How Christopher Nolan remade Insomnia
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2024
- In this episode of Remake/Remodel, Leigh Singer compares #ChristopherNolan’s noir thriller with its ’90s Norwegian counterpart. Which version do you prefer?
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Batman Begins is fantastic but Memento and Insomnia are a Chris Nolan’s two most underrated//under appreciated movies. I personally think Memento is his best movie and insomnia is his second best! Though I can’t wait for his next Atomic bomb Manhattan project movie With Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon
Memento is a film that truly enables a viewer to feel the same confusion and insecurity as the main protagonist. Very few films accomplished it to the absolution, but Memento is one of them. And it shows Nolan´s talent.
Pacino is great in it as well....
The idea that his acting has been poor in the last 20 years is nonsense and this film is a great example of Pacino + good script = great performance
To be fair, in the Irishman, Pacino is just playing himself. You know it's bad when Joe Pesci is acting him under the table in that movie.
“An actor is only as strong as the script”
I loved Pacino in The Irishman so maybe I just love when he's playing the Pacino caricature. DeNiro is someone who REALLY only plays one guy in every movie. @@AidanMclaren
Nolan´s Insomnia is an overlooked and forgotten masterpiece. I saw it when it first reached cinemas in Europe and I was absolutely stunned by the film. The plot, the smartness, well written characters, superb cast of triple A actors, Julyan´s soundtrack (how I miss his works in later Nolan films!), and the competent direction by Nolan...the whole combination works brilliantly. Also, it is noteworthy that this was Nolan´s THIRD movie after his debut Following (short movie) and his first big screen movie Memento. And in this film, we can see a rising star that confidently directed a movie, using many of his own concepts and methods that made him great in later films. It was his first cooperation with Warner Brothers, and despite Insomnia being "just a remake", it was - deservedly - commercial and critical success.
i think the Norwegian version is better....eerie and ambiguous. The soundtrack adds a lot to the unsettling mood too.
have anyone notice Stellan Skarsgard and Chris Nolan both lookalikes?
I loved both but there was something about the original that tips it for me.
Perhaps the Nordic feel. The claim that the original plot is "moronic" could only be made by Americans.
Also, how is it possible that Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series was not serialized with Stellan Skarsgaard in the lead? The character was surely based on him?
Just saw the Nolan version for the first time. Both very good movies!
Even the director of the original gave Nolan his props.
Politeness
Remember this is a video essay where the author is trying to make a point and he collects the pieces and arrange them in a way that fits his hypothesis, the best thing to do is to watch both movies by yourself. I think he's forcefully making you see that Nolan's version is presented as a typical American cop movie with good and bad people which is not the case, the movie is full with moral ambiguity, and makes a case for an ethical and moral debate on what is right and wrong, and what's justice true nature and he inflates the original version on a case for nihilism of the main character and that sometimes "shit happens" but if that were the case automatically there would be questions to explore on the nature of the main character which the only thing that's apperantly clear is that he's sexually repressed, and does not evolve on maybe showing on why he behaves that way, which I think is weak part in the script. And finally neither of the two films are presented with intentions to show horror, which original final shot is really out of tone but this video essay elevates that and downplays the ethical conundrum that Nolan is proposing for thought provoking purposes, which in my honest opinion makes a better film besides editing, directing, cinematography and acting.
When the American movie want to have the cop be "ambiguous" about his morals, it is a "technical error" that Al Pacino commits. The bad guy is guilty as sin, but technically that cannot be proven, so even when Pacino is doing something wrong it is something right!
Also, this back-story sells people the American meme that criminals are evil masterminds and detectives are ten steps behind (except for the hero, of course). This is the exact opposite point of the original movie. Most crime is precisely like the police error in the American version: something that went terribly wrong and the characters involved are mostly hapless and hopeless and not some evil mastermind.
The last thing an American audience needed was more self-righteousness!
That said: the American version was a visual masterpiece and the acting was superb!
Just beacuse a movie doesnt use the standard hollywood dramaturgy does not mean it is worse then the much safer and more family friendly american version. The original is a masterpiece in all senses of the word. The American is a safe remake made for americans using american conventions. And the idea that an European film following european stylistic choices (less exposition, longer shots, more open to interpretation) is to be judged based on whether or not it fits with the american conventions is ridiculous. Another great example of american studios grabbing a critically well received international film concept and stripping it of its identity and making it safe for american audiences. And while we are on the subject. The originals directing, cinematography and acting are all much better suited to the filmconcept than its remake.
No. The Biosphere soundtrack makes it even more unsettling than the Nolan version...
Biosphere is the reasson why I discovered this film.
Great channel and analysis.
Just watched the original, much better, more nuanced and more realistic. When I shot my partner by accident I covered it up in a very similar way.
What
This guy partners
Now you gave yourself up. Did you suffer the guilt and insomnia like the character? Sounds like a fascinating experience.
