Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Following
1999 · Christopher Nolan · Following on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch how close the camera stays to the back of his head. (camera)
Nolan shoots handheld at following distance, so the camera shadows the protagonist exactly as he shadows strangers.
Payoff: You are made to do the following too, not just watch someone else do it. In the reading: dicisign. The reading calls this a dicisign: an image of someone perceiving, which makes the camera itself feel like a second, colder watcher.
Notice whether the protagonist looks groomed or unkempt in each scene. (performance)
His hair, clothes, and bruises change across scenes that are not shown in order, so his appearance works as a hidden clock for the timeline.
Payoff: Watching his face and clothes is the only way to know which thread of the story you're in.
Watch what Cobb does with a stranger's photographs and letters. (setting)
He handles intimate objects during burglaries as though reading a person from what they keep, treating the flat as a text.
Payoff: You learn to read a person from the things they keep.
Notice the gray daylight and pooled shadow throughout. (light)
The high-contrast black-and-white photography keeps the film unglamorous, situating it in classic noir's visual grammar on a contemporary, low-rent street.
Payoff: The look does the noir's work without a single costume or car from the 1940s.
Notice the film jumps between at least three different timelines. (structure)
Scenes from different points in the story are cut together out of order, so you have to piece together what caused what as you go.
Payoff: Understanding the order becomes part of the experience, not just background information.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch how close the camera stays behind him. You are following too, the whole time.