Presentation for A2 Film Studies!

1. AUTEUR STUDY –
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN
By Michael Durham

2. Aims for the research!
• My aim in my research is to discover the inspirations and
influences of Christopher Nolan, in order to discover whether
or not he can rightfully be addressed as an “Auteur”.
• Specifically, I will be looking for recurring elements in his style
and for any similar themes that are present in all his films.
• I’ll also be looking at his collaborations, and whether or not his
repeated work with other members of the film industry has ever
clouded his final vision.

3. Who is Christopher Nolan?
• Christopher Jonathan James Nolan was born on the 30th July 1970 in London,
England.
• He is a Director, Writer and Producer.
• His films have grossed over $4.2 Billion worldwide, and garnered over 26
Oscar nominations and won 7 awards.
• He frequently writes most of his films with his younger brother, Jonathan
Nolan.
• He runs the production Company, Syncopy Inc., with his wife Emma Thomas.
• Nolan began making short-films at just seven years old.
• He studied English Literature at London University, and joined the film society,
where he made several shorts including Tarantula, Larceny and Doodlebug.
• His first feature film released was The Following (1998), a low budget thriller
about a man obsessed with following strangers. The critical acclaimed he
received on his next project, Memento (2000), allowed him to go onto big-
budget Hollywood projects such as Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige
(2006), Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014).
“... If you picture the story as a
maze, you don't want to be
hanging above the maze,
watching the characters make
the wrong choices because it's
frustrating. You actually want to
be in the maze with them,
making the turns at their side ...
I quite like to be in that maze.”
— Christopher Nolan

4. Focal Films

5. Focal Films (Continued)

6. Memento (2000) – Mystery/Thriller
Synopsis:
A man creates a strange system to help him
remember things; so he can hunt for the
murderer of his wife without his short-term
memory loss being an obstacle.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan (Screenplay)
& Jonathan Nolan (Memento Mori)
Production Companies: Newmarket Capital Group
Team Todd, I Remember Productions, Summit Entertainment
Producers: Jennifer & Suzanne Todd
Distributed by: Newmarket Films (Indie)
Cinematography: Wally Pfister
Editing: Dody Dorn
Music: David Julyan
Starring:
• Guy Pearce - Leonard
• Carrie-Anne Moss - Natalie
• Joe Pantoliano - Teddy
• Mark Boone Junior - Burt
Budget:
$9,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
£90,642 (UK) (20 October 2000)
Gross:
$25,530,884 (USA) (9 November
2001)
Memento currently sits at 92% on
Rotten Tomatoes.
The Film was nominated for two
academy awards; Best Screenplay
and Best Editing

7. Issues surrounding authorship - Memento
Memento is heavily influenced by Film Noir.
• “While there’s a tradition of amnesia narratives in noir – from George Marshall’s 1945 The Blue
Dahlia to Scott McGehee’s 1993 neo-noir Suture – Nolan’s audacious approach sets Memento
apart.”
Chris Darke (2000) Mr Memory Sight and Sound, Volume 10 Issue 11, 42-43
Whilst Nolan’s film is heavily inspired by other pieces of film Noir in terms of style, the
backwards approach to the narrative makes it unique.
On Memento Mori, the short story Memento is based upon.
• “He cites the Sammy Jankis story, as an example: “ That had nothing to do with what I came up with.
I really don’t know where he got it from.”
• “No more than two months after he had received Jonah’s first draft, he excitedly called his brother
long-distance with the notion of how to tell Leonard’s tale: sdrawkcab.”
• “One other person contributed ideas: Jonah Nolan. Fitting, perhaps, that the man who inspired the
project should help conclude it.”
Mottram, James (2002) The Making of Memento. Faber & Faber
Although Memento is originally the idea of Jonathan, Christopher was the one who reversed
the narrative, and added several of his own elements to the story in the screenplay he himself
wrote.

