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&nb ...
is a British-American filmmaker known for using aesthetics, themes and cinematic techniques that are instantly recognisable in
his work
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
. Regarded as an
auteur
An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
and
postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
filmmaker, Nolan is partial to elliptical editing, documentary-style lighting,
hand-held camera work, natural settings, and real filming locations over studio work. Embedded narratives and crosscutting between different time frames is a major component of his work, and his films often feature experimental soundscapes and
mathematically inspired images and concepts. Nolan prefers shooting on
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
to
digital video
Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data
Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols eac ...
and advocates for the use of higher-quality, larger-format film stock. He also favours practical effects over computer-generated imagery, and is a proponent of theatrical exhibition.
His work explores
existential
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
and
epistemological
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
themes such as subjective experience,
materialism
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...
, distortion of memory, human morality, the nature of time,
causality
Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is influence by which one event, process, state, or object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cau ...
, and the construction of personal identity. His characters are often emotionally disturbed, obsessive, and morally ambiguous, facing the fears and anxieties of loneliness, guilt, jealousy, and greed. Nolan also uses his real-life experiences as an inspiration in his work. His most prominent recurring theme is the concept of time; questions concerning the nature of existence and reality also play a major role in his body of work.
Nolan's wife,
Emma Thomas
Emma Thomas Nolan (born 9 December 1971) is an English film producer, known for frequent collaborations with her husband, filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Her producing credits include '' The Dark Knight Trilogy'' (2005–2012), ''The Prestige'' (2 ...
, has co-produced all of his features, and he has co-written several of his films with his younger brother,
Jonathan Nolan
Jonathan Nolan (born 6 June 1976) is a British-American screenwriter, producer, director and author. He is the creator of the CBS science fiction series ''Person of Interest'' (2011–2016) and co-creator of the HBO science fiction western s ...
. Other frequent collaborators include editor
Lee Smith, cinematographers
Wally Pfister
Walter C. Pfister (born July 8, 1961) is an American director and former cinematographer, who is best known for his work with filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Some of his collaborations with Nolan include '' Memento'' (2000), ''The Dark Knight Tri ...
and
Hoyte van Hoytema
Hoyte van Hoytema (; born 4 October 1971) is a Swiss-born Dutch-Swedish cinematographer who studied at the National Film School in Łódź. His work includes '' Let the Right One In'' (2008), ''The Fighter'' (2010), ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' ...
, composer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...
, sound designer
Richard King, production designer
Nathan Crowley
Nathan Crowley (born 28 February 1966) is an English production designer and a former art director, who is best known for his collaborations with Christopher Nolan. He was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Production Design for ' ...
, and casting director
John Papsidera. Nolan's films feature many recurring actors, most notably
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
, having appeared in eight (including a cameo in ''Dunkirk'').
Aesthetics
Style
Regarded as an
auteur
An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
and
postmodernist
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...
, Nolan's visual style often emphasises
urban settings, men in suits, muted colours, dialogue scenes framed in wide close-up with a
shallow depth of field
In photography, bokeh ( or ; ) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image. Bokeh has also been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and ...
,
inserts, and modern locations and
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
. Aesthetically, the director favours deep, evocative shadows, documentary-style lighting,
hand-held camera work, natural settings, and
real filming locations over studio work. His colour palettes have been influenced by his
red-green colour blindness.
Nolan has noted that many of his films are heavily influenced by
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...
, and he is particularly known for exploring various ways of "manipulating story time and the viewer's experience of it."
He has continuously experimented with
metafictional elements,
temporal shifts, elliptical cutting,
solipsistic perspectives,
nonlinear storytelling
Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, video games, and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other w ...
,
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by ...
ine plots, genre hybridity, and the merging of style and form.
![Impossible staircase](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Impossible_staircase.svg)
Drawing attention to the intrinsically manipulative nature of the medium, Nolan uses narrative and stylistic techniques (notably
mise en abyme
In Western art history, ''mise en abyme'' (; also ''mise en abîme'') is a formal technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, often in a way that suggests an infinitely recurring sequence. In film theory and literary theory, it refers ...
and
recursion
Recursion (adjective: ''recursive'') occurs when a thing is defined in terms of itself or of its type. Recursion is used in a variety of disciplines ranging from linguistics to logic. The most common application of recursion is in mathematic ...
s) to stimulate the viewer to ask themselves why his films are put together the way they are and why they provoke particular responses.
Nolan's preoccupation with recursive narratives and images first appear in his 1997 short film, ''
Doodlebug'', and can be seen in many of his features.
[Joy, Stuart (2020)] Some examples include the
infinity mirrors created by Ariadne in ''Inception'', and ''Memento''s poster design, inspired by the
Droste effect
The Droste effect (), known in art as an example of '' mise en abyme'', is the effect of a picture recursively appearing within itself, in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appear. This produces a loop which i ...
, in which a picture appears within itself.
His films often explore
mathematically inspired ideas such as the
Möbius strip
In mathematics, a Möbius strip, Möbius band, or Möbius loop is a surface that can be formed by attaching the ends of a strip of paper together with a half-twist. As a mathematical object, it was discovered by Johann Benedict Listing and A ...
,
impossible object
An impossible object (also known as an impossible figure or an undecidable figure) is a type of optical illusion that consists of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and naturally understood as representing a projection of a three-di ...
s, visual
paradox
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
es and
tessellation
A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of ...
s. He frequently uses these ideas as foundation for creating narrative form, such as the
palindrome
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Pana ...
structure of ''
Tenet
A tenet is a synonym for axiom, one of the principles on which a belief or theory is based.
Tenet may also refer to:
Media
* Tenet (band), a heavy metal band
* TENET (ensemble), an American early music vocal and instrumental group
* ''Tenet'' ( ...
