Leo DiCaprio: "[INCEPTION] didn't make sense to many of us"

[JacksonArcher]

Leonardo DiCaprio, star of the upcoming Inception, written and directed by The Dark Knight helmer Christopher Nolan, talked a little about the film while doing press for his next film, Martin Scorsese's supernatural thriller Shutter Island.

DiCaprio attempts to explain the plot of Inception. Key word would be "attempts".

“Inception is…Chris delving into dream psychoanalysis and, at the same time, making a high-octane, surreal film that came from his mind. He wrote the entire thing, and it all made sense to him. It didn’t make sense to many of us when we were doing it. We had to do a lot of detective work (laughing) to figure out what the movie was about.”

It seems that we're not alone when trying to figure out some of the plot mechanics to the film, and DiCaprio has the added advantage of actually having read the script and worked on the film!

http://screenrant.com/inception-plot-leonardo-dicaprio-ross-44414/

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Yeah, but he's probably just not very bright ...

 

[S. Gomez]

He does use the past tense when talking about that. Maybe it's the kind of story that makes more sense when you see the finished film (or at least a cut of it), and he probably hasn't yet.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Interesting. This is beginning to have the feeling of Stanley Kubrick. I can't wait.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

Kinda funny that DiCrapio was offered the role of Neo in The Matrix, but allegedly turned it down out of concern about the special effects.
More likely he couldn't make sense of the script.

 

[trevanian]

Kinda funny that DiCrapio was offered the role of Neo in The Matrix, but allegedly turned it down out of concern about the special effects.
More likely he couldn't make sense of the script.

That would put him in good company, since Sean Connery couldn't make head nor tails of it either.

Geezus, I just put Dicraprio and Sir Sean in the same sentence. Apologies all around.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Kinda funny that DiCrapio was offered the role of Neo in The Matrix, but allegedly turned it down out of concern about the special effects.
More likely he couldn't make sense of the script.

Will Smith turned it down too. Although in his case it was so he could do Wild Wild West.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Reminds me of the behind-the-scenes featurette of Southland Tales. All of the actors were saying they had no idea what was going on.

 

[S. Gomez]

They may have been much later interviews, but on the DVD all the actors in the original Star Wars agreed that they found it "a bit strange". On the face of it, you can kind of see what they mean. Imagine you haven't seen the movie and try to describe it in a couple sentences.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Kinda funny that DiCrapio was offered the role of Neo in The Matrix, but allegedly turned it down out of concern about the special effects.
More likely he couldn't make sense of the script.

Will Smith turned it down too. Although in his case it was so he could do Wild Wild West.

I think he also wanted to make Neo more of the usual wise-cracking Big Willy character, but the Wachowskis were quite adamant that he not go that way. Others offered the role were Brad Pitt and Ewan McGregor, while Val Kilmer was once pencilled in for Morpheus.

 

[Kegg]

DiCaprio's observation reminds me of the rather elaborate wheels-within-wheels-within-zoetropes of The Prestige, which is definitely a good sign in my book.

Kinda funny that DiCrapio was offered the role of Neo in The Matrix, but allegedly turned it down out of concern about the special effects.
More likely he couldn't make sense of the script.

Eh, what? The Matrix isn't a difficult movie to understand, and the special effects problem wasn't one it was guaranteed to overcome. It seems a sensible concern to me.

 

[JacksonArcher]

The Prestige was a truly confounding movie. It had a lot of layers. It took me a few viewings to really understand and begin to appreciate it.

 

[D Man]

^^When The Prestige ended, I sat there in awe and watched the end credits, then immediately hit play again. Never done that with a movie before or since. If Inception is even half as awesome, it'll be worth it.

 

[Brikar99]

Eh, what? The Matrix isn't a difficult movie to understand, and the special effects problem wasn't one it was guaranteed to overcome. It seems a sensible concern to me.

I've spoken to many people who said they simply didn't get it, despite an entire sequence of the movie devoted to one of the main characters flat out explaining it. My father, who I'd consider to be a pretty smart fellow, and doesn't often have problems understanding movies or TV shows no matter how complicated they get, asked me, "So... they were... traveling through time, or something?"