8. Themes - Memento
Identity:
• “You read it off your fucking photo. You don't know me, you don't even know who you are.”
Lies:
• “Do I lie to myself to be happy?”
• “I can talk about whoever the fuck I want! You won't even remember what I say! I can tell you that your wife was a fucking whore
and we can still be friends!”
Revenge:
• “But even if you get your revenge, you won't remember it. You won't even know it's happened.”
Memory:
• “Sammy Jankis wrote himself endless notes. But he'd get mixed up. I've got a more graceful solution to the memory problem. I'm
disciplined and organized. I use habit and routine to make my life possible.”
Love:
• “If I could just reach out and touch her side of the bed I could know that it was cold, but I can't. I have no idea when she left.”
Mental Stability:
• “Like you've told yourself. Over and over. Conditioning yourself to believe. "learning through repetition“”
• “I never said he was faking. Just that his condition was mental, not physical.”
Time:
• “I want time to pass, but it won't. How can I heal if I can't feel time?”
Obsession (Caused by death):
• “JOHN G RAPED AND MURDERED MY WIFE”

9. Style - Memento
•Reverse Narrative – Memento begins at the end and works
towards the start.
•Flashbacks
•Voiceover
•The vast majority of the film is simply shots of Leonard.
•Noticeably long conversations using shot reverse shot occur
throughout the film
Frequent
close ups of
objects.
Black & White filter
Point of view shots
Mirrors
In Car shots
On the phone
Chase
Looking
through
windows
Reversing Time
Long
shots

10. Insomnia (2002) – Mystery/Thriller
Synopsis:
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives
are dispatched to a northern town where
the sun doesn't set to investigate the
methodical murder of a local teen.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Hillary Seitz (Screenplay), Nikolaj Frobenius and Erik
Skjoldbjærg (1997 screenplay)
Production Companies: Witt/Thomas Productions
Section Eight, Insomnia Productions, Summit Entertainment
Producers: Broderick Johnson, Paul Junger Witt and Andrew A.
Kosove
Distributed by: Warner Bros.
Cinematographer: Wally Pfister
Editor: Dody Dorn
Music: David Julyan
Starring:
Al Pacino – Will Dormer
Martin Donovan – Hap Eckhart
Hilary Swank – Ellie Burr
Robin Williams – Walter Finch
Budget:
$46,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
$26,068,419 (USA) (24 May 2002)
Gross:
$4,663,332 (France) (6 December
2002)
Insomnia currently sits at 92% at
Rotten Tomatoes.

11. Issues surrounding authorship - Insomnia
Insomnia is an American remake of the 1997 Norweigan film, directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, of the
same name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuiqqRtXTz0 – 1997 Original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMA3whYE13g – 2002 Nolan
• "Well I haven't seen it for quite a while, but when I first saw it was a very strange experience because
it was quite close, stylistically, to the original. I felt lucky that it's such a well crafted, smart film and
that it had a really good director handling it, because as a remake I think it did really well and it
doesn't hurt any original if a remake is well done. So I felt I was lucky that Christopher Nolan took it
upon himself to do it.“
(Skjoldbjaerg, Erik)
Insomnia is the only film Nolan has released without any writing credit, even though he wrote the final
draft.
• “Though Nolan has abandoned the narrative-shuffling that made his name, some familiar-looking disquiet
and disorientation is achieved”
Bradshaw, P. (2002) Insomnia Review Available online: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/aug/30/1
• “Unlike other Nolan films, it’s not the web that’s given the biggest spotlight – it’s the fly.”
Beggs, S. (2012) No Sleep: Revisiting The Christopher Nolan Movie No One Seems to Remember Available
online: http://filmschoolrejects.com/opinions/insomnia-revisiting-the-christopher-nolan-movie-no-one-seems-to-
remember.php#KOZfzFG5htTk2DrA.99

12. Themes - Insomnia
Lies:
• “I saw you kill your partner. With your back-up weapon. Out there on the beach. I saw you
shoot him dead... “
• “Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. Oh, and I saw you take my gun. My uncle's old 357. I
dropped it in the rocks. But you can go ahead and keep that.”
Identity:
• “That was an accident! You hear me? I didn't know it was him!”
• “We're on the same side, Will. You know that. After what we've been through together.
We're partners. Bound by a secret.”
Sleep:
• “A good cop can't sleep 'cause a piece of the puzzle's missing. A bad cop can't sleep 'cause
his conscience won't let him.”
Love:
• “It was when I went to kiss her. She started laughing. I got angry. After all I'd given her. All
I'd shared with her. I just wanted to make her stop. That's all.”
Time:
• “You lose all sense of time.”
• “In the winter there's no sunlight for five straight months.”

