so I guess I’ll go in with lower expectations
Blonde guy dies
I don’t think Nolan is trying to live by a set standard for how he presents his movies. Just because it’s different from the others doesn’t mean it is ineffective. Take The Empire Strikes Back: when the climax of the film crosscuts between Han, Leia, Chewie, R2, 3PO being led into a trap and Luke stuck in training with Yoda on Dagobah, we feel the impatience that he feels when he knows his friends are in danger. This shows the method still works that way, but just to a bit of a lesser extent
Yes, but the point of that sequence in Empire is to make us feel Luke's impatience, the out-of-sync crosscut exploiting our innate sense of what a "proper", i.e., fully entrained, crosscut should be. It has a purpose, one that is in service to the full effect of the film. The example from Interstellar, here, has no such justification. All it achieves is to detract from the headlong momentum of the space-hijacking half of the sequence, and create an atmosphere of breathless suspense in the Earth half that the actual scene doesn't merit. I remember the first couple of times I watched Interstellar, I thought I was missing something crucial from the great muggy drifts of the film's exposition--why was everything on earth happening so urgently? But it's just a kind of halo effect from the urgency of the space sequence it is (mis)matched with. Patrick does a great job figuring out why it doesn't work.
Actually disagree with your thoughts on this. While I do agree that the cross cut sequencing is more clear cut in both The Dark Knight & Inception, I think what Nolan did in Interstellar is still rather impressive. He meticulously wove both scenes together and allowed the cooper situation to give rise to the Murphy scene. Almost as if they both filled in the gaps of each other. Separately I don’t believe they would have impacted the same way as they did together. In it’s own way I believe it worked.
You have your fanboy goggles on. I love Nolan and Interstellar, but this has always been a glaring flaw in this movie. Michael did a wonderful job proving that.
AweRenj Gonna have to disagree, I believe the audience could tell from first watch that it’s pretty clear that both Cooper and Murphy are doing their best to save humanity in their own way.
AweRenj I thought that was the intention Nolan was trying to convey. Murphy states she has a feeling and throughout the scene we try to puzzle in the clue as to why there’s a connection and it’s brilliantly delivered when we realize it was her father reaching out to her.
Max Monas the only thing he proved is that interstellar is not edited or written the same way as the other two. He thinks they need to be equally urgent. They don’t.
I usually like your takes but the most urgency I felt out of all Nolan movies was in Interstellar in that sequence, I guess everyone experiences things differently and it's perfectly fine.
The docking sequence in Interstellar is not part of the cross-cut. The cross-cutting is limited to Cooper being prevented from leaving the planet by Dr Mann, while we see Murph being prevented from evacuating her brother's family from the house. I think there is some similarity in both characters' struggles at that moment. The difference in stakes however, I would argue, is part of the theme of Interstellar, which at its core is a family drama.
Just because the cross-cuts in The Dark Knight and Inception operate based on similar mechanics (that you have very clearly and coherently outlined), doesn't necessarily mean all Nolan films must do exactly the same.
Well said
Indeed - I get the impression that this video took an observation and then sought to explain that feeling, rather than questioning whether that feeling was necessarily correct in the first place.
So picking the evidence to fit your theory, rather than the other way around.
Exactly my point.
He’s saying the cross cuts are much more effective when the urgency between the cross cuts are equal which I completely agree with. When there’s one part of the story that is not convincingly urgent, it completely slows the momentum.
Hans Zimmer's piece of music is what brings Nolan's art alive.
agreed although I thought Ludwig Göransson did a good enough job as a replacement in tenet
@@AndreaslNetonthenet YES! Tenet's score was INCREDIBLE!!! Especially the road heist/JDW on the fire engine scene!!!
Crosscut returns in the last chapter of Tenet lol
And Nolan stumbled. TBH it's not very effective..
