Christopher Nolan
Brief History
Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed writer-director Christopher Nolan was born on July 30, 1970 in London, England. Over the course of 15 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made.
At 7 years old, Nolan began making short movies with his father’s Super-8 camera. While studying English Literature at University College London, he shot 16-millimetre films at U.C.L.’s film society, where he learned the guerrilla techniques he would later use to make his first feature, Following (1998), on a budget of around $6,000. The noir thriller was recognized at a number of international film festivals prior to its theatrical release, and gained Nolan enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for his next film.
Nolan’s second film was Memento (2000), which he directed from his own screenplay based on a short story by his brother Jonathan. Starring Guy Pearce, the film brought Nolan numerous honors, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Nolan went on to direct the critically acclaimed psychological thriller, Insomnia (2002), starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.
The turning point in Nolan’s career occurred when he was awarded the chance to revive the Batman franchise in 2005. In Batman Begins (2005), Nolan brought a level of gravitas back to the iconic hero, and his gritty, modern interpretation was greeted with praise from fans and critics alike. Before moving on to a Batman sequel, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced the mystery thriller The Prestige (2006), starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as magicians whose obsessive rivalry leads to tragedy and murder.
In 2008, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced The Dark Knight (2008) which went on to gross more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Nolan was nominated for a Directors Guild of America (D.G.A.) Award, Writers Guild of America (W.G.A.) Award and Producers Guild of America (P.G.A.) Award, and the film also received eight Academy Award nominations.
In 2010, Nolan captivated audiences with the sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), which he directed and produced from his own original screenplay. The thought-provoking drama was a worldwide blockbuster, earning more than $800,000,000 dollars and becoming one of the most discussed and debated films of the year. Among its many honors, Inception received four Academy Awards and eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Nolan was recognized by his peers with D.G.A. and P.G.A. Award nominations, as well as a W.G.A. Award for his work on the film.
One of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing movies of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) concluded Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Due to his success rebooting the Batman character, Warner Bros. enlisted Nolan to produce their revamped Superman movie Man of Steel (2013), which opened in the summer of 2013. In 2014, Nolan directed, wrote, and produced the science fiction epic Interstellar (2014), starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. released the film on November 5, 2014 to positive reviews and strong box-office results, grossing over $670 million dollars worldwide.
Nolan resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and their children. Nolan and Thomas also have their own production company, Syncopy.
Christopher Nolans’ Styles, Methods and Techniques
What Nolan is probably best known for is that he doesn’t tell his stories linearly (with scenes in chronological order). He makes extensive use of flashbacks and flashforwards to add additional depth and explanation. As such, a common theme is having multiple story threads that link together. In Memento, for example, the story is told from both ends at the same time. In The Prestige, the film is split into two stories that are from the perspectives of two different characters, and as events in one storyline occur, they add clarity to events that happen in the other. In Batman Begins, Nolan uses flashbacks heavily in the exposition to bring the audience up to speed about what we are watching while also continuing the main storyline starting from a point in the future. Finally, Nearly all of Nolan’s films have an opening scene (or at least just a clip of a scene) that is not in chronological order with the rest of the film.
In many of Nolan’s films, a main character starts off with redeeming qualities only to be shown later as having evil qualities. These characters can be the protagonist or someone who is at first assisting the protagonist. They often start off as heroic or seem like they have good intentions, but by the end of the film are antagonists or anti-heroes. In Memento, Leonard (Guy Pearce) gives himself a warning not to trust Teddy (Joe Pontlianno), but it’s not until the end of the film that we know why. In The Prestige, the protagonist is Angier (Hugh Jackman) who plays the victim’s role when Borden (Christian Bale) causes the death of his wife. In the end though, Angier’s obsession with revenge ends up making him as much of a villain (if not more) than Borden. Nolan’s Batman trilogy has one major supporting character that switches sides in each film. Ducard/Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins, Harvey Dent/Two Face in The Dark Knight, and Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises.