13. Style - Insomnia
Excessive close ups of Objects etc
Editing to show passage of time
Light at the end of the tunnel
Telephone
Flashbacks
Underwater
Chase sequence
Mist/fog
Extreme
long shots
In cars Reflections

14. The Dark Knight Trilogy – Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) –Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Synopsis:
Epic, dark, complex and bolstered by an all around
magnificent cast, Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is the
unforgettable pinnacle of the superhero genre and a
fantastic crime thriller franchise in its own right.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Bob Kane (characters), David S. Goyer (Story), Christopher Nolan
(Screenplay) and Jonathan Nolan (Screenplay, Dark Knight Onwards)
Distributed by: Warner Bros.
Production Companies: Warner Bros., Syncopy, DC Comics, Legendary
Pictures
Producers: Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Larry J. Franco
Cinematography: Wally Pfister
Editing: Lee Smith
Music: Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard (Not for DKR)
Starring:
Christian Bale – Bruce Wayne/Batman
Michael Caine – Alfred
Cillian Murphy – Scarecrow
Liam Neeson – Ra’s Al Ghul (BB)
Gary Oldman – Jim Gordon
Katie Holmes (BB) & Maggie Gyllenhaal (TDK) – Rachel Dawes
Morgan Freeman – Lucius Fox
Heath Ledger – The Joker (DK)
Aaron Eckhart – Harvey Dent (DK)
Tom Hardy – Bane (DKR)
Anne Hathaway – Catwoman/Selina Kyle (DKR)
Marion Cotillard – Miranda/ Talia Al Ghul (DKR)
Joseph Gordon Levitt – Blake/Robin
Budget:
$150,000,000 (estimated)
$185,000,000 (estimated)
$250,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
$48,745,440 (USA) (19 June 2005)
$158,411,483 (USA) (18 July 2008)
$160,887,295 (USA) (20 July 2012)
Gross:
$205,343,774 (USA) (28 October 2005)
$533,316,061 (USA) (27 February 2009)
$448,130,642 (USA) (7 December 2012)
On Rotten Tomatoes, Batman Begins is at 85%, The
Dark Knight is at 94% and the Dark Knight Rises is at
87%. The franchise has received over a hundred
different award nominations, but most notable are the
Oscars for Best Supporting Actor for the late Heath
Ledger, and for Sound Editing (both TDK).

15. Issues surroundingAuthorship - Batman
Batman has been adapted before.
• “Whereas Burton sketched an Art Deco hell and shoved Michael Keaton on screen in a Bat-suit in the first minutes, Nolan puts
off the moment when Christian Bale dons the mask for almost an hour.”
• “Significantly grittier than previous Bat-beginnings, this finds new things to do with, and say about, a character who's been
around since 1938.”
Newman, K. (2005) Batman Begins Review Available Online: http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=11299
• “It’s a wrong move to take a superhero and give it psychological realism. There is no psychological realism. He’s a bodybuilder
who jumps off buildings.”
Child, B. (2014) Prestige novelist: Christopher Nolan's Batman movies 'boring and pretentious‘ Available Online:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/28/prestige-novelist-christopher-nolans-batman-movies-boring-and-pretentious
• “I personally didn't care much for The Dark Knight Rises. It was too long, too yakky, and I got tired of its "Yeah, I've got a Che
Guevara T-shirt" politics, lifted from A Tale of Two Cities and V Is for Vendetta and Gangs of New York and Neofascism for
Dummies.”
Queenan, J. (2012) In the fight between good and evil, even Batman must play by the rules Available online:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/aug/23/good-evil-batman-obey-rules
• “While Nolan’s film has been largely praised from all quarters since its 2008 release – its chief virtue having been to elevate the
in-vogue superhero genre to the level of smart-thinking, dark-tinted adult cinema – the fact remains that the end result is a
clunky, bloated picture.”
Hess, A. (2014) The Dark Knight: my most overrated film Available Online:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/14/the-dark-knight-my-most-overrated-film-christopher-nolan
“Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
“Never rub another man's rhubarb.”
(Batman 1989)
”Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You
can't savor all the... little emotions. In... you see, in their last moments,
people show you who they really are.”
“You’ll hunt me. You’ll condemn me. Set the dogs on me.”
(The Dark Knight 2008)