''. Notable examples of "
mathematical beauty
Mathematical beauty is the aesthetic pleasure derived from the abstractness, purity, simplicity, depth or orderliness of mathematics. Mathematicians may express this pleasure by describing mathematics (or, at least, some aspect of mathematics) as ...
" in his work include the
Penrose stairs
The Penrose stairs or Penrose steps, also dubbed the impossible staircase, is an impossible object created by Oscar Reutersvärd in 1937 and later independently discovered and made popular by Lionel Penrose and his son Roger Penrose. A variation ...
in ''Inception'', and the
tesseract
In geometry, a tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of e ...
in ''Interstellar'', "a three-dimensional representation of our four-dimensional reality (three physical dimensions plus time) inside the five-dimensional (four dimensions plus time) hyperspace". The logo for Nolan's production company, Syncopy, is a centreless maze.
![Memento Timeline](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Memento_Timeline.png)
Nolan sometimes uses editing as a way to represent the characters' psychological states, merging their subjectivity with that of the audience. For example, in ''Memento'' the fragmented sequential order of scenes is to put the audience into a similar experience of Leonard's defective ability to create new long-term memories. In ''
The Prestige
''The Prestige'' is a 1995 fantasy novel by British writer Christopher Priest. It tells the story of a prolonged feud between two stage magicians in late 1800s England. It is epistolary in structure; that is, it purports to be a collection o ...
'', the series of magic tricks and themes of duality and deception mirror the structural narrative of the film.
His writing style incorporates a number of
storytelling techniques such as
flashbacks, shifting points of view, and
unreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility is compromised. They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in ''The Rhetoric of Fiction''. While unr ...
s. Scenes are often interrupted by the unconventional editing style of cutting away quickly from the
money shot
A money shot is a moving or stationary visual element of a film, video, television broadcast, or print publication that is disproportionately expensive to produce or is perceived as essential to the overall importance or revenue-generating poten ...
(or nearly cutting off characters' dialogue) and
crosscutting several scenes of parallel action to build to a climax.
Embedded narratives and crosscutting between different time frames is a major component of Nolan's auteurship. ''Following'' contains four timelines and intercuts three; ''Memento'' intercuts two timelines, with one moving backward; ''The Prestige'' contains four timelines and intercuts three; ''Inception'' intercuts four timelines, all of them framed by a fifth.
In ''Dunkirk'', Nolan structured three different timelines to emulate a
Shepard tone
A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the bass pitch of the tone moving upward or downward, it is referred to as the ''Shepard scale''. This cr ...
in such a way that it "provides a continual feeling of intensity".
Noted
film theorist
Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for unde ...
and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
David Bordwell
David Jay Bordwell (; born July 23, 1947) is an American film theorist and film historian. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1974, he has written more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including ''Narration in ...
wrote, "For Nolan, I think, form has centrally to do with the sorts of juxtapositions you can create by crosscutting. You could say he treats crosscutting the way
Ophüls treats
tracking shot
A tracking shot is any Shot (filmmaking), shot where the film camera, camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. In cinematography, the term refers to a shot in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly ...
s or
Dreyer treats stark
decor
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordin ...
: an initial commitment to a creative choice, which in turn shapes the handling of story, staging, performance and other factors."
Bordwell further added, "It's rare to find any mainstream director so relentlessly focused on exploring a particular batch of storytelling techniques... Nolan zeroes in, from film to film, on a few narrative devices, finding new possibilities in what most directors handle routinely. He seems to me a very thoughtful, almost theoretical director in his fascination with turning certain conventions this way and that, to reveal their unexpected possibilities."
The director has also stressed the importance of establishing a clear
point of view in his films, and makes frequent use of "the shot that walks into a room behind a character, because... that takes
he viewerinside the way that the character enters".
On narrative perspective, Nolan has said, "You don't want to be hanging above the
maze
A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that le ...
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."
Music
![Hans Zimmer 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Hans_Zimmer_2010.jpg)
In collaboration with composer
David Julyan
David Julyan is an English musician and score composer. He is best known for composing the scores for director Christopher Nolan's early films.
Early life
David Julyan was born in 1967 in Cheltenham, England.
Other projects
In 2006, he scor ...
, Nolan's films feature slow and atmospheric scores with minimalistic expressions and
ambient textures. In the mid-2000s, starting with ''
Batman Begins
''Batman Begins'' is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, ...
'' (2005), Nolan began working with
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...
, who is known for integrating
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...
with traditional orchestral arrangements. With Zimmer, the soundscape in Nolan's films evolved into becoming increasingly more exuberant, kinetic and experimental. An example of this is the main theme from ''
Inception
''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infi ...
'' (2010), which is derived from a slowed down version of
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf (, , ; born Édith Giovanna Gassion, ; December 19, 1915– October 10, 1963) was a French singer, lyricist and actress. Noted as France's national chanteuse, she was one of the country's most widely known international stars.
Pi ...
's song "
Non, je ne regrette rien
"Non, je ne regrette rien" (, Piaf's pronunciation , meaning "No, I do not regret anything") is a French song composed in 1956 by Charles Dumont, with lyrics by Michel Vaucaire. Édith Piaf's 1960 recording spent seven weeks atop the French Sin ...
" (1960).
For ''
Interstellar'' (2014), Zimmer and Nolan wanted to move in a new direction: "The textures, the music, and the sounds, and the thing we sort of created has sort of seeped into other people's movies a bit, so it's time to reinvent." The score for ''
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France. '' (2017) was written to accommodate the
auditory illusion
Auditory illusions are false perceptions of a real sound or outside stimulus. These false perceptions are the equivalent of an optical illusion: the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus, or sounds that should not be po ...
of a Shepard tone. It was also based on a recording of Nolan's own
pocket watch
A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist.
They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwa ...
, which he sent to Zimmer to be
synthesised.
