I watched Nolan’s ‘Memento’ and couldn’t help comparing it to Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’. The authenticity of both films bring you closer to an ironic 'first time experience' even though you are well acquainted with the artists' later works.
It makes you take a more intimate look at their filmography. Both Tarantino and Nolan began their career as independent filmmakers dissenting against big-budget films only to later find themselves become film moguls. As their films expanded in scale and budget, so did their creativity, complexities, and craft. Both are auteurs in their own right and have changed the discourse of filmmaking and cinema in the last two decades. But, what is it about their earlier films that feel so raw and sometimes even better than their "bigger films"?
I hear their creative voices the loudest and clearest in 'Memento' and 'Reservoir Dogs'. You sense the thrill of bending rules and risking a story with a never-seen-before structure, edgy aesthetics and challenging engagement. They stood tall while claiming that a remarkable film doesn't just reach and relates to an audience but creates new ones. The ones that don't look at art through the lens of comfort, accessibility, and appeal but through curiosity, judgment, and contextualization.
You can call it the curse of a first impression or a primacy effect but I believe it is closer to how John Keats described beauty in 'A Thing of Beauty' as "an endless fountain of immortal drink." These stories replenish artistic sensibilities in films, energizes more creative dissent, and keeps the world of movies curious.
Unfortunately, the current issues of Nolan's preference of gigantism over character feel relevant for his later films. Also, the scattered storylines of Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' make his cinematic brilliance go through a mini identity crisis. Don't get me wrong, these are still spectacular experiences in the theatre. Perhaps this is only an uneasiness that any film enthusiast admits over the inevitable imbalance in the transition of an independent filmmaker to a global phenomenon.
