STACK #158 Dec 2017

FEATURE DVD&BD

Dunkirk in film

much in camera as possible,” explains Nolan. “We were able to secure real Spitfires, a real bomber, real Heinkels, and tried to situate the IMAX camera where we’d never tried before. “It was all about putting the audience in the cockpit of the plane with the pilot. It was a lot of attention to detail, and a lot of careful planning. We shot all those sequences on

Atonement (2007) Director Joe Wright’s incredible, sweeping, one-take shot of the evacuation at Dunkirk in Atoneme t succinctly captures in just under five minutes the futility and desperation of a shattered army on the beaches, that just wants to get home. The choreography is brilliant. Dunkirk (1958) Two stories rolled into one. The first follows the attempts of a group of British soldiers left to fend for themselves in France, while a second story thread centers on a group of civilians that make their way across the English Channel in a boat to assist with the rescue mission. Mrs. Miniver (1942) While only briefly featuring Operation Dynamo, Mrs. Miniver deals with the inevitable personal loss that the war brought and how it affected many families. Filmed during the Second World War, Mrs. Miniver would win six Academy Awards in 1943, including Best Picture.

there. About 20 years ago, my producing partner and wife Emma Thomas made the crossing across the English Channel to Dunkirk with a friend of ours, who owned a small boat. “It was about the same time of year the evacuation had taken place. The crossing was extremely difficult. It felt difficult and dangerous – and that was without people dropping bombs on us, and us heading into a war zone. “I came away from that experience with respect for and fascination with the people

IMAX and overwhelmingly for real. “We bought a Yak airplane that’s very similar in size and shape to a Spitfire, but has two cockpits, so we could have a real pilot flying, while we had our actor up in the air with a camera mounted on the wing getting his close- ups. We really wanted to tell this aerial story in a way we hadn’t seen before.” Nolan tells the Dunkirk story in three parts, theming the individual plot lines as land, sea and air (one week, one day, one hour). “The idea behind the

who had taken part in the real evacuation. I’ve never quite understood why a modern film hadn’t been made about it, and as a filmmaker, those are the kind of gaps you’re looking to fill.” Eschewing the Spielbergian docudrama style that has become

structure of the story and the way in which we’ve told it is to create what I refer to as an intimate epic,” he says. “You’re trying to stay in a very intimate point of view with each of the story threads, but have them gradually create a cumulative picture about a

Everything in the film is intended to be intense, suspenseful and subjective

the standard for war films since 1998’s Saving Private Ryan , Nolan has crafted a film that harnesses relentless tension as opposed to the shock of violent imagery. There is no principal narrative or character, no pinned love interest; the film is about survival. War film clichés are vehemently avoided. And the lack of CGI adds a layer of verisimilitude to the film. You know the aircraft dogfighting sequences were shot in the sky. “In planning the aerial sequences it was very important to me that we try to achieve as

very, very large event.” “What I was hoping to gain was a way of maintaining a subjective storytelling approach, while building a coherent picture of the larger events at Dunkirk. Everything in the film is intended to be intense, suspenseful and subjective. You want to be on the beach with these guys, seeing events through their points of view. But then you also want to construct this bigger picture, which also requires a view from the air, from a Spitfire pilot, and from the sea, from people coming over to help with the evacuation. “That way, you don’t allow the

• Dunkirk is out on Dec 18

pieces, instead relying on personal vignettes that capture the disbelief and desperation of the escape;

Kenneth Branagh attempting to orchestrate the pier evacuation and maintaining a sense of stoicism and duty throughout; a soldier discarding his equipment and striding into the sea; Tom Hardy chalking his Spitfire’s remaining fuel consumption on to the cockpit panel. Together, these moments form an epic story of survival. The most powerful war film since Terrence Malick’s brilliant The Thin Red Line (1998), Dunkirk is a game changer for the genre, from an exceptional filmmaker.

audience to step out of the movie,” he continues. “I didn’t want to give the audience knowledge that the characters didn’t have, apart from the interaction of these three distinct story threads.” From the opening scene of Dunkirk to its conclusion, the suspense is indeed relentless; at times almost unbearable. Nolan avoids the big cinematic set

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