Christopher Nolan

Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5 billion worldwide. The recipient of many accolades, he has been nominated for five Academy Awards, five British Academy Film Awards and six Golden Globe Awards. In 2015, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by ''Time'', and in 2019, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to film.

Nolan developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age. After studying English literature at University College London, he made several short films before his feature film debut with '' Following'' (1998). Nolan gained international recognition with his second film, '' Memento'' (2000), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He transitioned from independent to studio filmmaking with ''Insomnia'' (2002), and found further critical and commercial success with ''The Dark Knight Trilogy'' (2005–2012), '' The Prestige'' (2006) and '' Inception'' (2010); the last of these earned Nolan two Oscar nominations— Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. This was followed by '' Interstellar'' (2014), '' Dunkirk'' (2017) and ''Tenet'' (2020). For ''Dunkirk,'' he earned two Academy Award nominations, including his first for Best Director.

Nolan's work regularly feature in listings of the best films of their respective decades. They are typically characterised by epistemology and existentialism. Infused with a metaphysical outlook, they explore human ethics, the construction of time, and the malleable nature of memory and personal identity. His work is permeated with mathematically inspired images and concepts, unconventional narrative structures, practical special effects, experimental soundscapes, large-format film photography, and materialistic perspectives. He has co-written several of his films with his brother Jonathan, and runs the production company Syncopy Inc. with his wife Emma Thomas.

Early life

Christopher Edward Nolan was born on 30 July 1970, in Westminster, London. His father, Brendan, was a British advertising executive who worked as a creative director. His mother, Christina, was an American flight attendant from Evanston, Illinois; she would later work as a teacher of English. He has an elder brother, Matthew, and a younger brother, Jonathan, also a filmmaker. The three were raised in London and would spend their summers in Evanston. Nolan has both British and US citizenship.

Growing up, Nolan was particularly influenced by the work of Ridley Scott and the science fiction films '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) and '' Star Wars'' (1977). He would repeatedly watch the latter film and extensively research its making. Nolan began making films at the age of seven, borrowing his father's Super8 camera and shooting short films with his action figures. These films included a stop motion animation homage to ''Star Wars'' called ''Space Wars''. He cast his brother Jonathan and built sets from "clay, flour, egg boxes and toilet rolls". His uncle, who had worked at NASA building guidance systems for the Apollo rockets, sent him some launch footage: "I re-filmed them off the screen and cut them in, thinking no-one would notice", Nolan later remarked. From the age of 11, he aspired to be a professional filmmaker. Between 1981 and 1983, Nolan enrolled at Barrow Hills, a Catholic prep school in Weybridge, Surrey. In his teenage years, Nolan started making films with Adrien and Roko Belic. Nolan and Roko co–directed the surreal 8mm ''Tarantella'' (1989), which was shown on ''Image Union'', an independent film and video showcase on the Public Broadcasting Service.

Nolan was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, an independent school in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, and later studied English literature at University College London (UCL). Opting out of a traditional film education, he pursued "a degree in something unrelated", which his father suggested "gives a different take on things". He chose UCL specifically for its filmmaking facilities, which comprised a Steenbeck editing suite and 16mm film cameras. Nolan was president of the Union's Film Society, and with Emma Thomas (his girlfriend and future wife) he screened 35 mm feature films during the school year and used the money earned to produce 16mm films over the summers.

Career

1993–2003: Early career and breakthrough

After earning his bachelor's degree in English literature in 1993, Nolan worked as a script reader, camera operator and director of corporate videos and industrial films. He directed, wrote and edited the short film ''Larceny'' (1996), which was filmed over a weekend in black and white with limited equipment and a small cast and crew. Funded by Nolan and shot with the UCL Union Film society's equipment, it appeared at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996 and is considered one of UCL's best shorts. For unknown reasons, the film has since been removed from public view. Nolan filmed a third short, '' Doodlebug'' (1997), about a man seemingly chasing an insect with his shoe, only to discover that it is a miniature of himself. Nolan and Thomas first attempted to make a feature in the mid-1990s with ''Larry Mahoney'', which they scrapped. During this period in his career, Nolan had little to no success getting his projects off the ground, facing several rejections; he added, " ere's a very limited pool of finance in the UK. To be honest, it's a very clubby kind of place ... Never had any support whatsoever from the British film industry."

Shortly after abandoning ''Larry Mahoney'', Nolan conceived the idea for his first feature, '' Following'' (1998), which he wrote, directed, photographed and edited. The film depicts an unemployed young writer (Jeremy Theobald) who trails strangers through London, hoping they will provide material for his first novel, but is drawn into a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance. It was inspired by Nolan's experience of living in London and having his apartment burgled; he observed that the common attribute between larceny and pursuing someone through a crowd was that they both cross social boundaries. Co-produced by Nolan with Thomas and Theobald, it was made on a budget of around £3,000. Most of the cast and crew were friends of the director, and shooting took place on weekends over the course of a year. To conserve film stock, each scene was rehearsed extensively to ensure that the first or second take could be used in the final edit. ''Following'' won several awards during its festival run and was well received by critics who labelled Nolan a majorly talented debutant. Scott Timberg of '' New Times LA'' wrote that it "echoed Hitchcock classics", but was "leaner and meaner". Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' was impressed with its "spare look" and "agile hand-held camerawork", saying, "As a result, the actors convincingly carry off the before, during and after modes that the film eventually, and artfully, weaves together."

''Following'' success afforded Nolan the opportunity to make '' Memento'' (2000), which became his breakthrough film. His brother Jonathan pitched the idea to him, about a man with anterograde amnesia who uses notes and tattoos to hunt for his wife's murderer. Jonathan worked the idea into a short story, "Memento Mori

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