Christopher Nolan... enough said.

1. MediaStudies |BenLand
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan was born on July 30th
1970. He is currently
married to his wife Emma Thomas and lives in Los Angeles,
California. Nolan started filming at the age of 7 and is famous for his
two short films ‘Tarantella’, ‘Larceny’, ‘Doodlebug’ and the ‘Dark
Knight’ trilogy- which has set a record as having the
highest weekend gross at $158 million. Nolan’s movies
often focus on a male protagonist coming to grips with
his past by overcoming challenges; this can be seen in
Batman and Interstellar.
Fun Fact:
Nolan doesn’t like to use mobile phones or an email address. He
actually prohibits the use of phones on set of his movies.
Christopher has directed Thriller films such as:
• Memento (2000)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• The Prestige (2006)
• The Dark Knight (2008)
• Inception (2010)
• Dark Knight Rises (2012)
• Interstellar (2014)
Nolan has won 122 awards. He has been nominated for 3 Oscars and
163 other awards including the ‘Golden Movie Of The Year’ and
‘Movie Of The Year’.

2. MediaStudies |BenLand
The Dark Knight
Basic Detail:
The Dark Knight (2008) was directed, co-written and produced by
Christopher Nolan. The film was nominated for 8 awards and won 2
which consisted of ‘Best Sound Editing’ due to its immense
reproduction of the Batmobile’s engine sound. It was also recognized
to be very successful due to its special effects and editing which
really bought the classic comic book action to life. It was made in
2008 with a budget of $185 million a small sum to the $1.005 billion
it made.
Plot:
In the Dark Knight Gotham is overrun with new evil mobs led by The
Joker. The White Knight- Harvey Dent sets out to repress this evil but
by the end become another antagonist Batman has to face.
Just as Batman and Lieutenant James Gordan successfully take most
criminals off the street The Joke, a sadistic criminal mastermind,
appears creating a new wave of confusion and chaos. Eventually
Batman’s fight with The Joker ends up in the death of Rachel,
Batman’s beloved, which creates the fight that much more personal
thus forcing Batman to go against everything he stands for (minimal
violence) in order to defeat The Joker.
Review:
“A sound like a batgloved fist smacking into a cupped palm is what this film delivers: only
deafeningly amplified and clarified with crisp, digital precision. It is the sound of all other
recent super-hero movies getting their asses well and truly kicked. The Dark Knight is
strange, dark, grandiose and mad; it is overlong and overhyped but hugely entertaining. In a
simple, physical sense it really is huge, with cityscape sequences filmed on Imax technology,
that demand to be seen on the vast Imax screen. Watching the first dizzying, vertiginous
overhead shot of the glittering skyscrapers and minuscule streets, I literally forgot to breathe
for a second or two, and found myself teetering forward on my seat - timidly, I had chosen
one high up at the very back of the auditorium - as if about to topple into the illusory void.

3. MediaStudies |BenLand
The Dark Knight is the continuation of British director Christopher Nolan's reinvention of the
Batman story and it takes the story up to his primal confrontation with the Joker, the villain
who among the wrongdoer-gallery ranged against Batman is first among equals: here
leading an unspeakable cabal of wiseguys. The caped crusader himself (although this camp
designation is now not used) is again played by Christian Bale, clanking around in a kind of
titanium-lite exoskeleton and making use of a heavy-duty Batmobile so macho and military-
looking it makes a Humvee look like the kind of Prius driven by Gok Wan. Otherwise, he bops
around town on a brutal motorbike with wheels the size of rubber boulders, cape fluttering
in the slipstream.
The Joker is played, tremendously, by the late Heath Ledger. His great grin, though enhanced
by rouge, has evidently been caused by two horrid slash-scars to the corners of his mouth,
and his whiteface makeup is always cracking and peeling off, perhaps due to the dried
remnants of tears, making him look like some self-hating Pagliaccio of crime, sweating
backstage after the latest awful spectacular. Ledger has a weird collection of tics and
twitches, kinks and quirks; his tongue darts, lizard-like, around his mouth, a little like Frankie
Howerd, or perhaps Graham Kerr, the galloping gourmet of 1970s television.
Batman is still a reasonably novel figure in Gotham city as the action begins. They still refer
to this dubious vigilante with a retro-sounding definite article: he is "the Batman". And there
is a new, conventional crime fighter in town: the handsome, dashing district attorney Harvey
Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart, a man who believes that the rule of law has to be upheld by a
democratically accountable person, not some shadowy figure of the night. To the chagrin of
Batman and his far-from-mild-mannered alter ego, billionaire Bruce Wayne, Harvey is dating
the love of Batman's life: legal eagle Rachel Dawes, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gary
Oldman plays Lt Gordon, before his historic promotion to "Commissioner" status. Michael
Caine and Morgan Freeman provide droll performances as Wayne's ancillary staff, his butler
Alfred and his Q-like costume designer, Lucius Fox.
There are some really exhilarating set-pieces, especially the one that kickstarts the
proceedings: Nolan starts off with a high-tension, high-anxiety bank raid, carried out by a
dodgy crew all in Joker masks, all whispering among themselves about the crazy guy in
clown makeup who hired them to do the job. Why isn't he there personally? Wait - is he
there personally?
With some big masculine face-offs, and a high-speed convoy scene, Nolan appears to have
imbibed the influence of Michael Mann, and a sequence in Hong Kong has a touch of the
Infernal Affairs movies. Various debates about Jack Bauer/24-type torture methods appear
to show modern Hollywood discovering, if not a conscience exactly, then a certain self-
consciousness. But the film is better at pure action - particularly one awe-inspiring chase
scene Nolan later contrives between Batman on his bike and the Joker at the wheel of a
enormous truck. The conclusion to this sequence had the audience in a semi-standing crouch
of disbelief.