Ludwig Göransson
Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson (; ; born 1 September 1984) is a Swedish composer, conductor and record producer. He has scored films such as ''Fruitvale Station'', the ''Rocky'' franchise entries ''Creed'' and ''Creed II'', ''Venom'', and '' Ten ...
, the composer for ''
Tenet
A tenet is a synonym for axiom, one of the principles on which a belief or theory is based.
Tenet may also refer to:
Media
* Tenet (band), a heavy metal band
* TENET (ensemble), an American early music vocal and instrumental group
* ''Tenet'' ( ...
'' (2020), researched
retrograde music to generate tunes that would sound the same forward and backward. Part of the soundscape for the villainous character in ''Tenet'' was based on Nolan breathing through a microphone, and later manipulated and turned into uncomfortable, raspy sounds by Göransson. He called working with the director an "eye-opening experience", saying: "I know from watching his films how savvy he is with music, how much he understands it, but I didn't fully know that he could speak about it almost like a trained musician."
Responding to criticism over his experimental
sound mix
Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic, ...
for ''Interstellar'', Nolan remarked: "I've always loved films that approach sound in an impressionistic way and that is an unusual approach for a mainstream blockbuster ... I don't agree with the idea that you can only achieve clarity through dialogue. Clarity of story, clarity of emotions — I try to achieve that in a very layered way using all the different things at my disposal — picture and sound." The mix for ''Tenet'' received similar attention, with some deeming it "infuriating", while others found it "inspiring". Peter Albrechtsen, a sound designer who worked on ''Dunkirk'', commented that Nolan rarely uses
ADR ADR or adr may refer to:
Computing
* Asynchronous DRAM refresh, an approach for persistent memory found in some Intel Xeon processors
* The adr microformat, part of the hCard microformat
* Architectural decision record
* Action–domain–respond ...
(Automated Dialogue Replacement), so the dialogue in his films are mostly based on production sound. He also noted that the way Nolan uses sound is "very visceral ... It is a physical experience. It's a very intense sonic experience, and I can see why, for some, that's quite overwhelming."
Themes
Nolan's work explores
existential
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
,
ethical
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...
, and
epistemological
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
themes such as subjective experience, distortion of memory, human morality, the nature of time,
causality
Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is influence by which one event, process, state, or object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cau ...
, and construction of
personal identity
Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of a person over time. Discussions regarding personal identity typically aim to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time ca ...
.
On subjective point of view, Nolan said: "I'm fascinated by our subjective perception of reality, that we are all stuck in a very singular point of view, a singular perspective on what we all agree to be an objective reality, and movies are one of the ways in which we try to see things from the same point of view".
His films contain a notable degree of
ambiguity
Ambiguity is the type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or resolution is not explicitly defined, making several interpretations plausible. A common aspect of ambiguity is uncertainty. It is thus an attribute of any idea or statement ...
and often examine the similarities between filmmaking and architecture.
The director avoids divulging the ambiguities of his work so that audiences can come up with their own interpretations.
Film critic
Tom Shone described Nolan's oeuvre as "epistemological thrillers whose protagonists, gripped by the desire for definitive answers, must negotiate mazy environments in which the
truth
Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as belief ...
is always beyond their reach."
In an essay titled "The rational wonders of Christopher Nolan", film critic
Mike D'Angelo
Mike D'Angelo (born April 9, 1968) is an American film critic. He has written reviews for '' The A.V. Club'', ''Las Vegas Weekly'' and ''Nerve'', and maintains a personal website, The Man Who Viewed Too Much. He lives near Los Angeles.
One of t ...
argues that the filmmaker is a
materialist
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...
dedicated to exploring the wonders of the natural world. "Underlying nearly every film he's ever made, no matter how fanciful, is his conviction that the universe can be explained entirely by physical processes." In his book, ''Out of Time: Desire in Atemporal Cinema'', author and film theorist Todd McGowan claims that many of Nolan's films break from linear chronology in order to emphasize the repetition of "the psychoanalytic drive".
He writes, "the future does not provide the promise of desire's realization but rather a repeated failure to attain its object. By scrambling chronology, atemporal films make evident this failure for the spectator and thus encourage the spectator to embrace the repetition of the drive rather than put their faith in a different future."
In 2020, Richard Newby of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...
'' wrote that Nolan's concept of "balancing scales" has become less focused on the individual and "more innately aware of the communal and global." He noted that the filmmaker is concerned with the notions of legacy and justice, as well as "the preservation of the future, ensuring that there is one for the next generations, even if that means sacrifice in the here and now."
Nolan often grounds his stories in broader societal issues, such as
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
, surveillance, economic inequality and
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, and his characters are usually emotionally disturbed, obsessive, and morally ambiguous, facing the fears and anxieties of
loneliness
Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social paina psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with a perceived lack ...
,
guilt
Guilt may refer to:
*Guilt (emotion), an emotion that occurs when a person feels that they have violated a moral standard
*Culpability, a legal term
*Guilt (law), a legal term
Music
* ''Guilt'' (album), a 2009 album by Mims
* "Guilt" (The Long Bl ...
,
jealousy
Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety.
Jealousy can consist of one or more emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness or disgus ...
, and greed. By exploring "everyday neurosisour everyday sort of fears and hopes for ourselves" in a heightened reality, Nolan makes them more accessible to a universal audience. The protagonists of Nolan's films are often driven by philosophical beliefs, and their fate is ambiguous. In some of his films, the protagonist and antagonist are mirror images of each other, a point which is made to the protagonist by the antagonist. Through the clashing of ideologies, Nolan highlights the ambivalent nature of truth.
In his book, ''The Traumatic Screen: The Films of Christopher Nolan'' (2020), film scholar Stuart Joy builds on contemporary
psychoanalytic film theory to consider "the function and presentation of
trauma
Trauma most often refers to:
*Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source
*Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event
*Traumatic inju ...