I liked tenet
It's more effective than the crosscut in Interstellar
Yeah but this time you don’t get anything that happens
@@doncorleole2356 Are you serious?
summary from my lenghty post is this: TDK and inception are both a clear cut genre piece , that genre being action thriller and the crosscut of matching highstakes life or death sequences is a technique that plays well to making an ENTIRE piece feel cohesive as an action thriller piece. However, interstellar isnt an action thriller, so matching those two scenes like that would affect the overall cohesive soul of the movie. The entire thing would have to reshot and rewritten even, especially the first act. interstellar is an extremely carefully crafted mix of genres and genre souls that are really sorta opposites, its mix between a deeply moving emotional dramatic movie with an uplifting soul and a deep scifi thriller with a dark soul, thats really hard to pull off. it is probably one of the most audacious and complicated TECHNICAL mix of genres i'd ever seen a filmmaker pull off but like nolan does with anything complicated he simplifies it in such a way that u dont even realize how complicated it is. This movie is a masterclass in how to achieve cohesion while being extremely daring.
The dramatic question that holds the crosscut in interstellar together isn't "Will humanity be saved?" it's "will cooper return in time to see murph again?"
This is the stakes that the audience truly cares about. The internal and primary conflict of the movie. And this is the common thread between the two streams of the crosscut. Each one poses a threat to the goal of the main characters reuniting.
Exactly. Especially as this represents the family abandoning the house they lived at when the two characters were last together.
Well, cooper lost hope of seeing his daughter in the wave scene itself. He specifically states this in the film too. The dramatic question during crosscut scene therefore is what will cooper do to save humanity. But hey the crosscut scene worked perfectly fine with me. I enjoyed it full but the insight is always appreciated.
@@gauravtiwari7627 I don't think at this point he really has given up seeing Murph again, considering he wants to go back to earth when he learns that plan A was a scam, knowing that Murph is still alive !
@@gauravtiwari7627 Have you ever given up hope of seeing/having something you loved before... only to catch a second wind and choose to fight for it again? Whatever a character says about his feelings at that point in a story doesn't inform where they will be by the end.
Totally agree, the two examples he used had a glaring difference from Interstellar that it wasn't an equal comparison. Both sequences from TDR and Inception were of events happening concurrently.
In Interstellar we are operating relatively outside of time so the 'crosscutting' wasn't a matter of dramatic stakes in an immediate sense because the two events aren't concurrent --- the main stake and motivations were established and remained singular throughout the film (saving the world/keeping a father's promise) --- the crosscutting tension here is meant to exemplify ratcheting emotion, not urgency, but hopeless frustrations, new obstacles, and mounting setbacks.
Literally finished my Christopher Nolan marathon yesterday, so this video is in perfect timing! Beautiful work as always. Much love and best of luck.
I am also doing a Nolan marathon before I go see Tenet on Saturday. I am on Inception right now (though I have seen all his movies before, of course).
Seth Price I see Tenet on Friday and the only one I hadn’t watched yet was Insomnia, so that was fresh to witness. Definitely my favorite part was watching the masterpieces that is The Dark Knight and Inception back to back, that is such a great experience.
You are the only youtuber that tops your videos every single time!!
I have said that many videos here are your best ones. And you always top yourself.
Thanks so much for this!
Thank you so much 😀
I think the main issue is that while The Dark Knight's and Inception's sequences are both dramatic climaxes to the films, the Interstellar sequence arguably isn't the climax. Yes it is the moment where the most action happens, but the climax of the story is when Murph solves the equation. In order for the cross cutting to work in the same way, Dr Mann would have to be directly stopping Cooper from sending the message in some way, which obviously wouldn't work within the story. For me, Interstellar's main flaw is that it tries too hard to be an action movie like Nolan's previous work in moments like this where in reality the themes of both these situations are human beings putting their own selfishness over the greater good (in a small way with Tom and the kids, and in a bigger way with Mann taking the ship), rather than of imenant personal danger. I would be fascinated to hear Nolan's own take on this sequence and whether he was actually satisfied with it, because it comes across as though he was trying to do something with far more meaning than his chosen tools had allowed, and so I suspect he was always less than satisfied with it.
I'm sure he looked back and said he could've done better but haven't yet talked about it in public. To me, I thought I he took note of this in Interstellar because Dunkirk had none of these problems.
i love that your a screenplay channel but you understand editing more than most film essay people. Loved this video
Remember people, we don't have to follow the formula. It doesn't matter if it falls under the rule or not - what matters is how the movie makes you feel
I love the sound score when Brand rushes to save Cooper and when Cooper docks. Greatest thing ever.