Nolan is an auteur director, which basically means that he has his hand in just about everything. Although stories are his forte, he also pays close attention to the manner in which his films are shot. In particular, Nolan is very careful with where he puts his camera, and what it shows the audience. This is especially true when a scene is focusing on a character or dialogue. Nolan’s favorite shot is to place the camera behind his actor at eye level. This is to allow the audience to “see” from the character’s perspective without actually being that character. It is a clever way to create a first-person like experience for the audience without giving up a third-person storytelling advantage. In the Prestige, the camera follows behind Angier as he performs onstage, showing his perspective as he looks out at the crowd. In Inception, the vertigo-inducing fight sequence in the twisting hotel room is shot from behind Arthur. In Memento, the camera is always at eye level or else it is showing the first-person perspective of a character. In Insomnia, when Dormer is chasing Walter Finch, the camera follows behind Dormer.
Nolan uses light, darkness, and the contrast of those things to show character growth/decay and exploration. In Batman Begins it is Bruce Wayne who, with the help of a flashlight, ventures into the batcave for the first time to face his fears. In The Prestige, it is a field of light bulbs free of wires that allows Angier to experience amazement from something real, not an illusion. In The Dark Knight Rises, light floods in from above in the Lazarus Pit, beckoning to Bruce and making him find again his strength. In Inception, there is a ceiling of lights in the first/last scene of the movie (similar to the idea of a field of light as in The Prestige) which not only captivates the audience but helps them make the connection between the two very important future/past sequences. Finally, in Insomnia it is the perennial light flooding through the window into Dormer’s hotel room which keeps him from sleeping and over time wears him down.
Nolan’s biggest signature is also the one that’s the hardest to spot. Think of it as easter eggs for the well-informed. All of Nolan’s films have various levels of connections. These connections can be physical or based on ideas and themes. Some of them are obvious and therefore easy to point out (The Batman Trilogy), while others are more obscure and are just theory at this point (The Prestige Trilogy).
Besides The Batman Trilogy, the most obvious connection between many of Nolan’s films is a physical one. Although Nolan’s films have made technological advances over time, production values have increased, and actors have aged, his films are remarkably consistent in presentation. The key is the people he works with. Even though The Prestige takes place in the the early 20th century, the film feels eerily similar to Inception or Insomnia. The visual texture of his films remains similar because his principle of photography (cinematographer Wally Pfister) has been the same for all of his films except The Following. The soundscape of his films remains similar because Hans Zimmer has made all of the soundtracks since Batman Begins. Each film of the Batman trilogy has a similar feel to the story because Nolan wrote them all with his brother Jonathan, who also wrote Interstellar and the short story on which Memento is based. There’s also a consistency with the people in front of the camera. Once Nolan finds an actor/actress he likes working with, he often uses them for more than one film. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, and Ken Watanabe have all had more than one role in multiple Nolan films.
Now let’s look at some of the more obscure connections. To begin with is the observation that each of Nolan’s films have a connection to the film that immediately preceded it. This may be intentional or just coincidence, as some connections are stronger than others:
Memento – The clock that is used in the film is the same one that is stolen in Following.
Insomnia – Both of the main characters talk to the person they are after on a phone before they know who that person is. Both of them receive this phone call while in a hotel room.
Batman Begins – The beginning of the film takes place near an icy glacier, a homage to the glacier shown in the opening scene of Insomnia.
The Prestige – Starts off with Christian Bale’s character in prison, just like Batman Begins.
The Dark Knight – The Joker performs a “deadly” magic trick.
Inception – Ariadne references blowing up a hospital.
The Dark Knight Rises – The opening scene is similar to Inception. Both feature a character breaking into a safe. While doing this, they are caught, yet they are able to keep what they stole.
Interstellar – AI/Autopilot appears to be malfunctioning and as a result we are under the assumption at some point in the film that the main character is dead. It turns out that these systems work fine and as a result the main character is actually alive.
These are just some of the connections. There are many more, including connections between films that are not back-to-back. Examples include the name of the main character (Cobb) being the same in Following and in Inception. Or the fact that in both Batman Begins and Inception Ken Watanabe’s character dies by a roof caving in on him. Or the fact that a necklace is an important prop in both Insomnia and The Dark Knight Rises.