" across Nolan's work, arguing that the complexity, thematic consistency, and fragmentary nature of his films mimic the structural operation of trauma.
He writes that, "Nolan's films highlight cinema's ability to probe the nature of human consciousness while commenting on the relationship between spectator and screen."
The director uses his real-life experiences as an inspiration in his work, saying, "From a creative point of view, the process of growing up, the process of maturing, getting married, having kids, I've tried to use that in my work. I've tried to just always be driven by the things that were important to me." Writing for ''The Playlist'', Oliver Lyttelton singled out
parenthood as a signature theme in Nolan's work, adding: "
e director avoids talking about his private life, but fatherhood has been at the emotional heart of almost everything he's made, at least from ''Batman Begins'' onwards (previous films, it should be said, pre-dated the birth of his kids)."
![James Clerk Maxwell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/James_Clerk_Maxwell.png)
Nolan's most prominent recurring theme is the concept of
time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
. The director has identified that all of his films "have had some odd relationship with time, usually in just a structural sense, in that I have always been interested in the subjectivity of time." Writing for ''Film Philosophy'', Emma Bell commented that the characters in ''Inception'' "escape time by being
stricken in itbuilding the delusion that time has not passed, and is not passing now. They feel time grievously: willingly and knowingly destroying their experience by creating multiple simultaneous existences."
In ''Interstellar'', Nolan explored the laws of physics as represented in Einstein's theory of
general relativity
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...
, identifying time as the film's antagonist. With ''Tenet'', Nolan used
entropy
Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodyna ...
and the
second law of thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal experience concerning heat and energy interconversions. One simple statement of the law is that heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects (or "downhill"), unle ...
to explore
temporal paradoxes
A temporal paradox, time paradox, or time travel paradox is a paradox, an apparent contradiction, or logical contradiction associated with the idea of time and time travel. The notion of time travel to the future complies with current understanding ...
such as the
grandfather paradox
A temporal paradox, time paradox, or time travel paradox is a paradox, an apparent contradiction, or logical contradiction associated with the idea of time and time travel. The notion of time travel to the future complies with current understanding ...
and the
causal loop
A causal loop is a theoretical proposition, wherein by means of either retrocausality or time travel, an event (an action, information, object, or person) is among the causes of another event, which is in turn among the causes of the first-menti ...
, as well as ideas about
retrocausality
Retrocausality, or backwards causation, is a concept of cause and effect in which an effect precedes its cause in time and so a later event affects an earlier one. In quantum physics, the distinction between cause and effect is not made at the mos ...
,
fatalism
Fatalism is a family of related philosophical doctrines that stress the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or destiny, and is commonly associated with the consequent attitude of resignation in the face of future events which are thou ...
,
infinity
Infinity is that which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number. It is often denoted by the infinity symbol .
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the philosophical nature of infinity was the subject of many discussions amo ...
, the
one-electron universe
The one-electron universe postulate, proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940, is the hypothesis that all electrons and positrons are actually manifestations of a single entity m ...
, and
Maxwell's demon
Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment that would hypothetically violate the second law of thermodynamics. It was proposed by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. In his first letter Maxwell called the demon a "finite being", while the ' ...
. Siddhant Adlakha of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
called ''Tenet'' a culmination of the director's career and his obsession with "time as a moving fabric imprinted on film." Brandon Katz of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' wrote that "time isn't just a narrative gimmick in Nolan's filmography nor are his settings mere window dressing for the action. Instead, they are integral elements of the story that interact with both the characters and the viewers to elicit an emotional and psychological response both consciously and subconsciously."
Ontological
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.
Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...
questions concerning the nature of
existence
Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontology, ontological Property (philosophy), property of being.
Etymology
The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval ...
and
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
also play a major role in his body of work. Alec Price and M.Dawson of ''Left Field Cinema'' noted that the
existential crisis
In psychology and psychotherapy, existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning. Some authors also emphasize confusion about one's personal identity in their definition. Existential crises are acc ...
of conflicted male figures "struggling with the slippery nature of identity" is a prevalent theme in Nolan's films. The actual (or objective) world is of less importance than the way in which we absorb and remember, and it is this created (or subjective) reality that truly matters. "It is solely in the mind and the heart where any sense of permanency or equilibrium can ever be found."
According to Todd McGowan, these "created realities" also reveal the ethical and political importance of creating fictions and falsehoods. Nolan's films typically deceive spectators about the events that occur and the motivations of the characters, but they do not abandon the idea of truth altogether. Instead, "They show us how truth must emerge out of the lie if it is not to lead us entirely astray." McGowan further argues that Nolan is the first filmmaker to devote himself entirely to the illusion of the medium, calling him a
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
ian filmmaker.
In ''Inception'', Nolan was inspired by
lucid dreaming
A lucid dream is a type of dream in which the dreamer becomes aware that they are dreaming while dreaming. During a lucid dream, the dreamer may gain some amount of control over the dream characters, narrative, or environment; however, this is n ...
and
dream incubation
Dream incubation is a thought technique which aims for a specific dream topic to occur, either for recreation or to attempt to solve a problem. For example, a person might go to bed repeating to themselves that they will dream about a presentation ...
. The film's characters try to embed an idea in a person's mind without their knowledge, similar to
Freud's theory that the unconscious influences one's behaviour without one's knowledge. Most of the film takes place in interconnected dream worlds; this creates a framework where actions in the real (or dream) worlds ripple across others. The dream is always in a state of emergence, shifting across levels as the characters navigate it.
Like ''Memento'' and ''The Prestige'', ''Inception'' uses
metaleptic storytelling devices and follows Nolan's "auteur affinity of converting, moreover, converging narrative and cognitive values into and within a fictional story".
