What is a film festival without a great work of Film Noir? Fridays excursion was British director Chris Nolan's Following.

Nolan's film was screened with a 23 minute short by director Michael Almereyda, probably best known for the vampire film Nadja. Based on a D.H. Lawrence short story, The Rocking Horse Winner was shot entirely using a Fisher Price Pixel Vision camera. The result was a somewhat surreal and almost pulsating interpretation. In 23 minutes Almereyda managed to capture deep emotion, enthusiasm, and a bit of helplessness in all his characters, utilizing very little dialog and relying primarily on the strange visual effects his toy camera was capable of producing. Most notable in this short was the use of a soundtrack piece by Massive Attack and Mad Professor which lent an almost hypnotic feel to a day at the races.

The Rocking Horse Winner was a perfect precursor to Following. The genre of Film Noir has been used to descibe many recent additons to the archives of film worldwide, simply when the perfect niche for a film can not be found or clearly defined. Following, however, has taken all the elements of classic film noir and stirred them up into a fascinating thriller. This film is a thriller in the sense not so much that it keeps you on the edge of your seat, rather in that the viewer may be consistently thrilled with the clever approach to storytelling and unique plot twists that unfold throughout the film.

The film focuses on a single man, Bill, and his new found obession with following people. As Bill's obsession grows and he meets a burglar, Cobb, who becomes his partner, he begins to learn the almost erotic thrill of not only following but invading in another's life as well. The plot unwinds in a series of flashes forward and back in the timeline as a darker mystery behind Bill and Cobb's relationship slowly unfolds. Following is most effective in its' use of touching the viewer on a very personal psychological level involving our own personal lives, possessions, and privacy. The plot in some ways can almost become secondary to the observations and commentaries made within the clever screenplay.

Overall, Following is a welcome change to the 90's style Film Noir genre. It is a salute to the talents of Christopher Nolan as producer, director, camera operator, and editor for the project. is playing several times during this film festival and comes highly recommended. Co-produced by Emma Thomas you can almost count on it getting disribution at one point or another but the suggestion would be to see this film as soon as possible.