16. Themes – Batman
Identity:
“But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you.” (Batman Begins 2005)
“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” (The Dark Knight 2008)
“You gotta learn to hide the anger, practice smiling in the mirror. It's like putting on a mask.” (The Dark Knight Rises
2012)
Lies:
“You have learned to bury your guilt with anger. I will teach you to confront it, and to face the truth.”
“He's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him.”
”I am using the truth, Master Wayne. Maybe it's time we all stop trying to outsmart the truth and let it have its day”
Revenge:
”I went around the world, searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something
terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge... Me”
“Look, take it up with the Joker. He killed your woman. He made you - like this.”
“'Innocent' is a strong word to throw around Gotham, Bruce. I honor my father by finishing his work. Vengeance against
the man who killed him is simply a reward for my patience...”
Death:
“But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is
just... poison in your veins.”
“You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because you're just too much
fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”
“I know, and you lost her. But that's all part of living, sir. But you're not living. You're just waiting”

17. Themes – Batman (Continued)
Obsession:
“But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you
become something else entirely.”
“When I told you that if Gotham no longer needed Batman we could be together, I meant it. But now I'm sure the day
won't come when *you* no longer need Batman.”
Right & Wrong (Human Morality):
“The first time I stole so that I wouldn't starve, yes. I lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and
wrong.”
“They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a
bad joke.”
“You, yourself fought the decadence of Gotham for years with all your strength, all your resources, all your moral
authority and the only victory you achieved was a lie.”
Fear:
“No, no, *this*... is your mask. Your real face is the one that criminals now fear.”
“If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody
panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their
minds!”
“You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak.”
Mental Stability:
“Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment...”
“I took Gotham's white knight and I brought him down to our level. It wasn't hard. You see, madness, as you know, is
like gravity.”

18. Style – Batman Begins
Through windows Darkness Long shots
Close up Feet
Close up Feet
DarknessClose up
The sequence is edited together
through a series of flashbacks within
flashbacks, a voiceover narrates.

19. Style – The Dark Knight
Close ups Clocks Light at the end of tunnel
IMAX shots Synthesized voice Mirrors
POV/ Gun wield
shot
Flipped perspective
Extreme long shots Noir/DarknessLong shots

20. Style – The Dark Knight Rises
72 Minutes of The Dark Knight Rises was
filmed using IMAX cameras, the most in
any film released to date, including the
entire opening plane sequence.
Flashbacks Light at the end of tunnel
Stairs
Noir/Darkness Close-ups
People hanging from heights
POV/Gun Wield Shot Extreme long shots In cars
Plane (Insomnia Opening) Shots through windows, cells etc.

21. Inception (2010) – Action, Mystery, Sci-fi
Synopsis:
A thief who steals corporate secrets through use of dream-
sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea
into the mind of a CEO.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
Production Companies: Warner Bros, Syncopy, Legendary
Pictures
Producer: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
Distributed by: Warner Bros.
Cinematographer: Wally Pfister
Film Editing: Lee Smith
Music: Hans Zimmer
Starring:
Leonardo DiCaprio – Dominic Cobb
Joseph Gordon Levitt – Arthur
Ellen Page – Ariadne
Tom Hardy – Eames
Cillian Murphy – Robert Fischer
Marion Cotillard – Mal Cobb
Michael Caine – Miles Cobb
Budget:
$160,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
£5,912,814 (UK) (16 July 2010)
Gross:
$292,568,851 (USA) (31
December 2010)
Inception currently sits at 86% on
Rotten Tomatoes. The film
received and was nominated for
several awards, including
Cinematography, Editing and
Sound Mixing/Editing.