Commentary
Nolan's work has often been the subject of extensive
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
and
political commentary
Political criticism (also referred to as political commentary or political discussion) is criticism that is specific of or relevant to politics, including policies, politicians, political parties, and types of government.
See also
* Bad Subject ...
. Slovenian philosopher
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...
said Nolan's ''
The Dark Knight Rises
''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is th ...
'' shows that Hollywood blockbusters can be "precise indicators of the ideological predicaments of our societies". ''The Dark Knight'' trilogy explored themes of chaos, terrorism, escalation of violence, financial manipulation,
utilitarianism
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charact ...
,
mass surveillance
Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...
, and
class conflict
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.
The forms ...
.
Batman's arc of rising (philosophically) from a man to "more than just a man" is similar to the
Nietzschian Übermensch
The (; "Overhuman") is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In his 1883 book ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra), Nietzsche has his character Zarathustra posit the as a goal for humanity to set for itse ...
. The films also explore ideas akin to
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
's philosophical glorification of a simpler, more primitive way of life and the concept of
general will
In political philosophy, the general will (french: volonté générale) is the will of the people as a whole. The term was made famous by 18th-century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Basic ideas
The phrase "general will", as Roussea ...
. Theorist
Douglas Kellner
Douglas Kellner (born May 31, 1943) is an American academic who works at the intersection of "third-generation" critical theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School, and in cultural studies in the ...
saw the series as a critical allegory about the
Bush–Cheney era, highlighting the theme of government corruption and failure to solve social problems, as well as the cinematic spectacle and iconography related to
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
.
In 2018, the
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
magazine ''
The American Spectator
''The American Spectator'' is a conservative American magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. It was founded in 1967 by Tyrrell, who remains its editor-i ...
'' published an article, "In Search of Christopher Nolan", writing, "All of Nolan's films, while maintaining a strong
patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
, plunges below the surface into the murky waters of philosophy, probing some of the deepest human struggles in our unfortunately
postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
age."
The article further argues that ''Dunkirk'' echoes the work of absurdist playwrights like
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
and the bleak, existential novels of
Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
and
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
.
Nolan has said that none of his films are intended to be political.
Method
Nolan has described his filmmaking process as a combination of intuition and geometry. "I draw a lot of diagrams when I work. I do a lot of thinking about etchings by
Escher, for instance. That frees me, finding a mathematical model or a scientific model. I'll draw pictures and diagrams that illustrate the movement or the rhythm that I'm after."
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
physicist and Nobel Laureate
Kip Thorne
Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. A longtime friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, he was the Richard P. Fey ...
compared Nolan's intuition to forward-thinking scientists, saying the filmmaker intuitively grasped things non-scientists rarely understand.
Regarding his own decision-making of whether to start work on a project, Nolan has proclaimed a belief in the sincerity of his passion for something within the particular project in question as a basis for his selective thought.
When working with actors, Nolan prefers giving them the time to perform as many takes of a given scene as they want. "I've come to realize that the lighting and camera setups, the technical things, take all the time, but running another take generally only adds a couple of minutes... If an actor tells me they can do something more with a scene, I give them the chance, because it's not going to cost that much time. It can't all be about the technical issues."
He prohibits the use of phones on set,
and favours working in close coordination with his actors, avoiding the use of a video village.
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy (; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. Originally the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, he turned down a record deal in the late 1990s and began acting on stage and in short and ...
said, "he creates this environment where it's just you and the actor or actors, there's Wally
fister
Fister is a village in Hjelmeland municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is a small community approximately 600 inhabitants, and is located on the mainland, along the Fisterfjorden, a branch off the main Boknafjorden. The village l ...
the camera man, and he stands beside the camera with like his little monitor but he's watching it in real time. And for him the performance is paramount. It's the connection between the actors. He allows room for spontaneity."
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy Fi ...
praised the director for giving the actors space to "find things in the scene" and not just give direction for direction's sake.
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus t ...
also recognised Nolan's ability to provide a harmonious work environment, comparing him with
Danny Boyle
Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on films including ''Shallow Grave'', '' Trainspotting'' and its sequel ''T2 Trainspotting'', '' The Beach'', '' 28 Days Later'', '' Su ...
and
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...
: "These are not people who try to trick or cajole or hector people. They sort of strip away the chaos."
Nolan chooses to minimise the amount of
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...
for special effects in his films, preferring to use
practical effects
A practical effect is a special effect produced physically, without computer-generated imagery or other post-production techniques. In some contexts, "special effect" is used as a synonym of "practical effect", in contrast to "visual effects" ...
whenever possible, and only using CGI to enhance elements which he has photographed in camera. For instance, his films ''Batman Begins'', ''Inception'', and ''Interstellar'' featured 620, 500, and 850 visual-effects shots, respectively, which is considered minor when compared with contemporary visual-effects epics, which may have upwards of 1,500 to 2,000 VFX shots.
Nolan explained:
I believe in an absolute difference between animation and photography. However sophisticated your computer-generated imagery is, if it's been created from no physical elements and you haven't shot anything, it's going to feel like animation. There are usually two different goals in a visual effects movie. One is to fool the audience into seeing something seamless, and that's how I try to use it. The other is to impress the audience with the amount of money spent on the spectacle of the visual effect, and that, I have no interest in.
Nolan shoots the entirety of his films with one unit, rather than using a
second unit
Second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming stag ...
for action sequences. That way, he keeps his personality and point of view in every aspect of the film. "If I don't need to be directing the shots that go in the movie, why do I need to be there at all? The screen is the same size for every shot... Many action films embrace a second unit taking on all of the action. For me, that's odd because then why did you want to do an action film?"
He uses
multi-camera
The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or simply multicam is a method of filmmaking and video production. Several cameras—either film or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and simultaneous ...
for stunts and
single-camera
The single-camera setup, or single-camera mode of production, also known as portable single camera, is a method of filmmaking and video production.