My fav Chris Nolan film still has to be the Prestige. Love that movie much
These videos are such high quality, a lot of work must go into each of them.
When we consider this aspect of Nolan's filmmaking we can realize what a masterpiece the The Dark Knight is & what all went into making it. Not just for the Joker or such a realistic picturisation of Crime World but such tiny nuances which deserve their own appreciation.
Inception is a masterpiece that I can't wait to show my kids
The very reason to have kids is to show them Inception
Don't show it they won't understand anything for two days :)
Abhinav Banerjee TDK was his most solid movie in a standard way, but missed inception magic IMO. The entire movie feels like inception on your own mind. It’s really ambitious like most of Nolans movies, which means that he has a lot explain and a lot of holes to seal for the movie to not fall apart. Inception is best i’ve ever seen this executed in a movie period. It never falls short from start to finish, which makes the ending all the more weighted and intense. It’s ending matches if not surpasses the build up by far. Interstellar did slightly lack in that department in certain parts of the closing act, which really stopped the movies ending from hitting me like the other ones did. which after all gives the after taste.
Thank you so much Michael. LFTS is truly one of my faverourite contents ever. You help me a lot with teaching in class. Greettings from Bolivia.
Honestly, no one on earth would have thought that there’s no urgency in Murph’s scene. The sequence worked so good for me while watching the film. No complaints!
As a father of a 6 year old, what keeps me on the edge of my seat in Interstellar, as well as tearing up repeatedly, is the question of will Cooper see his beloved daughter again, ever, or before she’s very old, and even once we know that he won’t, the tragedy of this loss is what keeps me wanting to continue to watch his journey. (And this had me even prior to becoming a dad, when it came out in 2014). And then the whole mystery of the circularity of time. The lack of equality of urgency didn’t affect me that much. --But: Amazing analysis, well done!
I feel like in the case of interstellar, you left out more context than you did with the other two movies batman and inception. When I watched interstellar, I viewed those intercut sequences as more of a juxtaposition to raise a deeper question: who is Cooper really fighting for? When cooper left earth, the relationship with his daughter was left in shambles. While on the surface his desire was to save humanity, the deeper desire was to save his daughter so he can return to the relationship they had. Meanwhile, her surface desire was to save humanity with the deeper hopes that her father would return to her. So what the dramatic question now becomes is, “can this father and daughter reconnect to the relationship they had” for me Murph’s urgency is equal to that of coopers for the fact that if he dies, he can’t return home and if she can’t break that code, he can’t come home. They both need to do these things now because her family’s health is a pressing issue as is the world’s, while his ability to stay alive is just as pressing. If neither thing happens, they don’t reconnect and the entire world dies.
I really appreciate this video for actually talking about Nolan's filmmaking techniques. I've been tired of hearing how people treat his films and how he seems to be a little pretentious at times. Thank you, Michael for making a video reminding me that Nolan isn't just a pretentious guy, but a good filmmaker. This channel is the best!
Even though Murph's storyline in the 3rd act isn't very strong (especially the watch being the solution), the scene actually worked for me not because of the sense of urgency but because of the sense of uncertainty. It's like the feeling you need to catch a plane and someone is still looking for that piece of clothing that can't be found in the house. Still my favourite of Nolans films because of the aesthetic, music and emotional weight. Ok and a little because I like space movies.
That particular crosscut in Interstellar, especially in regard to the lack of urgency on Murphy's side, as you so accurately pointed, has ALWAYS bugged me! Thank you for compiling all these narrative issues from that sequence in such a visual, eloquent manner. One for the favorites, no doubt!
Great job! When I watched Interstellar in the theatre way back when, I knew something(s) were missing in this film compared to his previous ones. Narratively, it was a bit uneven. TDK, Inception, and all his previous works along with most recent Dunkirk, are so flawlessly put together - like watching someone solve a Rubik's Cube and you see how each move came together without any lapses. This one had its ideas, visuals, and themes reach just beyond the stakes it set, like the crosscut you showed.