22. Issues surrounding Authorship - Inception
Inception is the first blockbuster that Nolan wrote himself, that isn’t already an adaptation of
something. It’s a very confusing film.
• “At worst — as with the narrative drip-feed of Insomnia, his weakest picture — it is obfuscation masquerading as artistry, aka not
half as bloody clever as it thinks it is.”
• “And some, who may find Inception exposition-heavy and bewildering, will no doubt argue that, drunk on the freedom of The
Dark Knight, Nolan has spent $170 million disappearing up his own arse.”
Pierce, N (2010) Inception Review Available Online: http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136118
• “'Dad, what do you think it meant when the totem wobbled like that?" Many parents will be asked a tricky question like this as
they leave the cinema after watching Inception. Some will inevitably answer, "Er… what was the totem again?" to be met with the
unending scorn of their offspring.”
• “Nolan is following a fine cinematic tradition. The art of unsettling an audience with a fiendish plot or a subversive narrative
technique has an illustrious history”
Thorpe, V. (2010) How Inception proves the art of baffling films does make sense Available Online:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jul/25/inception-christopher-nolan-leonardo-dicaprio
• “"In a summer of remakes, reboots and sequels comes Inception, easily the most original movie idea in ages.”
• "Dreamscape" (1984) featured a man who could enter and manipulate dreams, and, of course, in "The Matrix" (1999) human
beings and machines battled on various reality levels created by artificial intelligence.”
Honeycutt, K. (2010) Inception – Film Review Available Online: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/inception-film-review-
29792
Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for the film was highly praised.
• “Without giving away the plot, Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien plays a crucial role in linking Inception's real and dream
worlds. Now it's emerged that Hans Zimmer, who composed the music, extrapolated his entire score from the Piaf song.”
• “In keeping with the atmosphere of blurred consciousness, Zimmer slows down the brass sounds to a somnambulant trudge.”
• “Zimmer does something that numerous artists have also recently realised – that slowing music down dissolves and recasts it.”
Beaument, T. (2010) Inception brings the trend for slow music to the big screen Available Online:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2010/jul/29/inception-slow-music

23. Themes - Inception
Lies:
• “Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange.”
• “These aren't just dreams, these are memories and you said never to use memories!”
• “I knew Inception was possible because I'd done it to my wife.”
Dreams:
• “Because, in my dreams we are together.”
• “You remember when you asked me to marry you? You said you dreamt that we'd grow old together.”
Mental Stability:
• “I freed you from the guilt of choosing to leave them. We're going home to our real children.”
• ”The truth that at any minute, you might bring a freight train through the wall. The truth that Mal is bursting through your
subconscious.”
Time:
• ”Who would wanna be stuck in a dream for ten years?”
• “To wake up from that after, after years, after decades... after we'd become old souls thrown back into youth like that.”
Love:
• “Do you know what it is to be a lover? Half of a whole?”
• ”I miss you more than I can bear, but we had our time together. I have to let you go.”
Obsession:
• “Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that
sticks; right in there somewhere.”
• She was possessed by an idea, this one, very simple idea, that changed everything. That our world wasn't real
Memory:
• “She locked away a secret, deep inside herself, something she once knew to be true... but chose to forget.”
• “I've come back for you... to remind you of something. Something you once knew...”

