Sightlines · reception
How Following was received
1999 · Christopher Nolan · Following on Sightlines
The arc
A blip on the late-90s festival circuit that almost nobody saw on release, it's since been retro-canonised as the ultimate 'before they were famous' debut — every Nolan blockbuster sends a new wave of viewers back to it.
What’s debated
The perennial debate: is Following a fully-formed thriller that stands on its own, or just a fascinating rough sketch for Memento that only gets attention because of the name attached?
Its footprint
Its most screenshotted moment is the Batman logo on a flat's front door — a blink-and-miss detail that film Twitter and Letterboxd reviews endlessly flag as accidental prophecy, six years before Batman Begins.
Where it stands
The completionist's badge of honor — the film Letterboxd users log last when working backwards through Nolan's filmography, and the go-to exhibit in any 'great directors' micro-budget debuts' list.
Did you know? Nolan made it for around $6,000, shooting on weekends over about a year because the cast and crew all had day jobs — and the actors rehearsed extensively so scenes could be captured in one or two takes to save expensive 16mm film stock.
Named by the director
- Nicolas Roeg — Nolan has repeatedly cited Roeg's fractured, nonlinear editing as a formative influence on the time-shuffled structure of his early films, including Following.