But let's face it -- this (imperfect) crosscut is still done WAY better than how most other blockbuster movies do interweaving storylines.
This topic, and the structure of your video, is mind-boggling in the best way possible. Good to see you back, Michael!
Can't wait to see what you have coming next.
Hi Michael, I have a question, so recently I was watching this one scene from toy story 4 and there was one scene that really intrigued me. It’s the scene where Woody and Bo beep finally meet after a long while. Upon first view, the thing that really sets the scene apart is how it handles tension. The context of the scene is that Woody and Bo beep haven’t seen each other in a long while and when the finally see each other again, there is this form of tension that manifests. However what interesting is the fact that they are frozen/emotionless because they are toys being played with. Because they can’t show any expressions, the tension is elevated even more. It’s a similar senario in one scene in pixar’s Coco, where Mama Emelda and Ernesto de la Cruz are performing on stage but what they’re really doing is struggling over a photo, but the fact that they can’t express that tension, just elevates it. My question is, what do you call this type of scenario?
LOVED this video! I always felt something was off with the Intersteller sequence, but never gave it much thought nor tried to examine it and understand why. This was so eloquently put, thank you for it.
I'm gonna try writing a script using these lessons from you. Not only had I entertained myself watching these clips, but also taught me the beauties and dangers of writing a movie script. Thank you for the tips and breakdowns of screenwriting, Michael! ❤️
This has got to be my favorite channel on UA-cam, hands down. I don't usually comment on videos but the way I'm which you narrate your analysis while also visually showing your narration for us to understand what you're talking about is art in itself. I always look forward to your videos and I also listen to your podcasts. I love the variety of content that you explore. Just thought I'd let you know. One happy subscriber. :)
I just want to say your content is amazing. I stumbled across it by accident a year ago as someone who didn't really think about movies outside of the post-theater trip discussions. But since then I keep finding your analysis and insight into how films have gripped me all these years has kept me coming back over and over. Not to mention the consistently awesome production quality. Keep it up and can't wait to see what you put out next!
Thank you so much!
While I've always agreed with you Michael, it seems you are giving technicalities more weight than human emotions. Yes, there is no, technically, a unifying urgency in both the sequences. But the urgency lies in the emotions it wants to convey. The docking sequence is a literal act of saving humanity's future. While Murph's sequence is about saving her brother's family. Although the urgencies have different weights, the unifying theme is that both Murph and Cooper will do anything to save people, be it an entire generation or a handful of them. Both the sequences also have Mann and Murph's brother Tom: two men too adamant on listening to reason and this is another powerful unifying subtext. This is again followed by the sequence of the black hole where Cooper has to go in to "find something which he does not know anything about". Parallely, Murph is also turning her room upside down to "find something which she does not know know anything about". So why are the characters searching for something of which they have no idea of? It's emotions. They feel something. A connection. Just like a gravitational anomaly, they are drawn to each other which transcends space and time (which has already been setup earlier in the film when Brand gives her "Love" monologue). Interstellar is essentially a film about emotions. While Inception's and Dark Knight's plot focus heavily on logic, Interstellar focuses heavily on emotions instead. And this why applying the logic of the first two films to Interstellar fails in my opinion. Interstellar is a film where every character makes the rashest decisions. Murph out of frustration destroys the crops without any thought of the repurcussions. Mann (whom I definitely think is synonymous to "Man") willingly murders a crew member, destroys a station all because he was alone. Tom's toxic self destructive behavior is killing his own family. Cooper takes the mission, leaving his own family, to fly once again. Professor Brand lies to Murph till his last breath. It's a film about imperfect characters, mirroring how humanity willingly destroys itself even when it's aware of it's own self destruction. This is not the usual crime/heist film so it should not be judged as such. Just my two cents.
This is a brilliant analysis on Interstellar. Thanks for the write up!
Your video essays have taught me the finer points of storytelling, and although I’m not writing screenplays, they’ve helped me finish my first novel. Thank you!
