Christopher Nolan is an English-American film director known for his complex, nonlinear narratives. He is motivated to break conventions and expects audiences to piece together fragmented stories. Many of his films feature characters with psychological issues seeking revenge, and who start as heroes but become antagonists. Nolan relies on techniques like rapid cutting and handheld camerawork to convey realism from a character's perspective. Settings are often modern locations, and music enhances the visuals without distraction.

1. Christopher Nolan
-Born: July 30, 1970
-English-American film director, screenwriter, and producer.
-His nine films have grossed over US$4.2 billion worldwide
and a total of 26 Oscar nominations and seven awards.
By Neamh Gilligan

2. Typical narratives
-Mostly, movies are strictly in chronological order. First the past, then the present and lastly, the climax.
Nolan decides to break up the entire narration into bits and pieces, mashes them up, scatters them
throughout the movie and expects audience to connect them or make a meaning out of them. As he did
in ‘Insomnia’ or ‘Memento’, he took a simple topic and made such a mess out of it, that they both became
a masterpiece.
-Memento has a very fragment and non-linear narrative structure. Through this structure the viewers
become detectives themselves.

3. Characters
-Characters in his films usually have a psychological problem and motivated by tragedy, resulting in revenge or guilt.
-Identity conflict and the complexity of truth versus falsehood are among Nolan’s most prevalent themes.
-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.
-Not always likeable, but audience is still expected to support them/find them entertaining.
Examples:
-Bruce Wayne: His parents died when he was young; lonely and broken.
-Dom Cobb: Blames himself for the death of his wife and us unable to let go of her, wishes to redeem himself/ clear
his same so he can be with his children again.
Robert Angier: Wife is killed, becomes obsessed with avenging her death and sabotaging the culprit.

4. Camerawork
“A big part of my interest in filmmaking is an interest in showing the audience a story through a
character’s point of view. It’s interesting to try and do that and maintain a relatively natural look.”
-Nolan relies on rapid cutting. ‘Insomnia’ has over 3400 shots in its 111 minutes, making the average shot just
under two seconds long. Rapid editing like this can suit bursts of mental imagery.
-Again in ‘Insomnia’, apart from one exterior long-shot of the police station and four inserts of hands, the characters’
interplay is captured almost entirely in singles shots of only one actor. Most of these serve to pick up individual lines
of dialogue or characters’ reactions to other lines.
-Nolan often keeps his camera moving or panning during tense dialogs.
-He uses techniques such as hand-held camera work to convey realism.
-Nolan chooses to minimize the amount of computer-generated imagery for special effects in his films, preferring to
use practical effects when possible. Nolan only wants to use computer- generated imagery to enhance elements
which he has photographed in camera.

5. Settings
-Modern locations and architecture are often used.
Music
-In ‘The prestige’ Nolan’s soundtrack finds themes and minimalistic expressions that add
dimension to what's on the screen without distracting from the narrative.