Wow, didn't know Insomnia is a remake 😮
Me too
a good remake;
Thank you!!!
I just now....received a HUGE component.
Dire Straits.
Cole (Coal) Trickle...
"Rowdy" Burns.
"Rusty" Wheeler.
I really like Nolan’s insomnia but the quote from the screenwriter is full on Hollywood ego and stupidity. Haven’t seen the other one but it sounds like it was purposely unconventional.
I just watched the remake on TCM the other day & found it a bit flat compared to the remake. I don't think anyone could look more tired than Al Pacino. I found the cop in the original kind of boring as well as the murderer character. Both Pacino & Williams are at the top of their game. The fact that the Pacino character intentionally kills his partner adds intensity to the story. Is Dormer going to get away with killing his partner or is the killer going to help the police convict him & get away with his crime. I liked that Dormer actually kills the murderer instead of just watching him fall to his death. I didn't know if that makes me an American or not. Lol. For me the remake is a masterpiece with brilliant cinematography, script & an acting masterclass. My favorite movie of the 00s.
You don't even have to think that hard if the director is Nolan and the cast includes Pacino robins and swank
"An indifferent universe offers no cosmic balance or karma"
So, essentially, it's the same thing Patrick Bateman realised in American Psycho, except in that case it's because humanity does not care to enact those virtues.
Original, in many moody and atmospheric ways, is better
it is. it's nothing special, but it's entertaining, and has atmosphere and beautiful photography. i was half expecting to end up liking the original more, but it was just boring in spite of taking a darker and more unorthodox approach.
A big Pacino fan but skarsgards character was far more compelling due to this ruthlessness and overall coldness
Remake is 100% better on my opinion.
I prefer the original, it fits better the movie proposal. And the soundtrack it's 100% better than the one from the remake!
I’m sorry I have to disagree on that. I’m just telling you my honest opinion about it.
The land of the midnight sun
Remake is better than original Insomnia movie
its always the american copy/ remake/ adaptation that falters to blindly parody the great works of the east, where in the east there is ambiguity, mystery,.... that allows the people to create their own monsters from the tales they see and hear, while the americans just want to play the good, with all the substance served to the audience, taking away from the audiences own thought and discovery.
Yes, but this is not the case.
When the detective was writing down the address on the back of the novel. It did not give the apartment number. How in the world did he know exactly where to go? It was just the name of a town, no street address. No apartment number. Huge plot hole.
Like he said.. Little town.. More easy to find him
I only just saw the remake recently and I am shocked how bland and by-the-numbers the remake is...zero ambiguity, no atmosphere, dull script and plot (became like a typical US tv movie).....even the soundtrack is some much better and more original on the norwegian film... pointless remake in my opinion...
The remake is pointless? Wrong, the remake is much better than the original.
@@OhBoy404 I disagree...
@@myogaia explain yourseld
@@OhBoy404 I'm saying that my opinion it's the same as the person who originally commented.
@@myogaia sheep
Dormer's moral purpose is to prevent all the cases from being reopened, including the child molester/murderer (Dobbs) that he framed. So the last scene, when he tells Elle not to throw away the evidence, contradicts the purpose of the "greater good" narrative. It's kind of strange that the big plot hole comes right at the end of the movie.
part of nolan's "have your cake and eat it too" hollywood approach to morality.
I saw the remake first. It was one of my favorite thrillers for a while, until I've learnt it's a remake and decided to watch the original.
The original definitively confirmed for me two things: That Nolan was, is and always will be a highly overrated director, a "stupid man's smart man", someone who gets the praise of being something bigger than he is, because everything else around his type of audience is so small.
And that American bigger-budgeted cinema always is (though not always was and might not always will be) a dumbed down, washed-out spectacle, no matter the genre. Most of the better films are based on the stories (Be that remakes, books or just original scripts butchered by the studio process) that are far superior to the final cinematic products, and they often misunderstand, completely missing or just straight up throwing away what made those stories' core, leaving only a shallow stuffed skin, filled with "defined moral lessons/ character backgrounds/ points/ (Or rather, tired yet so comfortable for some cliches).
And that Insomnia's remake screenwriter's quote is an extra nail in the coffin. It's like the people that are responsible there for the "smarter cinema' are indeed monkeys with typewriters.
The remake is so much better
the US version just doesn't daaaare to have an ambiguous character like Jonas....Dormer is written to be much better in EVERY single scenario, lol... Even tries to help Hap at first, and calls his wife afterwards. Plus it is established in the audience's eye that Hap is a bit of an asshole, whereas Erik (Jonas' partner) is very likeable... yeah, the US version is just safe and secure, everything is explained bunch of times from Finch and others, it's just a great example of a movie with "training wheels" for the audience🤡
The 'kills a dog in the original' versus 'finds a dead dog in the remake' is pretty much a metaphor for the whole thing