Christopher Nolan: Successful films take risks

He may be adapting one of the oldest stories ever recorded for his next film, but Christopher Nolan told the New York Times that it's new ideas that will save the film industry. Asked about the industry's overall state, the filmmaker believes studios should take more risks with their blockbusters because audiences are smart and quickly spot those who play it safe. "Trust the audience," he said. "If you're really interested in cinema and its history, one thing is clear: you have to take risks to succeed. The biggest risk of all is playing it safe. That's precisely what consistently fails in mainstream cinema. Audiences are looking for something new. The risk comes from the middlemen, the financiers, the studios." If you manage to reach the audience, I'm not making any predictions for The Odyssey, but in the past, we've been richly rewarded for trusting the audience. Panic in the studios. Nolan explains that when he presented Memento, his 2000 classic, his wife and producer Emma Thomas worried about the film's reverse chronological structure, which she considered a huge risk. He, on the contrary, defended the idea that formal risks make films unique and allow them to bring something new. Nolan is, moreover, famous for his penchant for playing with narrative structures and time. And he's absolutely right. Recent examples abound, not to mention the franchises squeezed dry, battered to the bone, which are now causing panic in the studios. These filmmakers keep searching for the right formula, somewhere between remake, remake, and reboot, sometimes forgetting what truly defines cinema: audacity and creativity. A word to the wise: Christopher Nolan sends his deepest respect.