24. Style - Inception
Through walls, windows etc.
Flipped perspective Foot shot
Light at the end of the tunnel Time slowed down
Birds eye view Clocks
Trains
Underwater
Mist/fog
In a Car
Low angle

25. Style – Inception (Continued)
Darkness/noir Chase sceneLong shots
Gun wield/pov shot Stairs Editing
On the phone Extreme long shots Flashbacks
Close ups on objects Mirrors/reflections

26. Themes – Nolan Overall
Mental Stability
• “The Nolan who made Memento and Insomnia is at home with extreme psychological states - this might complete a Three Colours
Of Neurosis trilogy by following memory loss and sleeplessness with phobia.”
Newman, K. (2005) Batman Begins Review Available Online:
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=11299
A female Death and someone obsessed with it.
• “Women remain stuck in the original archetypes of the femme fatale, the victim or the doe-eyed ingenue. Some of the actresses
employed by Nolan manage to infuse his women with more interest (particularly Rebecca Hall in The Prestige), but others (such
as Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight) struggle in underwritten parts.”
• “Nolan’s women, it seems, are only to be longed for, mourned or mistrusted.”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August
Lies
• “And indeed the ‘undesirability of truth’ can be seen as Nolan’s key theme, addressed in all his films – its roots lying in a fear of
what might occur when the fragile codes that stop (in the Joker’s phrase) “civilised people from eating each other” are broken. ”
• “In Inception, Cobb’s renunciation of his dream inamorata is a choice between one lie and what might possibly be a further lie: the
catharsis of the unification with his children. In the same way, Memento’s Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) deliberately uses his
amnesia to fool himself into comforting delusions – literally to forget the truth.”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August
Morality
• “Nearly all of Nolan’s films include a scene where the heroes entrap and torture antagonists in order to achieve a
moralised goal. ”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August
Honourable Mentions: Identity, Memory, Dreams/Sleep, Revenge, Time
• Memento: A man with amnesia is obsessed with finding the killer of his beautiful wife.
• Insomnia: A detective plays a cat and mouse game with the killer of a beautiful young girl.
• The Prestige: A magician engages in a bitter rivalry with a former friend he blames for the death of his beautiful young wife.
• The Dark Knight: The lives of a masked vigilante and a district attorney are shattered when the woman they both love is killed.
• Inception: A dream thief struggles with the crushing guilt of his wife’s suicide.
• And here’s a bonus: Nolan’s first feature, Following, apparently features a beautiful dead girl as a final twist.
Belinke, M (2010) Does Christopher Nolan Have a Woman Problem? Available Online:
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/07/29/christopher-nolan-feminism/

27. Style – Nolan Overall
Men In Suits
• “Tom Hardy’s Eames is presented as a Bond-like anachronism, mocked for his ruggedness, just as Bale’s push-up
routine draws a resigned smile from Michael Caine in Batman Begins. Inception is probably the first guys-on-a-
mission movie peopled by internet creatives – a blockbuster action movie with man-bags.”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August
Lack Of Blood
• “While most action directors foreground violence, Nolan uses it tonally. The hyper-edited fights in the Batman films
suggest rather than show impact.”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August
Vague Endings
• Look, movies (and stories in general) are meant to be (somewhat) open to interpretation. There is never any one way to
view a story, and the best stories tend to be ones that teach us a bit of something, while also inspiring us to new thoughts.
Unfortunately, Chris Nolan’s films don’t always do both.
Outlaw, K. 5 Christopher Nolan Movie Criticisms That are Totally Valid Available Online: http://screenrant.com/christopher-nolan-
movies-best-worst-critics/
• “All of his films involve concealed stories, obfuscation, misdirection, and metafictive elements.”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August

28. Style – Nolan Overall
Flashbacks
• Memento is a set of flashbacks within flashbacks of Leonard’s memory.
• In Insomnia, whilst Detective Dormer analyses the body, brief shots show Finch altering the body just after the murder.
• The Dark Knight trilogy frequently returns to Bruce Wayne’s past.
• The Prestige follows a dual flashback narrative between two magicians.
• Inception frequently quickly flashes back to Cobb’s ex-wife and his children.
• Interstellar has an entire sequence of Murphy looking in on a younger version of himself from a different dimension.
Upside-down Angles
Nolan likes to flip the perspective of his films.
Nolan loves IMAX… and hates 3D
• “The Dark Knight Rises includes 72 minutes of footage shot on the Imax system, the most ever for a studio
narrative feature. For director Christopher Nolan, that meant working with cumbersome, jitter-sensitive and noisy
cameras capable of only three-minute takes and requiring 20 minutes to reload. Still, he's in no doubt that the extra
effort was worth it. He believes he has secured in return "the best quality image that has ever been invented".
Cox, D (2012) The Dark Knight Rises, and takes Imax with him Available Online:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/23/dark-knight-rises-imax
• ”I prefer the big canvas, looking up at an enormous screen and at an image that feels larger than life. When
you treat that stereoscopically, and we’ve tried a lot of tests, you shrink the size so the image becomes a
much smaller window in front of you.”
- Christopher Nolan

