At a Q&A session with Christopher Nolan at Cannes (he's showing a 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey), he had some film school advice that was diametrically opposed to Alexander Payne's advice in the article last week:
Studying English allowed him to study storytelling which is basically what film is all about. Although in terms of having a degree to "fall back on"... I'm not sure English is any more "valuable" than a film degree in that sense. At least degrees are free or close to it in most of Europe.
Still... honing your storytelling chops is without a doubt one of the best ways to prepare for a career in film.
UPDATE - Here's a new article with more tidbits from his Cannes interview: More interesting tidbits from Christopher Nolan's press gaggle at Cannes