4. MediaStudies |BenLand
Perhaps the most bizarre moment comes when the Joker has evidently abducted some
unfortunate from the local psychiatric hospital to "impersonate" Batman's lost love: this
man does appear to resemble Maggie Gyllenhaal: a joke of considerable malice,
sophistication and lack of taste.
Nolan has made an enormously profitable smash with the Batman franchise, but at the risk
of sounding priggish, I can't help thinking it may be a bit of a career blind-alley for the
talented director who gave us brilliant and disquieting movies like Following (1998) and
Memento (2000), whose inventions still linger in the mind. The Dark Knight's massive box-
office success has surely given Nolan the means to write his own cheque, and in addition
something sweeter still - clout. I hope that he will use it to cultivate movies that are smaller
and more manoeuvrable than that great armoured Batmobile.”
-TheGuardian
In short “There are some really exhilarating set-pieces, especially the
one that kickstarts the proceedings.”
The Genre:
The Dark Knight fits the Thriller genre because it has a complex
storyline accompanied with complex characters. To add to this in the
opening scene there is a plot twist (one of the goons is actually The
Joker)-this makes the plot more mysterious making it interesting for
the audience.
The Dark Knight also uses many conventions such as diegetic and
non-diegetic sound. An example would be the Batmobile. Its engine
is diegetic, because the characters can hear it, but the soundtrack in
the background is mon-diegetic, because the characters cannot hear
it-this is used in order to add suspense to
the atmosphere.

5. MediaStudies |BenLand
Close Study:
Mice en Scene
The use of Batman’s dark costume goes against Thriller stereotypes
because the protagonist is often in white, or other bright colours and
the antagonist in black. Batman however is in black and The Joker is
in brighter colours. This shows the audience that Batman is not a
‘hero’ but will do anything necessary in order to defeat the villains in
Gotham. Because of this the character of Batman is able to do dark,
brutal things, like defeating a mob with his bare hands, and the
audience won’t be surprised. To add to that it adds a twist to the
expected and challenges the ‘hero’ view as it implies there is no such
thing as a ‘hero’ as everyone has a dark side.
The bright clothes worn by The Joker make the
audience more likely to trust him. This is because we are
used to the protagonist wearing bright clothes so we
think he may have good in him. For example when he
makes a deal with Batman the audience believe he will
keep his word. This is key to The Jokers character as he
makes many tricks and deceptions that would not make sense if the
audience didn’t believe him.
Camera
In the scene where Batman infiltrates a skyscraper I China in order to
kidnap an antagonist a close up can be seen when he shoots a timed
explosive onto a window. This allows the
audience to see how much time Batman has
to steal the antagonist making the situation a
lot tenser.

6. MediaStudies |BenLand
Editing
During the fight scene, when Batman is disarming the guards in the
skyscraper, slow paced editing is used in order to make the fight
easier to follow. This is so that the audience are not held in disbelief
that Batman could singlehandedly take out four armed guards as
they are able to easily see that it was possible and he did do it thus
making the film more believable and therefore more enjoyable.
Sound
The overhead sound of the plane being flown by a fellow protagonist
makes the audience aware that something will happen and that
Batman has a clever, exciting plan to help him with his escape. To
add to that it shows the audience that Batman has the situation
under control, as he is in a closed off room with many guns pointing
at him, and that he will survive.