The single-camera setup originally developed during the birth of the classical Hollywood cinema i ...
for all the dramatic action. He then watches
dailies
In filmmaking, dailies are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and pri ...
every night, saying, "Shooting single-camera means I've already seen every frame as it's gone through the
gate
A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...
because my attention isn't divided to multi-cameras."
Nolan deliberately works under a tight schedule during the early stages of the editing process, forcing himself and his editor to work more spontaneously. "I always think of editing as instinctive or impressionist. Not to think too much, in a way, and feel it more."
He also avoids using
temp music while cutting his films.
Collaborators
Nolan’s wife,
Emma Thomas
Emma Thomas Nolan (born 9 December 1971) is an English film producer, known for frequent collaborations with her husband, filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Her producing credits include '' The Dark Knight Trilogy'' (2005–2012), ''The Prestige'' (2 ...
, has co-produced all of his films (including ''Memento'', in which she is credited as an associate producer). He regularly works with his brother, Jonathan Nolan (creator of ''
Person of Interest
"Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no leg ...
'' and ''
Westworld
''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...
''), who describes their working relationship in the production notes for ''The Prestige'': "I've always suspected that it has something to do with the fact that he's left-handed and I'm right-handed, because he's somehow able to look at my ideas and flip them around in a way that's just a little bit more twisted and interesting. It's great to be able to work with him like that".
When working on separate projects the brothers always consult each other.
The director has worked with screenwriter David S. Goyer on all of his comic-book adaptations.
Wally Pfister
Walter C. Pfister (born July 8, 1961) is an American director and former cinematographer, who is best known for his work with filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Some of his collaborations with Nolan include '' Memento'' (2000), ''The Dark Knight Tri ...
was the cinematographer for all of Nolan's films from ''Memento'' to ''The Dark Knight Rises''. Embarking on his own career as a director, Pfister said: "The greatest lesson I learned from Chris Nolan is to keep my humility. He is an absolute gentleman on set and he is wonderful to everyonefrom the actors to the entire crew, he treats everyone with respect." With ''Interstellar'' Nolan began collaborating with cinematographer
Hoyte van Hoytema
Hoyte van Hoytema (; born 4 October 1971) is a Swiss-born Dutch-Swedish cinematographer who studied at the National Film School in Łódź. His work includes '' Let the Right One In'' (2008), ''The Fighter'' (2010), ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' ...
.
Lee Smith has edited seven of Nolan's films, while
Dody Dorn
Dody Jane Dorn (born April 20, 1955) is an American film and sound editor. She is best known for working with director Christopher Nolan on several films including '' Memento'' (2000), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.Nesselson, ...
has cut two. David Julyan composed the music for Nolan's early work, while Hans Zimmer and
James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...
provided the music for ''Batman Begins'' and ''The Dark Knight''. Zimmer scored ''The Dark Knight Rises'' and worked with Nolan on many of his subsequent films. Zimmer said his creative relationship with Nolan was highly collaborative, and that he considers Nolan a "co-creator" of the music. The director has worked with
sound designer
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
Richard King and
re-recording mixer
A re-recording mixer in North America, also known as a dubbing mixer in Europe, is a post-production audio engineer who mixes recorded dialogue, sound effects and music to create the final version of a soundtrack for a feature film, television pro ...
Gary Rizzo since ''The Prestige''. Nolan has frequently collaborated with special-effects supervisor
Chris Corbould
Christopher Charles Corbould, (; born 1958) is a British special effects coordinator best known for his work on major blockbuster films and the action scenes on 15 ''James Bond'' films since The Spy Who Loved Me. He has also worked extensivel ...
, stunt coordinator Tom Struthers
first assistant director
The role of an assistant director on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have to t ...
Nilo Otero, and visual effects supervisor
Paul Franklin. Otero regards Nolan as a throwback to old-school Hollywood directors for his proficiency in all aspects of production instead of specializing. Production designer
Nathan Crowley
Nathan Crowley (born 28 February 1966) is an English production designer and a former art director, who is best known for his collaborations with Christopher Nolan. He was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Production Design for ' ...
has worked with him since ''Insomnia'' (except for ''Inception''). Nolan has called Crowley one of his closest and most inspiring creative collaborators. Casting director
John Papsidera has worked on all of Nolan's films, except ''Following'' and ''Insomnia''.
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. He has received various accolades, including ...
,
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
,
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy Fi ...
,
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy (; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. Originally the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, he turned down a record deal in the late 1990s and began acting on stage and in short and ...
, and
Tom Hardy have been frequent collaborators since the mid-2000s, each appearing in upwards of 3 films.
Caine is Nolan's most prolific collaborator, having appeared in eight of his films (including a cameo in ''Dunkirk''); Nolan regards him as his "good luck charm". In return, Caine has described Nolan as "one of cinema's greatest directors", comparing him favourably with the likes of
David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...
,
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
, and
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best ...
. Nolan is known for casting stars from the 1980s in his films, i.e.
Rutger Hauer
Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century.
Hauer's career began in 1969 with the title role in the Dutch television series ' ...
(''Batman Begins''),
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. His career began with a leading role in ''King of the Gypsies'' (1978) for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He was nominated again at the Golden Globes fo ...
(''The Dark Knight''),
Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing Jake ...
(''Inception''), and
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker, who rose to prominence through his role as U.S. Marine Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis in ''Full Metal Jacket''. His other film roles include the title character ...
(''The Dark Knight Rises''). Modine said of working with Nolan, "There are no chairs on a Nolan set, he gets out of his car and goes to the set. And he stands up until lunchtime. And then he stands up until they say 'Wrap'. He's fully engagedin every aspect of the film."
