From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear this short, KCRW.com.

It's been about 12 years since writer-director Chris Fennell and has worked

from his own screenplay, his own original screenplay. That was his first film following, for which he

was here back in the days and the treatment was live, as he reminded me. He's done a few films

since then. Most notably, of course, the Dark Night Batman begins. My gosh, Memento, the prestige. His new film, of course, is Inception. Again,

an original is the writer-director. Chris, first of all, welcome back. Thank you. The movies are so

much about, especially the things you write, about people who have an idea of themselves that they

push onto the world, and they sort of encounter people's reactions to that, kind of like

they're living out their alter egos.

And this is a movie that's kind of different in that it's about people diving to somebody

else's alter ego a little bit, though that perception of themselves they force onto the

world.

I think everything for me really comes back to the difference between the way we see the world

subjectively, but we believe there's an objective reality.

So even the way we see ourselves, for example, and I've always liked genres and stories, you know, the crime genre, the film noir and everything, that embrace that

idea and kind of use that as a jumping off point for stories where you're in the maze with

the characters, kind of making the wrong turns and everything. I think stories that are too objective, you know, where you're in the maze with the characters, kind of making the wrong turns and

everything. I think stories that are too objective, you know, where you're hovering above the

maze, watching people make the wrong turns. They're a little frustrating. I like to be down

in there with the person really embracing the subjectivity of the storytelling. Because I think

cinema particularly, it's a great, it's a great medium for exploring, subjectivity, exploring the way you can get lost in your own perception of the world and your place in the world.

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