CONSIDER this about why your argument in the video is kind of irrelevant...Interstellar's overall style (unlike Inception) is not ONLY about parallel storylines staying spatially connected. Interstellar is equally about GAPS in time that JUMP due to RELATIVITY. We are primed through the water planet sequence in which over 20 years evaporate in minutes. This makes the audience subconsciously aware of relativity at all times afterwards. There is still a slow and steady bending of the storylines towards one another until they meet at a common "AHA!" moment in the tesseract. The cross-cutting doesn't have to fulfill constant tension and stakes because at certain key points, not knowing what is going on back on earth creates MORE stakes. You are absolutely right that all cylinders aren't firing in the earth story, which makes Nolan's usual parallel tension feel off-game. But you also can't ignore that the sequence of docking & entering the black hole was designed as an unbroken time bubble so that we feel DISTANCED from earth again, so that we're unsure that there is enough relative time left to even complete the mission. Interstellar works. It doesn't work as an ultimate exercise in tension. It doesn't work to fit your narrow video thesis that all Nolan films create stakes the exact same way. Or that using parallel editing means that you have to use it all the time until the conversion point. Interstellar still excels at communicating the stakes, through relative time anxiety misdirect.
Yes!! Thank you!! That crosscut always bugged me since I first saw the movie in the theater! It just doesn't feel like the two ticking clocks are ever connected in any way!
Hopefully I’ll see the next great Nolan Crosscut in “Tenet” TONIGHT!
If you manage to keep up with the story and understand the plot well enough in the closing act, there is a really enjoyable and satisfying crosscut sequence. All though it might totally not feel this way if you lost track half way through the movie. The same applies to the conclusion which explains and wraps up the movie amazingly, but only if you caught on to the right things.
Very well made video, I didn’t notice the cross cutting sequence the way you pointed out. Hans Zimmer’s music was so beautiful and dramatic in Interstellar and the spaceship scene was so intense that I forgot about the earth story line altogether until they brought it back. Christopher Nolan knows really well how to keep the audience engaged. Interstellar is one of my all time favorite movies.
I think the whole focus of Murph's earth bound story, as you put it, is to build the tension. The tension for Cooper's present predicament is already there. As you say, the stakes for Murph's predicament arent as clear cut and so i think her sequence is about building that tension in the moment. Cause the room is still there, the house is still there. She could technically go back whenever, but because her brother told her to leave and never come back, and she sets his crops on fire, it builds a tension in the moment thats clear; Murph has to figure it out, HERE AND NOW, just like Cooper is in his story, and neither of them have time, but not just any time; Future time. Cooper cant come back later and dock. He cant come back later and go through the black hole to get the information. Similarly, i think, the dealing with keeping her brother at bay, was to incite that notion- that Murph cant ever come back later on to figure it out. That the fate of the future of human life lies not just within that room, but within it here and now, and will only ever be available to be accessed, here and now and in that way raises the stakes to the same level. The scene may be, on the surface, concerned with her brother and his family, but thats just to build the tension because what Murph is doing (simply lookin around in her room to figure something out) isnt all that dramatic and Murph herself is not concerned with her brother really, and so, we are not. It was to fill and otherwise mundane action- looking around on her bookshelf- with tension because again as you say, the stakes arent as clear, and are far more abstract than Cooper's situation. I think thats how we were supposed to understand it structurally. I think it worked fantastically, i was tense through it all. Also, im kinda biased because Interstellar is LITERALLY my favorite film ever and so far, it seems it always will be.
Wow, I've had that feeling that something wasn't quite right in this film's sequence but couldn't figure out what it was. What an amazing analysis . Every video you make is an amazing essay. Thank you for your time and effort. It's so enjoyable. I learned a lot.
Love your videos. I enjoy and usually agree with your conclusions. Here with Interstellar I’m not calling you wrong because this is subjective, but I think that the whole world/Murph’s threat crosscut in this film is brilliant and makes more sense to me because it isn’t a direct equal. The whole film is about Coop’s struggles with his family versus humanity. Choosing between them. And so in this scene we get a crosscut literally between the two sides. Not sure if that was Nolan’s intent or not. And again, not saying this is better or worse. But I truly enjoy this scene because of this crosscut. Having two totally different stakes balanced like this makes you see the struggle between the two. And since stopping Mann not only rescues humanity but also affords Coop his chance to get back to his kids, I feel both scenes crosscut need each other to help add to the tension. Just my opinion. But again, love your content.