 

[TheBrew]

The Prestige was a truly confounding movie. It had a lot of layers. It took me a few viewings to really understand and begin to appreciate it.

Or how about Memento? That is a confusing move that needs a re-watch.

Though I didn't find The Prestige that confusing, but more full of awesome. Bowie as Tesla is one of the favorite casting choices of all time.

 

[trevanian]

Eh, what? The Matrix isn't a difficult movie to understand, and the special effects problem wasn't one it was guaranteed to overcome. It seems a sensible concern to me.

I've spoken to many people who said they simply didn't get it, despite an entire sequence of the movie devoted to one of the main characters flat out explaining it. My father, who I'd consider to be a pretty smart fellow, and doesn't often have problems understanding movies or TV shows no matter how complicated they get, asked me, "So... they were... traveling through time, or something?"

Lots of people didn't get MATRIX. My editor saw the movie three times and was still thinking Morpheus' ship was a submarine and that it was maneuvering through WATER.

That's apart from all the people who were just staring at the imagery and not listening to the exposition during the fetus field pullback.

I'd hate to have tried to show them DARK CITY ...

 

[Hound of UIster]

Eh, what? The Matrix isn't a difficult movie to understand, and the special effects problem wasn't one it was guaranteed to overcome. It seems a sensible concern to me.

I've spoken to many people who said they simply didn't get it, despite an entire sequence of the movie devoted to one of the main characters flat out explaining it. My father, who I'd consider to be a pretty smart fellow, and doesn't often have problems understanding movies or TV shows no matter how complicated they get, asked me, "So... they were... traveling through time, or something?"

Does your father write reviews for the New Yorker?

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I'd hate to have tried to show them DARK CITY ...

God help them with the Director's Cut which eliminates the opening narrative that completely gives away the plot of the movie.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I was at WonderCon in San Francisco today. Near the end of the WB panel, right after a very cool film I hadn't heard of before called Splice, they announced a surprise guest.

Who was it? Christopher Nolan, and his wife (who is also his producing partner on all his movies).

We also got to see a longer trailer for Inception. It didn't seem like a theatrical trailer but some longer clips edited together.

I'm still not that much clearer on what the movie is about, but a few bits were made more clear, both from the video (which featured Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy as well) and from Nolan's comments. He said a lot of interesting things about filmmaking philosophy, I'd recommend finding a transcript or report for filmmaking buffs.

But anyways, back to Inception, the main thing I got out of it was this:

Nolan compared it to a high-concept heist movie. Leo, and I think the group he works with/for, are able to create artificial dreams, and "ensnare" people in the dream, and use this to access their subconscious and extract thoughts and information. I'm not sure if Leo does it himself or is trying to prevent others from doing it.

Oh yeah, and the cinematography and action sequences look outstanding. It's very crisp and "Nolan-ish". It was funny, when Nolan talked, the whole room hushed, and not in a 'bored' way either. You could almost feel the respect in the room. it was pretty great.

edit: io9 does a good job of summing it up. Just reading it kept reminding me of this or that little bit Nolan said. Very accurate:
http://io9.com/5508968/christopher-nolan-pulls-back-the-curtain-on-new-movie-inception

OT but the panels also had a look at Resident Evil Afterlife, which looked surprisingly cool (not a huge fan of the franchise), decent stuff from Nightmare on Elm Street - but the cast was rather dull, a scene from Toy Story 3 of the toys arriving in the day care center, very well done, and aforementioned Splice, which looks intriguing as hell. I have a feeling this is going to be a cult hit with genre fans.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Thank you very much Stone_Cold_Sisko for that report! It was tantalizing to read. I really can't wait for Inception (it's my most anticipated film of the year) and reading that report just amps up my excitement even more!

I also really enjoyed Nolan's comments about making the dream sequences as documentary-esque and gritty as possible. One of my main complaints with The Lovely Bones was that the dream sequences were so fantasy-esque that it made the entire experience very unemotional and detached. I'm reassured to hear that Nolan is committed to making them fantastical yet a bit trippy and grounded in reality. Him mentioning "lucid dreaming" also got my attention.