Art is storytelling, and we need to tell stories to pass along ideas and information, and to try and make sense out of all this chaos. And sometimes when you get a really good artist and a compelling story, you can almost achieve that thing that’s impossible which is entering the consciousness of another human being – literally seeing the world the way they see it. Then, if you have a really good piece of art and a really good artist, you are altered in some way, and so the experience is transformative and in the minute you’re experiencing that piece of art, you’re not alone. You’re connected to the arts. - Steven Soderbergh, 56th San Francisco International Film Festival
When I watched Interstellar for the first time with the age of 14, it completely changed my life. I wasn’t aware of the incredible power that lies in cinema. For the
coming years, Interstellar hold an untouchable position for me. Nolan became my God.
I was blown away by the incredible intellectuality of the masterpiece, how it could handle all those important topics without forcing them onto the viewer. Saving
the world, the importance of love- Nolan manages to tell such a huge tale with interstellar dimensions with an actually very simple story. After all, if you deconstruct Interstellar,
what remains is a film constructed after the classical Save The Cat-scheme, a series of dialogues cut together in an actually very linear way.
What struck me the first times I’ve seen Interstellar a few years ago were the outstanding beauty, the almost exaggerated, almost Shakespearean
dramatic aspect of the film- take for example the scene in which the crew is approaching Mann’s planet while Murph is sending a video message at the same time. Supported by Zimmer’s overly
dramatic score, this is one of my favourite scenes from my favourite film.
On storytelling level, Nolan archieved something incredible. In this film, he masters again perfectly his typical Nolan-Crosscutting. While the complete last hour of
the film is simply hypnotical, for me one of the most beautiful transitions is when Cooper listened to all the messages from 23 years and after finishing Murphy’s, the perspective skips into
Murph’s story when she ends recording. I’ve never seen a more elegant transition in any film ever.
Of course when I watched this the first time, a few things which amazed me where the fantastic score, the perfect casting (although I’m not a huge fan of any of the
main actors) and one of the most beautiful cinematographers of all time.
Nonetheless, Interstellar is everything else than a perfect film. On the contrary, it’s obviously imperfect and quite flawed. The film isn’t easily
watchable, not at all— the scenes often feel too long, way to heavy, the dialogues often forced, serving only the purpose of exposition and of pushing the story further. All this makes the film
not easily accessible- this is not a film which just “flows”, like for example The Social Network or also Inception. But in my eyes, all these flaws are the film’s
greatest strength. Like Zizek already said, we want to watch the imperfect and flawed. It gives it something memorable, something special.
When I saw Interstellar for the first time, Nolan was and remains the first filmmaker who could ever make me cry with a film. For me, this was a
brave visualized vision of great, complex ideas of interstellar scope.
Well, seeing it now again, I can say: Asbolutely nothing has changed. This still is the best film of all time.
watched at SPI Promenade cinema, Pondicherry, South India
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