Influences
![Maurits Cornelis Escher](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Maurits_Cornelis_Escher.jpg)
The filmmaker has often cited
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
graphic artist
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...
M. C. Escher as a major influence on his own work. "I'm very inspired by the prints of M.C. Escher and the interesting connection-point or blurring of boundaries between art and science, and art and mathematics." Another source of inspiration is
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
writer
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
. The director has called ''Memento'' a "strange cousin" to ''
Funes the Memorious
"Funes the Memorious" (original Spanish title ''Funes el memorioso'') is a fantasy short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986). First published in ''La Nación'' of June 1942, it appeared in the 1944 anthology ''Ficciones'', ...
'', and has said, "I think his writing naturally lends itself to a cinematic interpretation because it is all about efficiency and precision, the bare bones of an idea."
Filmmakers Nolan has cited as influences include:
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
,
Michael Mann
Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ' ...
,
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include '' Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenp ...
,
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
,
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
,
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg (; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing '' Performance'' (1970), ''Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973), ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976 ...
,
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Arthur Lumet ( ; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. He was nominated five times for the Academy Award: four for Best Director for ''12 Angry Men'' (1957), ''Dog Day Afternoon'' (1975), ''Network'' (1976), ...
,
David Lean,
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
,
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...
,
and
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1 ...
. He has also praised
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...
and
Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...
. Nolan's personal favourite films include ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...
'' (1982), ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' (1977), ''
The Man Who Would Be King
"The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) is a story by Rudyard Kipling about two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. The story was first published in '' The Phantom Rickshaw and other Ee ...
'' (1975), ''
Lawrence of Arabia
Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918 ...
'' (1962), ''
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
'' (1974), ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968), ''
Withnail and I
''Withnail and I'' is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Gran ...
'' (1987), and ''
Chariots of Fire
''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 British historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a de ...
'' (1981). In 2013 Criterion Collection released a list of Nolan's ten favourite films from its catalogue, which included ''
The Hit'' (1984), ''
12 Angry Men
''Twelve Angry Men'' is an American courtroom drama written by Reginald Rose concerning the jury of a homicide trial. It was broadcast initially as a television play in 1954. The following year it was adapted for the stage. It was adapted for a ...
'' (1957), ''
The Thin Red Line'' (1998), ''
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' (german: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse), also called ''The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse'', is a 1933 German crime-thriller film directed by Fritz Lang. The movie is a sequel to Lang's silent film ''Dr. Mabuse the Gambl ...
'' (1933), ''
Bad Timing
''Bad Timing'' is a 1980 British psychological drama film directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, Harvey Keitel, and Denholm Elliott. The plot focuses on an American woman and a psychology professor living in V ...
'' (1980), ''
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
, also known in many European editions as , is a 1983 war film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, co-written by Paul Mayersberg, and produced by Jeremy Thomas. The film is based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post (portrayed b ...
'' (1983), ''
For All Mankind'' (1989), ''
Koyaanisqatsi
''Koyaanisqatsi'' (), also known as ''Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance'', is a 1982 American experimental film, experimental non-narrative film directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by R ...
'' (1982), ''
Mr. Arkadin
''Mr. Arkadin'' (first released in Spain, 1955), known in Britain as ''Confidential Report'', is a French-Spanish-Swiss coproduction film, written and directed by Orson Welles and shot in several Spanish locations, including Costa Brava, Segov ...
'' (1955), and
Erich von Stroheim
Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, actor and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of the silent era. H ...
's ''Greed (1924 film), Greed'' (1924) (unavailable on Criterion). He is also a fan of the ''James Bond in film, James Bond'' films, citing them as a "a huge source of inspiration" and has expressed his admiration for the work of composer John Barry (composer), John Barry.
Nolan's habit of employing non-linear storylines was particularly influenced by the Graham Swift novel ''Waterland (novel), Waterland'', which he felt "did incredible things with parallel timelines, and told a story in different dimensions that was extremely coherent". He was also influenced by the visual language of the film ''Pink Floyd – The Wall'' (1982) and the structure of ''Pulp Fiction (film), Pulp Fiction'' (1994), stating that he was "fascinated with what Quentin Tarantino, Tarantino had done".
''Inception'' was partly influenced by Dante Alighieri, Dante's ''Inferno (Dante), Inferno'', Max Ernst's ''Forest'' series, and the films ''Orpheus (film), Orpheus'' (1950), ''La Jetée'' (1962), ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film), On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' (1969), and ''Zabriskie Point (film), Zabriskie Point'' (1970).
For ''Interstellar'', he mentioned a number of literary influences, including ''Flatland'' by Edwin Abbott Abbott, ''The Wasp Factory'' by Iain Banks, and ''A Wrinkle in Time'' by Madeleine L'Engle. For ''Dunkirk'', Nolan said he was inspired by the work of Robert Bresson, silent films such as ''Intolerance (film), Intolerance'' (1916) and ''Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans'' (1927), as well as by ''The Wages of Fear'' (1953). Other influences Nolan has credited include figurative painter Francis Bacon (artist), Francis Bacon, architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, poet T. S. Eliot (''Four Quartets'', in particular), and authors Raymond Chandler (''The Big Sleep'' influenced Nolan's first films), James Ellroy, Jim Thompson (writer), Jim Thompson, and Charles Dickens (''A Tale of Two Cities'' was a major influence on ''The Dark Knight Rises'').
Views on the film industry
Analog film
Nolan is a vocal proponent of the continued use of film stock and prefers it over digital video, digital recording and projection formats, summing up his belief as, "I am not committed to film out of nostalgia. I am in favor of any kind of technical innovation but it needs to exceed what
has gone before and so far nothing has exceeded anything that's come before".
Nolan's major concern is that the film industry's adoption of digital formats has been driven purely by economic factors as opposed to digital being a superior medium to film, saying, "I think, truthfully, it boils down to the economic interest of manufacturers and [a production] industry that makes more money through change rather than through maintaining the status quo."