Just watched Tenet last night and after this video I can now easily see how he used the crosscut in Tenet. Great video as usual!
This is my favorite UA-cam channel
Another great episode with a true takeaway. Every time I watch one of your videos, I become a little better at writing. Thank you for the time, care, and craft you put into your channel.
That's really rewarding to hear. Thank you from all of us!
Thank god for directors that choose not to follow the standard formulas for movies. Both Interstellar and Inception were fantastic films regardless of your need to have everything fit into your plan for the perfect movie.
The scene in Interstellar creates an eddy in the flow of the film that hints toward a fix or solution based on her actions, the sense of urgency is there and just as important as the other scene. Why can't they flow differently? Why should they all have the same level of intensity? I enjoyed the slow burn of her quest tangled with the tense and desperate actions taken off-planet. Loved it!
I enjoy creative work that pushes the viewer to look deeper into the film, work that isn't predictable or based on what was done in the past. Keep them coming Christopher Nolan, and keep me guessing.
EXACTLY. Two different movies with different ideas don't need the same editing.
Brilliant analysis. The crosscut in this video about crosscuts was also solid. Thank you for making some of the best content around.
Thanks Richard! :)
I think such “broken” crosscutting in the Interstellar creates a certain mental delay which adds to the story overall if not immediately after watching it.
Perfect timing. Just got back from watching Tenet and was completely blown away. Did it have certain elements missing from previous Nolan films? Yes. But I went in with the expectation of wanting to watch a big screen, mind-bending, meticulously crafted action thriller and I was not disappointed.
Thank you very much for your analysis on Nolan's films, as always, they are great. I think, based on what I've learned from this video, it is safe to say Tenet has an effective Nolan Crosscut. Keep up the good work, Michael!
This essay beautifully explains why I am unable to immerse myself in Nolan's lat minutes rescues - they are so overt and explicit and spelled out that I am constantly reminded of the filmic construction
I agree about the equality of urgency in Interstellar. But its easy to point this out, I think your point will hit harder if you give a suggestion on how you would solve it.
What would you have done differently ?
The crosscut in Interstellar was definitely disjointed, but I think that was Nolan's intent. Do we really need to know the stakes in every cross cut sequence? Not really. The threads connect later anyway - and frankly that worked well for me.
I think its to our detriment to compare and contrast all Nolan's crosscuts to Inception and TDK. Almost every Nolan movie will be doomed to fall short. I try to see every Nolan movie with a fresh set of eyes.
And it works (if you let it ).
I actually love this video, and all your videos. I find it very intriguing and expertly made. ❤
It was a fluke that I watched Inception again for the first time in years, only to come on UA-cam and see this video. Thank you for explaining some of the reasons why I love that movie so much.
Favourite Director: Christopher Nolan.
Favourite film: Interstellar.
Both unbeatable.
Couldn’t agree more!!!
don't be so sure about films when there are thousands you haven't seen and when your opinions can change through time ;)
@@Godspleen Fair point
This is the kind of content I love UA-cam for. Great stuff!
The lack of a dramatic question in Interstellar I'd argue was sort of the point of the story. The lack of a wonder if humanity will survive elevates the audience's wondering of hoe the story is going to pan out. We know humanity in the film is on the brink of collapse, but like in real life, there is always a layer of uncertainty of how the future will serve us whether it be good or bad. The fact the film is about the uncertainty of our future creates that unique parallel of how Cooper doesn't know if he will find a habitable planet or how Murph doesn't know if she will solve the theory of gravity.
I honestly love this channel. You're doing great work.
Thank you very much!
I'll admit up front, I've been told I have a different understanding of things than most people, so my interpretation of and experience with this movie probably won't match up with anyone else's, but with that being said:
The way you open about Interstallar it seems like you may have misunderstood large parts of the film or may have been trying too hard to put it into some sort of preexisting mental mold.