Finally, any Nolan fan worth their salt is aware of The Advanced Batman and The Prestige Trilogy theories. To understand this theory, one must first understand the opening scene in The Prestige. In the opening scene the foundation of a good magic trick is being explained. A magic trick has three parts. The first part is The Pledge. This is when something that is seemingly ordinary is presented to the audience, but we all know that it is probably not ordinary. A coin for example. The second part is The Turn. The Turn is when the Pledge becomes extraordinary. The coin disappears. The third part is The Prestige. The Prestige takes the extraordinary and uses it to do something unexpected. The coin reappears.
The Advanced Batman Theory claims that the three parts of a magic trick can also be applied to The Batman Trilogy. Batman Begins is The Pledge. A man, Bruce Wayne/Batman, is introduced and although he is just a man we know that he is probably something more than just a man. The Dark Knight is The Turn. The Joker causes chaos which ruins everything that Bruce Wayne wanted. He becomes a recluse and Batman takes the fall for the murder of Harvey Dent. The man we were introduced to disappears. The Dark Knight Rises is The Prestige. Both Bruce Wayne and Batman find a way to battle back. They find their purpose and surprise everyone with their return.
The Prestige Trilogy Theory claims that The Prestige is the beginning of another trilogy. After viewing Interstellar, here’s my take on this idea. In this trilogy, The Prestige is really The Pledge. The basis of the film is the truth (reality) vs. illusion. The magicians work to fool their audience, but the film reveals the horrifying truth behind these tricks. In other words, the truth is absolute, you can’t escape it. Inception is The Turn. Here the idea of reality or “truth” is turned on its head. We have dreams within dreams and characters struggle to determine what is real and what is not real. Here the message is that reality or “truth” may not exist, or at least it questions the foundation on which reality is based. Interstellar is The Prestige. It tells us that, like an epic episode of the X-files, the truth is out there. It explains the unexplainable, and in doing so, expands our mind and our potential. Reality and “truth” are not going anywhere; they can be faked but not altered.
Recent Works
Inception (2010)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Interstellar (2014)
Dunkirk (2017)
Tenet (2020)
Top Famous Works
Inception
Nolan’s work on Inception is truly masterful, with all of the pieces coming together just perfectly to craft not only one hell of a film, but one hell of an original film. The movie went on to gross over $800 million at the box office speaks to Nolan’s ability to conjure original prestige entertainment for the masses without the need to hedge one’s bets with pandering or clichés, and it’s the reason he’s one of the biggest filmmakers working today.
Dunkirk
Dunkirk is the movie that Christopher Nolan has been building toward his entire career. It’s a purely experiential piece of filmmaking—a completely immersive, wholly unique take on a “World War II movie.” Instead of choosing a couple of characters to follow or creating a fictional dramatic narrative within the overall structure of the evacuation of Dunkirk, Nolan instead decides to put his audiences in this event using his greatest tool: cinema.
The Dark Knight
While one could make the argument that Dunkirk is Nolan’s best film (and indeed it’s really close), it’s his 2008 masterpiece The Dark Knight that takes the top spot for the purposes of this list. The Batman Begins sequel is, quite frankly, the best superhero film of all time. While Begins got the Batman franchise off to a swell start, The Dark Knight took the series—and the genre—to another level by melding blockbuster sensibilities with thematically relevant material to result in a film that’s stimulating on a visceral, intellectual, and emotional level.
Conclusion
It’s impossible to sum up Nolan’s entire career in a few brief sentences. Yet from examining his 10-picture filmography, one gets the sense that he is a man obsessed with pushing the boundaries of cinematic storytelling both narratively and structurally. As such, obsession seeps into his creative work: His most astonishing efforts all feature protagonists consumed by similar thinking, whether it be rival magicians risking everything to beat one another or a caped crime fighter suffering from a cracked psyche. In the end, Nolan may place a greater emphasis on form over pathos, a style that may not appeal to everyone. But that style has resulted in some of the biggest, most entertaining and most influential movies of the past 20 years. This is why I chose Christopher Nolan to do my Director research.
Mustaneer Dar 