Word: insomnia
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...film, Insomnia, is more conventional than Memento (it starts at the beginning, for one thing) but just as unsettling. It stars Al Pacino as a morally dubious Los Angeles cop who is exiled to Alaska to solve a murder and Robin Williams as the killer. "To me, the whole film is like a nightmare," says Nolan, 31, smiling as he gently rocks to and fro, "some awful waking dream...
Nolan, who says he wants to shake up the linear traditions of film, wakes up a tired genre with Insomnia. When Pacino shoots his partner, the director's subtle touches leave the audience wondering whether the cop did it on purpose. The same scene appears slightly different each time it is viewed in flashback. "I tend to have quite a fractured mise-en-scene, to use a phrase I don't really understand," says Nolan, who was born in England, studied at University College London and developed his taste for the shady side from American film noir...
...this interest in off-kilter characters that led him to the original Insomnia, a 1997 Norwegian film. When he found out Warner Bros. was planning a remake, he applied for the job. The producers wanted a more established director, but they came around after a private prerelease screening of Memento. Steven Soderbergh, a Nolan fan, signed on as an executive producer. Although Insomnia's budget was 10 times Memento's, says Soderbergh, "I felt the odds of making a distinctive film would be increased if they hired somebody young and hungry...
There are two kinds of directors in Hollywood: despots and doting parents. Despite his focus on the darker corners of the human psyche, Nolan is shaping up as one of the latter. "He's so calm," says Hilary Swank, who plays Insomnia's idealistic local detective, "and really aware of people's safety. In the scene where I get punched by Robin, Chris made sure it was all worked out and rehearsed, and we did just three takes. Usually directors want 20 to make sure they sell the punch...
...triumph of atmosphere over a none-too-mysterious mystery. Which is to say that Nolan--remaking a 1997 Norwegian film, adapted by Hillary Seitz--makes you feel the end-of-the-earth bleakness of his setting, makes you feel the way it can discombobulate people once they internalize it. Insomnia is not a spectacular moviegoing "memento," but it is thoughtful, quietly disturbing proof of a young director's gift...