CRITICAL / FILM REVIEWS – With “Inception” Christopher Nolan has struck a big blow. Through this intelligent blockbuster, he managed to make a real name for himself among the general public, and succeeded in rallying auteur cinema and the big Hollywood machine.
Unparalleled visual control
Difficult not to repeat as everything has already been said about Inception. A film with total mastery, both narratively and visually. With Inception, Christopher Nolan proves his talent and its ability to unite the public. It manages to appeal to hardcore moviegoers as much as it does to neophytes and occasional spectators. Basically, that’s Nolan’s cinema. Succeed in seducing everyone with disconcerting ease.
A result that already owes a lot to the visual aspect of his films. Inception is a real aesthetic feat. A superb rendering, cleverly used special effects, to offer a strong visual identity in a blockbuster that could have simply been all comers. But thanks to his particular paw, the filmmaker manages to take Inception in another category, in a new visual style, efficient, personal, impactful. Inception is a sensory film, able to play with logic, with the senses, and with the expectations of the public. Nolan takes his audience on unexpected paths, in a new atmosphere, in an extremely strong visual identity, which borrows as much from his own career, American blockbusters and Asian cinema. The link between Inception and Paprika is no longer to do as Nolan picks up in the film Satoshi Kon.
Extremely fluid narration
But what certainly appeals the most in Inception, it is obviously his narration. His immersion in the world of dreams, in the permanent illusion of what is real or not. From this approach, Nolan breaks his audience’s expectations. He places him in a permanent state of inconstancy, loss of reference, ignorance and above all doubt. Difficult then to pierce the real from the imaginary. This is the great strength of Inception, its ability to disturb the public, which ends up not knowing where it is.
This interweaving of several levels is also very much inspired by the world of video games. With different levels to pass, different levels where characters are forced to stay, Inception takes a lot of references to the video game universe. But this narration, this succession of levels, is disconcertingly fluid. If some felt lost when the film was released, it’s because Nolan wanted it. Because ultimately, the narration is exemplary fluidity. Everything works perfectly, everything is linked together with remarkable precision to reach the fateful conclusion, uncertain, exciting, and unprecedented.
Obviously, Inception also owes a lot to its 5-star cast. Nolan surrounds himself with his favorite actors: Tom Hardy, Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy ; while going for some very fashionable Hollywood faces: Leonardo Dicaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, or Marion Cotillard. In short, an absolutely stunning cast for this work that resists years like a good wine, and which 10 years later, has not yet aged a bit.
In any case, the great strength ofInception, it is once again its ability to unite. AT offer something between the American blockbuster, and a true author’s vision. This is the great strength of Christopher Nolan’s cinema, its ability to make Hollywood mastodons, but never devoid of soul and artistic vision. Christopher Nolan is a true goldsmith, capable of producing multi-million dollar blockbusters, while maintaining an author’s concern, a personal and different vision, allowing to offer a superb compromise to American cinema.
Inception by Christopher Nolan, released in theaters on Aug 12, 2020. Above the trailer. Find all our trailers here.
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