Christopher Nolan’s ’98 DEBUT was made on a non-existent budget over a year of make-do weekend shoots, but introduced a shrewd talent with a unique knack for blow-to-the-solar-plexus storytelling. Its monochrome view of London’s murkier nooks and crannies recalls Antonioni, but critics quickly tipped Nolan as the new Kubrick. And how he’s delivered since.

A lonely, bored wannabe writer semi-stalks random strangers (as ‘research’) but when a smooth-talking cat burglar turns the tables, he’s seduced into a series of break-and-enter robberies. Falling for a girl whose flat he’s been conned into turning over, he realises (in a device later gloriously developed in Memento) that all’s not what it seems and he’s way out of his depth. Twists, tension and a fresh tone of noir: this is Nolan in knock-out form, and a must for fans of his better-known biggies.