THE REAL THING
Nolan relies almost entirely on physical effects over CG creations, including when things go boom. ust quite how it’ll play with time remains to be seen. Those rewinding visuals in the trailer and even the palindromic title treatment have set theories in motion, though it’s unlikely we’ll get a definitive answer until the film’s release. “Time is a preoccupation of Chris’,” is all Thomas will say. “And yes. This film does allow him to play in that arena in a way that he hasn’t before.” Nolan’s previous narrative gambits include Memento’s murdermystery-in-reverse plotting and Interstellar’s black-hole time-dilation.
Pattinson makes the analogy of a plate-spinner. “There’s a point where you’re like, it’s kind of cool, and it becomes so insane that it’s almost frightening,” he laughs. “I sound like such a moron talking about this stuff. Because on top of the, uh – how would I even say this? Quite advanced theoretical physics; I think I’m allowed to say that – it’s just got a billion different ways to read it.” He gasps, breathless. “It’s so complicated; if it wasn’t Chris Nolan doing it, you’d be like, ‘This is an impossible movie.’”
Kenneth Branagh talks in labyrinthine riddles when addressing his role in the film. “I suppose the trailer indicates that there’s a kind of Nolan paradox at the centre of the film, which is, ‘Try not to understand it, but to feel it,’” he tells TF. When asked if it’s fair to call him the antagonist to
Washington’s protagonist, the answer is anything but linear. “I kid you not, I read this screenplay more times than I have ever read any other thing I have ever worked on,” he says. “It was like doing the Times crossword puzzle every day, I would imagine. Except the film and the screenplay didn’t expect you, or need you, to be an expert. In the playing of it, and in the scenes, he keeps upturning, or playing forward and backward, our expectations of what the character should be. So my conversations with him about my character were constant, because the character’s evolution was not set. It was a series of constant surprises.”
“It’s obviously genre-bending,” adds Washington. “It’s its own genre: it’s the Nolan genre.” He has a point. While Nolan is cinema’s foremost purveyor of originals, the films do form a genre unto themselves, with expectations of gargantuan set-pieces, mind-blowing ideas, and daring narrative structures.
Back on set, we witness one more shot before the production breaks for food. Washington is doing high knees to limber up for moment that requires him to be dragged under a roller door. The paint on the door is touched up before being blasted with a hairdryer – the only moment on this set that’s like watching paint dry. When it’s ready, Hoyte van Hoytema gets in close with a shoulder-mounted IMAX camera. “Three, two, one… Action!” and