29. Collaborations – Nolan Overall (Crew)
Writer: Jonathan Nolan
Jonathan co-wrote The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Memento (short story) and The Prestige with
Christopher, he currently writes and directs his own television series, Person of Interest and Westworld.
• “In this respect Nolan’s regular script collaboration with his younger brother Jonathan (who wrote the original story of
Memento, and co-wrote the screenplays of The Prestige, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises) is telling; their
films seem to emanate from a shared imaginative dream-world, an environment of closeted yet liberating enthusiasm.”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August
Cinematographer: Wally Pfister
Pfister has worked with Nolan as director of photography since Memento. After The Dark Knight Rises, Pfister moved onto
direct his own films, starting with Transcendence. Nolan worked with Hoyte Van Hoytema on Interstellar instead.
• “Pfister's role in defining the look of Nolan's films—those characteristic rich colours, often present even in the deep
shadows he also favours, juxtaposed with big, epic landscapes—really can't be understated. This is a pair of artists
who have found complementary visions in each other.”
Buckwalter, I (2012) The reason Christopher Nolan films look like Christopher Nolan films. Available Online:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/07/the-reason-christopher-nolan-films-look-like-christopher-nolan-
films/260087/
Editor: Lee Smith
Smith first started working with Nolan in 2005 on Batman Begins, and continues to work with him now.
• “He also implements a counterintuitive editing style of cutting away quickly from what in a standard blockbuster would
be the money shot – such as the edit that finally silences the cackling of the joker in The Dark Knight, cutting him off
abruptly so his final laugh sounds more like a squeal of pain.”
“Editing is also used to represent psychological states and merge the characters’ subjectivity with that of the audience”
Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August

30. Collaborations – Nolan Overall (Crew)
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Nolan has worked with Zimmer ever since 2005 for Batman Begins. The pair continue to work together to this day.
• “Interstellar is a pure Nolan drama, and its haunting score is recognizably Zimmer. They’re grand minimalists. Stars
align when Zimmer pounds away behind Bruce Wayne climbing barehanded from Bane’s pit, Cobb descending deeper
and deeper into the dreamworld, or McConaughey’s Cooper untethering from known reality to find a fractalizing great
beyond. The Nolan-Zimmer collaboration is like the chicken and the egg. It doesn’t matter who got there first — their
creations wouldn’t exist without the other.”
King, B (2014) Brothers in BRONG: How Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan Make the Boldest Scores in
Hollywood Available Online: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/brothers-in-brong-how-hans-zimmer-and-
christopher-nolan-make-the-boldest-scores-in-hollywood/
Production Company: Warner Bros
Nolan has worked with Warner Bros since 2002 for Insomnia, they have announced to have full distribution rights for his
next project due in 2017.
• ”Nolan is one of only a handful of film-makers who can walk into a studio with an idea and exit with $200m to
make it.”
• “The deal that Paramount and Warner Bros negotiated was anomalous to say the least. For the right to
distribute Interstellar internationally, Warner Bros traded the rights for two of their franchises, Friday the 13th
and South Park, plus “a to-be-determined A-list Warners property”, while its subsidiary, Legendary, agreed to
trade Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”
Shone.T (2014) Christopher Nolan: the man who rebooted the blockbuster Available Online:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/04/-sp-christopher-nolan-interstellar-rebooted-blockbuster

