10 Movies That Aren't About What You Think
3. It's About Filmmaking - Inception
Hollywood is often called the Dream Factory, and this kinship between films and dreams was slyly writ large by Christopher Nolan in his incredible sci-fi action film Inception.
Nolan's movie of course revolves around a series of characters delving into a nest of dreams within dreams in order to implant an idea inside a man's subconscious, but it's also about how powerful dreamlike imagery can be - to create illusions which forever alter our perception of the world.
Throughout the film, protagonist Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his "crew" are effectively making a movie of sorts - working extremely hard to crystalise an idea within the mind of business magnate Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), to persuade him to dissolve his father's company.
It is a film entirely concerned with the synthesis of narrative and meaning through images and emotional ideas - and what is that if not filmmaking itself?
Though Nolan has stated in interviews that he didn't consciously make Inception as an allegory for the filmmaking process himself, he nevertheless accepts the interpretation, that he unknowingly made a movie entirely concerned with the creative process.
Nolan conceded, "The way the team works is very analogous to the way the film itself was made," which says it all really.