Yeah. It’s a commitment before you even start.
I wonder if people realize that may be part of why they hesitate, because it’s almost like breaking an addiction for them.
And the funny thing is, the intermission is a little bit of bait that makes people go, “I’m prepared to deal with three and a half hours because there’s this cool intermission thing in the middle. What’s that going to feel like?” It’s as if they’re going to go on some new ride they’ve not experienced, when really they’re just going to walk out and go to the loo and buy some M&Ms and have a quick chat about the first half.
But I do think we’re in the middle of a pendulum swing when it comes to the industry and moviegoing. I know the difficulties that exist in even getting a film off the ground, so when I watch something and go, “Ah, it wasn’t really for me,” I still come away going, “Oh my God, I have such appreciation for the fact that you even did that.”
Because you know too well how precarious things can be.
How does anyone get any film made these days? This falls apart, that falls apart, you can’t get this actor, the money falls away. I’ll get offered something out of the blue and they go, “No, no, we’ve always really wanted you. We start next week.” I’m like, “OK, Paul Bettany just pulled out, obviously.” But you just do it. You get on board.
It’s funny, because for a number of years, I had people saying to me, “‘L.A. Confidential’ was the last movie of its kind and ‘Memento’ was the first movie of its kind,” this new style of Chris Nolan filmmaking. To be part of those two worlds that were only three years apart was pretty cool, really. And so now, again, to be in the middle of this snappy generation with a three-and-a-half hour movie that everybody’s talking about, I’m so curious to see how that looks in a few years’ time.