He opposes the use of digital intermediates and digital cinematography, which he feels are less reliable than film and offer inferior image quality. In particular, the director advocates for the use of higher-quality, larger-format film stock such as Panavision Anamorphic format, anamorphic 35mm, VistaVision, Super Panavision 70, Panavision Super 70mm, and IMAX, IMAX 70mm film.
Rather than use a digital intermediate, Nolan uses Color grading, photochemical colour timing to colour grade his films,
which results in less manipulation of the filmed image and higher film resolution.
Seeking to maintain high resolution from an analogue workflow, Nolan has at times edited and created release prints for his films optically rather than though digital processes. On occasion he has even edited sequences for his films from the original camera negative.
[.] When digital processes are used, Nolan will use high resolution telecine based on a photochemical film print, striving to maintain a "film look".
![Colin Trevorrow and Christopher Nolan (25045926926)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Colin_Trevorrow_and_Christopher_Nolan_%2825045926926%29.jpg)
Nolan is credited for popularising the use of IMAX film cameras in commercial filmmaking, and has used his influence in Hollywood to showcase the IMAX format, warning other filmmakers that unless they continued to assert their choice to use film in their productions, movie studios would begin to phase out the use of film in favour of digital.
In 2014, Nolan, along with directors J. J. Abrams, Quentin Tarantino and Judd Apatow, successfully lobbied for major Hollywood studios to continue to fund Kodak to produce and process film stock, following the company's emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as Kodak is currently the last remaining manufacturer of film stock worldwide. At the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Nolan attended a panel entitled "Power of Story", where he discussed the importance of allowing filmmakers the continued artistic choice of shooting on film. Nolan argued for the artistic merits of film on the grounds of "medium specificity", which highlights the importance that a work shot on film be presented in its original format, and "medium resistance", that the artist's choice of what medium is used to create a work will further effect choices in how a work is made. Nolan is also a proponent of film preservation and is a member of the National Film Preservation Board, as well as the board of Martin Scorsese's non-profit Film Foundation.
Theatrical exhibition
Nolan is an advocate for the importance of films being shown in large-screen cinema theatres as opposed to home video formats, as he believes that, "The theatrical window is to the movie business what live concerts are to the music businessand no one goes to a concert to be played an MP3 on a bare stage."
In 2014, Nolan wrote an article for ''The Wall Street Journal'' where he expressed concern that as the film industry transitions away from photochemical film towards digital formats, the difference between seeing films in theatres versus on other formats will become trivialised, leaving audiences no incentive to seek out a theatrical experience. Nolan further expressed concern that with content digitised, theatres of the future will be able to track best-selling films and adjust their programming accordingly, a process that favours large heavily marketed studio films, but will marginalise smaller innovative and unconventional pictures. To combat this, Nolan believes the industry needs to focus on improving the theatrical experience with bigger and more beautiful presentation formats that cannot be accessed or reproduced in the home, as well as embracing the new generation of aspiring young innovative filmmakers.
Nolan assisted in the 2019 renovation of the Directors Guild of America, DGA theatre in Los Angeles.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nolan emerged as "a fierce advocate" for movie theaters and film industry workers.
He wrote about the social and cultural importance of movie theaters in an article published by ''The Washington Post'' on 21 March 2020. He described cinemas as "the most affordable and democratic of our community gathering places" and urged United States Congress, Congress to include struggling theater chains and their employees in the federal bailout. "I hope that people are seeing our exhibition community for what it really is: a vital part of social life, providing jobs for many and entertainment for all. These are places of joyful mingling where workers serve up stories and treats to the crowds that come to enjoy an evening out with friends and family. As a filmmaker, my work can never be complete without those workers and the audiences they welcome."
On 30 September 2020, he signed a letter to Washington lawmakers calling on the federal government to provide support for the industry.
On 18 January 2021, he signed his name to a petition calling for the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to provide funding for struggling movie theaters.
Owen Gleiberman of ''Variety (magazine), Variety'' deemed Nolan "the film industry's most dynamic public advocate for the movie-theater experience."
Nolan, whose relationship with Warner Bros. has been described as "one of the most successful working relationships in modern show business history",
publicly criticised the studio for their lack of transparency when they announced they would release their 2021 theatrical slate day-and-date on HBO Max.
In an interview with NPR, he explained: "When a company starts devaluing the individual assets by using them as leverage for a different business strategy without first figuring out how those new structures are going to have to work, it's a sign of great danger for the ordinary people who work in this industry."
Criticism
Nolan has been critical of 3D film and dislikes that 3D cameras cannot be equipped with Prime Lens, prime (non-zoom) lenses.
In particular, Nolan has criticised the loss of brightness caused by 3D projection, which can be up to three foot-lamberts dimmer. "You're not that aware of it because once you're 'in that world,' your eye compensates, but having struggled for years to get theaters up to the proper brightness, we're not sticking polarized filters in everything."
Nolan has also argued against the notion that traditional film does not create the illusion of depth perception, saying, "I think it's a misnomer to call it 3D versus 2D. The whole point of cinematic imagery is it's three dimensional ... You know 95% of our depth perception, depth cues come from occlusion, resolution, color and so forth, so the idea of calling a 2D movie a '2D movie' is a little misleading."
He also opposes motion interpolation, commonly referred to as the "soap opera effect", as the default setting on television.
In 2018, Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and other filmmakers reached out to television manufacturers in an attempt to "try and give directors a voice in how the technical standards of our work can be maintained in the home."
A TV setting called "Filmmaker Mode" was announced by UHD Alliance a year later.
See also
* Christopher Nolan filmography
* List of awards and nominations received by Christopher Nolan
* List of film director and actor collaborations
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Cinematic styles of film directors, N