Cinebanter #94 - INCEPTION
The mp3 of this show can be found here.In this episode, Michael and Tassoula infiltrate each other's dreams of what a great film should look like as they disagree about INCEPTION. In the Last Five®, Michael sees the film of the book he read this summer, while Tassoula catches up with the buzz film of 2010.
The breakdown is as follows:
• 00:00 Intro
• 00:32 Discussion of INCEPTION, Part 1
• Break
• 21:30 Discussion of INCEPTION, Part 2
• Break
• 45:34 To Sum It Up
• Break
• 46:09 The Last Five®
• 1:10:09 Credits & Outtake
Michael's Last Five in this episode were: MY MOTHER, THE ROAD, BIG FAN, KISSES and GHOST TOWN. Tassoula's Last Five were: LOVELY AND AMAZING, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, MADE IN HEAVEN, A SIMPLE PLAN and THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT.
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Special thanks to Brad Daane and Mark Cummins for providing the original music in this episode.
Tassoula has reviews, musings and movie-related product links at Tassoula's Movie Review Blog.
Reviews and/or notes of every movie Michael sees can be found at his MichaelVox website.
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We hope you enjoy the show!
Labels: 2010, architect, Christopher Nolan, Cinebanter, dreams, Ellen Page, Inception, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, MichaelVox Tassoula, Romance
posted by Cinebanter @ 4:15 PM
3 Comments:
Unanswered question answers:
1) When Ariadne throws Fischer out of the window and jumps after him, the gravity or sense of falling engages the kick. That's why she wakes up instead of going into limbo.
2) Saito dies in the third level and because time passes faster the deeper you go, his conscience ages for years by the time Cobb enters limbo. I'd say they end up in the same limbo because they're still in the same shared dream (on the plane).
3) Saito died before Cobb and Ariadne could get to him, and Eames was off planting explosives and shooting bad guys. Why resuscitate only Fischer? Because he was the key to the whole mission. Everything they were trying to accomplish depended on him having that conversation with his father.
Or at least that's how I remember it happening.
And put me down for never wanting a sequel to Inception. Like Memento and The Prestige, I think this is a film that—even though it tackles a lot of the same themes—stands on its own and is best left with that final shot.
@Rob--I've spent way too much time (as I'm sure you have) online studying the intricacies of INCEPTION. I'm sure Nolan is laughing at us as he sits in a bathtub full of gold coins. On the one hand, I'm glad there's a blockbuster causing this much discussion. On the other, does this film really deserve it? That's the question I'm asking myself now.
There better not be a sequel. He should go make up something from scratch if he wants to prove he's not just a comic book character director. If you haven't seen FOLLOWING yet, try to find it. It's worth the 80 or so minutes.
I think the film deserves all the praise and discussion that surrounds it if, for nothing else, having a filmmaker daring enough to take us for a big-budget blockbuster ride while also building a complex metaphor for the very act of filmmaking (and filmgoing) itself.
I mean, I can't say I've ever thought of Nolan as just "the Batman director" but the way I see it, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have allowed him to refine and expand his technique when it comes to his original films. I don't mind him leapfrogging his own work with more Batman, but I'm sure Batman will run out of gas sooner or later. In that case, I'm confident that he'll still be able to make a smart, successful film without a guy in a rubber suit. I can't say the same for some of his contemporaries like Sam Raimi or Bryan Singer.
Instead, Nolan's building a reputation as an artist that can not only tell an intriguing story, but also show us the machinations behind how he's telling it. Much like Leonard's mind, Memento is a fragmented mess of memories and time. The Prestige is a story of rival illusionists told through the "pledge-turn-prestige" process of a elaborate magic trick. Inception shows us the confluence of dreams and reality while also toying with the transcendental nature of art/entertainment itself. Operating on that almost-meta level is no small feat, and I think it's more than most filmmakers will ever accomplish in their whole career.
I finally saw Following on Netflix just a couple of weeks before seeing Inception. Interesting premise, but I thought it was very "diamond in the rough" compared to Nolan's other non-Batman films. Insomnia is the one that I'm going to have to revisit because I only saw it once and hardly remember any of it. Shame on me, I suppose.
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