For example, you describe Coop's mission as "finding a new planet for human kind" even though his words and actions show it's more about saving humanity than finding a planet. Similarly, Murph's mission isn't to "solve the gravity equation" but, like Coop, to save humanity. For each of them, they're both doing work that are just different means to an end: Saving humanity (and each other). They're trying to achieve the same goal through different means in case either method fails (remember, the plan Murph tries to fulfill is described in the movie as "Plan A" and Coop's plan tries to fulfill what's described as "Plan B", although [sploilers].).
Indirect cuts start tying the two plotlines together about an hour or a bit into the film when the correlations between Murph's struggle against Michael Caine's apparent lack of progress start to juxatopose Coop's lack of progress at finding a sustainable planet after visiting the planet near Gargantua (notice the age of the characters throughout the cuts? Once Coop ages Murph ages proportionally). Each is making their own independent efforts to keep humanity alive, each facing their own seemingly-insurmountable odds. For some reason some people block this while others dont, but...🤷♂️
As another example, Man's efforts to take control of the Endurance correlate well with Tom's efforts to take control of his burning crops, both in terms of effort and in terms of relative time: Without control over the crop situation there's a high probability that humanity is doomed, same thing is there's no control over the endurance. I'll give Marvel the chance to react about who they fink the Black Panther is.
In the end it's through both of their efforts they're able to feel the love each being put into each others' actions, and it's a strong enough feeling to influence each others' reactions.
I definitely think Nolan tried to reduce the number of back-to-back cuts specifically to emphasise the increasing time lapse between the two timelines of the film, and to great effect. Coop's actions in the movies seem more and more like they're leaving Murph behind, but it's through "love" that Coop's efforts to save humanity (which haven't stopped for him, but since "love" experienced a brief time fluctuation have lapsed for Murph for a while until Coop's had a chance to catch up) influence Murph to act accordingly since both of them believe that saving humanity will save each other.
Michael, you always do a solid job, but I think you've outdone yourself with this video.
I love how you referenced Tenet at the end.
;)
yea that was really epic. I hope to see a Tenet video soon, that movie was insane and crazy put together.
Thank you for covering this. I felt something was really amiss about the Intersteller Murph story too but I couldn't really explain it. You completley nailed it! Forced urgency on the Murph story to try to match what was going on in space.
sorry but you're wrong . the underlying questions are different because in the Dark Knight and Inceptions are action-driven simple questions... straightforward questions, consequentially in the case of Interstellar it's more of an esoteric or better say abstract question and therefore it takes longer to reach it... but the payoff it's higher... much higher.
Interestelar is a master piece of movie making... that cuts deep in our emotions of the human quest for survival and deeper still in our quest for Grace.
Great video! I will use this whenever I’m planning a cross-cutting sequence. I also have one extra thing that I apply to heighten tension: make the time spent on each section get shorter and shorter as the sequence builds in a crescendo of suspense. I love the channel and look forward to new videos 👍🏽
Interstellar is not only Nolan’s best movie to date, it’s also one of the greatest movies of the 21st century (and there are many of them). Masterpiece.
This video actually crystallized everything I had a problem with in Cloud Atlas. That movie had a ton of cross-cutting sequences between multiple unrelated timelines, which could have been cool but there was never a unifying dramatic question. And to make matters worse, cross-cuts would frequently happen right as one of the story threads was reaching a dramatic moment, sucking all of the tension out of the scene. Basically, if you thought the cross-cutting in Interstellar wasn't done well, imo Cloud Atlas does it much, much worse.
Thank you Michael for being my inspiration to start my own movie review channel! Keep up the great content!
