Christopher Nolan, undeniably one of the greatest filmmakers alive, has recently watched Satyajit Ray's “Pather Panchali”, and says he is willing to learn more about Indian cinema.

The 47-year-old director of cinematic masterpieces such as “Memento”, “The Prestige”, “Inception”, “Interstellar”, “The Dark Knight” trilogy and most recently “Dunkirk”, recently arrived in India on a three-day trip along with visual artist Tacita Dean to promote the cause of film preservation and restoration, according to Indian Express.

“I have had the pleasure of watching Mr Ray's Pather Panchali recently, which I hadn't seen before. I think it is one of the best films ever made. It is an extraordinary piece of work. I am interested in learning more about Indian film industry and that is the reason why I came.”

“Obviously, Tacita and I want to spread our message about reframing the feature films as broadly as possible. And India being the largest film industry in the world is an essential part of that. The other reason why I wanted to come here was from a selfish point of view. I wanted to meet Indian filmmakers and learn more about India. I am looking forward to watching more Indian films in future,” Nolan said in a group interview.

“The film culture is always developing in ways we can't predict. The importance of this discussion about films is about preserving it as an option for future filmmakers. We can't say who is going to use or who is not. But one of the things worth pointing out is that films as an acquisition medium is still vastly superior to digital imaging technology. Even if you put out a DCP (Digital Cinema Package),” he said.

Nolan met members of the Indian film fraternity today and discussed the various ways of preserving and archiving film as a medium. The director believes filmmaking is an emotional process and as he works towards preserving films, he wants people to not analyse cinema on “logical terms”.

Source: Indian Express