31. Collaborations – Nolan Overall (Cast)
Michael Caine
• Caine is the most prominent returning cast member out of all of Nolan’s films, having
starred in The Prestige, the entire Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and Interstellar.
• “Mr. Caine invented his own back story for Alfred. “I thought, I wanted to be the
toughest butler in the world,” he said. Alfred, he envisioned, was part of a British
military force, the Special Air Service, like the Navy SEALs. ”
Ryzik, M (2012) Buddy-Buddy: Seasoned Actor and Young Director Available Online:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/movies/awardsseason/michael-caine-and-
christopher-nolan-and-oscar.html?_r=0
Christian Bale
• Bale is prominently known for his performance as Batman, yet he also starred as
Borden in The Prestige.
“Christopher Nolan tends to make films about obsessed people, who throw themselves
body and soul into whatever task it is that they have to do. So who better to work with
than Christian Bale, one of the most serious and intense actors around”
Helen O’Hara, Alastair Plumb, Phil De Semylen (Unknown) 50 Great Actor And Director
Partnerships Available Online: http://www.empireonline.com/features/great-actor-
director-partnerships/default.asp?c=14
Anne Hathaway
• Hathaway starred as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, and went on to star in
Interstellar too.
Tom Hardy
• Hardy was a relatively unknown actor until he started working with Nolan, starring in
Inception as Eames, and went on to play villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.

32. Collaborations – Nolan Overall (Cast)
Heath Ledger
• The only actor to out of any of Nolan’s films to win an Oscar for their role, Ledger unfortunately passed shortly after his
performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight.
• “As the officers in the room applaud the announcement Ledger begins, unscripted, to slowly clap – never changing his
facial expression. It was just a simple improvisation but one that was unsettling and darkly brilliant.”
• “Originally, the Joker (Heath Ledger) was supposed to walk down the street while the explosion at the hospital began,
get on the school bus during the scripted pause, and the bus would drive away while the explosion finished. However,
Ledger stopped walking during the pause and in a moment of improvisation began fidgeting with the
remote detonator in a very Joker-esque manner – bringing a slight amount of dark humor to what would have just been
a serious scene.”
Young, P. (2012) The 32 Greatest Unscripted Movie Scenes Available Online: http://screenrant.com/greatest-unscripted-
movie-scenes/14/
Cillian Murphy
• Murphy stars as the villain Scarecrow in Batman Begins, and returns in the sequels, albeit with a smaller role. He also
stars in Inception. Interestingly, Murphy also stars in Transcendence, Pfister’s first directed feature.
Marrion Cotillard
• Another actor that went on to star in further Nolan films following her performance in Inception, Cotillard stars as Talia Al
Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises.
Joseph–Gordon Levitt
• Just like Cotillard, Levitt returned to play Blake in The Dark Knight Rises following Inception.
• "I told Chris Nolan that I was going to direct a movie and he was instantly supportive, which meant a lot to me. He said,
"It seems like you would be good at that." I told him I was going to act and direct at the same time and he was like, "Are
you sure you want to do that?,“
West, M. (2013) 'Don Jon': Christopher Nolan Warned Joseph Gordon-Levitt NOT To Make It. Available Online:
http://www.contactmusic.com/joseph-gordon-levitt/news/don-jon-joseph-gordon-levitt_3882231

33. Useful Quotes – Nolan Overall
Nolan’s robotic film-making.
• “The charge most often lobbed at Nolan is that he is primarily a ‘technical’ filmmaker. His films are said to be
cold, and somehow lacking in the sense of personal revelation that is the stamp of a true auteur.”
Inspired by videogames.
• “The elevated shots of Bruce Wayne’s speeding Lamborghini in The Dark Knight mimic the player’s view in
Grand Theft Auto, while Inception’s infiltration of a snow-bound compound echoes the Splinter Cell games, as
well as the Japanese game Metal Gear Solid.”
Terry Gilliam
• “Yet the closest comparison might be to Terry Gilliam, whose visionary worlds have much in common with
Nolan’s – albeit with whimsy and mischief in place of the younger man’s brooding morbidity.”
Real life inspirations
• “Following was influenced by Nolan’s experience of having his London flat broken into;”
- Bevan, J. (2014) Christopher Nolan: Escape artist Sight and Sound Magazine, August