Michael, these are some of my favorite movies of all time. This is an amazing video you've made! Favorite channel on youtube!
i dont know about this, it makes sense but in the context of the overall...soul of interstellar i'd argue matching the life or death urgency of cooper with his daughter's story would seriously detract from the vibe/soul of the movie, so much, that i think the entire movie would have to be rewritten and reshot in an entirely different way especially the first act that shows what life on earth is like. Matching those two stories with the same high stakes life or death situation would make the entire movie feel more like a dooms day action thriller of some sort which isn't really what interstellar is. Also a change like that will change the meaning of the soundtrack and how we perceive it. i think part of the reason this soundtracks works so well is because of the contrast between the sonic qualities and the overall meaning nd soul of the movie. Basically its sort of like a deeply dramatic movie that is scored like with a giant thriller with horror elements, i mean we have never heard those two things combined together before let alone in a sci-fi movie and it requires a story that has to be extremely carefully woven together. its like jazz, u take chords that give you the slapstick happy or sad feelings nd u add a note/s on top of those chords that just contrasts and transforms the entire feeling of the chord and also where u place them in your melody matters so its a very delicate thing and i think its the same with interstellar cause technically this movie is really mixing alot of things that is just crazy to mix together so it has to be extremely delicate and careful. The earth sequence i'll argue is THE jazz notes cause without it, the entire thing would feel a lil bit on the nose like the usual way we expect sci-fi thrillers to be presented.
i mean if anything this really just proves nolan's extreme understanding and mastery of his craft, at the end of the day one of the most difficult things a director does is creating a single cohesive feeling from start to finish in all departments, camera angles, lighting, wardrobe, writing, music etc and deviating from the standard ways of making all these things come together to feel cohesive in a particular genre is extremely difficult etc.
This is truly brilliant analysis. And the best thing is I've always had an issue with this sequence and I've never known why. This video is so great.
I think the crosscuts in interstellar are non-comparable on purpose. To reinforce the fact that time flows differently in each storyline.
As in, in the same time frame, Cooper only spent a few days awake in space, but Murph waited decades, so I think it's purposefully made to be a parallelism (of theme) but also a dichotomy (of time scale).
As in, Cooper has no air and is choking to death, his grandkids are slowly choking to death on dust. Cooper rushes to get out of the planet, Murph tries to get her nephews out of the farm. Once the ship enters the atmosphere it'll burn and they'll die, once Murph's brother is back from putting out the fire her nephews will be stuck in the farm and eventually die. etc.
Love that point, thank you:)
He is a true movie buff.. Explaining why we love Nolan and then finding fault in his movie is epic
I disagree with your critique of clear and comparable stakes in Interstellar. I feel as though the theme still holds up because the whole point of Interstellar was that any and all events, no matter how mundane, contribute to the inevitability of a predetermined future destiny. In this way, Murph's smaller earthbound goals really do bear a greater significance to humanity's fate than their seeming lack of urgency.
I was just watching Interstellar for the first time yesterday and I noticed that something defibrillator felt off during this sequence! This has put it into words
This video is correct. _BUT,_ do you think Mr. Nolan did it on purpose? You know to _command_ a 2nd & 3rd watch? After all, there's _so_ much going on. These scenes you've talk about are _so_ intense.... the Murphy time line allows the audience to breath. While _still_ keeping our tension up. Once you watch Interstellar the very 1st time, you _need_ to see again. You know, to focus on _all_ those things you _must_ have missed, the 1st time round?
Thank you so much, for your channel. You always get the 'good' brain juices flowing! 😘💋
Oh, I just _have_ to mention, that _Epic_ score by Hans Zimmer! Omg! Put on Hans' scores from Nolan movies & read a Thriller novel. What an _amazing_ experience! Or _dare_ I say, "a novel experience?" 😂 Sorry, I'll show myself out...😏
I watched Tenet tonight and was able to better appreciate it thanks to this video! Thanks for enriching my experience with your content, I watch every one of your videos!
honestly i don't understand the hate that interstellar gets. the themes are new but still profound, and the allegory is informative of human behavior. but now that I've seen this video, i can understand that the structure of the film is way less than perfect.
A lot of ppl dont like it because of its false pretense of being a scifi film while being completely inaccurate (at least thw ppl i know) but it is a good film
I loved both of these movies, but I definitely felt a disconnect between the crosscut sequences in the middle of "Interstellar". Now I know why. Your analysis was very clear and logical as always - great job!!
You know when you have a masterpiece in hands when, after 12 years, people still study everything about it, maybe forever. TDK is the Citizen Kane of CB movies. All hail it.
Aaaah! Nice touch with reversing those final shots!