Kaan GulerdoganAuteur Director Case Study

Christopher NolanChristopher Nolan is a well-renowned Director, Producer and Writer of film. He was born in London, on July 30th 1970 to British Father Brendan Nolan and American Mother Christina Nolan. During his childhood, he was frequently moving between Chicago and London, but now lives in Los Angeles with his Wife and colleague Emma Thomas and their four children. He and Thomas also have their own production company called ‘Syncopy’.

Whilst Nolan studied English Literature at University College London, he learned film making techniques from the UCL’s Film Society. He would then use these techniques to make his first feature film ‘Following’. The London-based thriller revolved around an amateur writer who meets a thief that takes him under his wing. The film’s success proved that Nolan was able to make a great film, even on a budget of only six thousand dollars. The film was so impressive, that Nolan was able to acquire sufficient financing for his next feature film ‘Memento’. The mystery thriller starred Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss; it tells the story of Leonard Shelby, a man suffering with short-term memory loss and his struggle to find his wife’s killer. The screenplay was written by Nolan, based on a short story written by his younger brother Jonathan. The film received numerous award nominations, including an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award, both for “Best Original Screenplay”.

Nolan followed ‘Memento’ with ‘Insomnia’, a crime thriller centred around two Los Angeles homicide detectives investigating the murder of a local teen in a town where the sun doesn’t set. The film didn’t win many awards, but it did impress ‘Warner Brothers’ enough to give Nolan the chance to revive the ‘Batman’ franchise. Three years later, Nolan released ‘Batman Begins’; a brutal, modern interpretation that was extremely well received by both fans and critics. It was in fact so well received, that it won three Saturn Awards and was nominated for another six. The re-boot immersed audiences into the origin story of the Batman (which hadn’t ever been shown in films) and featured an all star cast which included Christian Bale as the “Caped Crusader”, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Sir Michael Caine (CBE) as Alfred Pennyworth.

Nolan brought back Caine and Bale to work alongside Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman, for his Mystery, Thriller ‘The Prestige’. Set in 19 th century London, the film told the story of Robert “The Great Danton” Angier and Alfred “The Professor” Borden, two Magicians and friends. After a tragic accident on stage, their friendship turns into a fierce rivalry.

Two years later, Nolan released ‘The Dark Knight’, which he not only directed, but also co-wrote and produced. Bale, Caine, Freeman and Oldman all

reprised their roles from ‘Batman Begins’ and the story continued from the point where it left off. The film went on to gross more than one billion dollars at the worldwide box office. The honours came flooding in, with Nolan being nominated for a Director’s Guild of America Award, a Writer’s Guild of America Award and a Producer’s Guild of America Award. The film itself was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two of them.

In 2010, Nolan brought together another all star cast, lead by Leonardo DiCaprio, to star in the Sci-Fi, Thriller ‘Inception’. Reportedly planned for years beforehand, the film is set in a world where technological advancements have made entering the human mind very easy, through dream invasion. With it’s enormous sense of scale, visual brilliance and intimate insight in to the mind’s of the main characters, it’s no wonder that it was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards. It won four of the eight it was nominated for; they were Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing and Best Achievement in Visual Effects. Nolan Directed, Produced and wrote the screenplay for the film and it went on to earn more than 800 million dollars.

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was the much anticipated finale to Nolan’s Batman trilogy, which was released on July 20th 2012. Set eight years after the events of ‘The Dark Knight’, the film tells of Bruce Wayne’s self inflicted exile after being falsely branded a villain and then having to come out of that ‘retirement’ to face off with the brutal, terrorist leader Bane. The film’s success was apparent after it received numerous high ratings after it’s release. The film even went on to gross more than one billion dollars at the worldwide box office. This marked ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ as the second Christopher Nolan film and the second Batman film to gross more than a billion dollars. Thanks to his Batman trilogy, Nolan is now one of two directors to release films that have earned more than a billion dollars (the other director is James Cameron who directed ‘Avatar’ and ‘Titanic 3D’). Nolan once again impressed ‘Warner Brothers’ with his ‘Dark Knight Trilogy’; they recruited him to produce DC Comics’ Superman reboot ‘Man of Steel’, due for release in June 2013 and directed by Zack Snyder.

As of 2012, six out of the eight films that Nolan has directed are on the IMDb’s ‘Top 250’ list. They are The Dark Knight (#7), Inception (#14), Memento (#33), The Dark Knight Rises (#43), The Prestige (#69) and Batman Begins (#105).

When making his films, Nolan frequently uses multiple techniques which have come to be known as his trade marks.

Nolan often begins his films by introducing his main characters with a close up shot of their hands while they’re performing an action. This is most apparent in Nolan’s second film ‘Memento’. During the opening credits we see Guy Pearce’s character looking at a photo of dead man. He repeatedly shakes the photo for a few seconds, then looks at, then shakes it again until there is no image on the paper. The audience then realises that he has been waiting for the photo to ‘develop’ (he took the photo using a Polaroid 690, which prints the photo immediately), but the shot has been playing in reverse. Nolan used the same opening technique in his next film ‘Insomnia’. We are introduced to Will Dormer and the first shot of him is a close up of his hands trying to remove a bright red stain from his shirt sleeve. Finally, in ‘Inception’ during the opening scene we see the main character ‘Cobb’ eating. The shot is very close up to him and although we can slightly see his face, the focal point is his hands.

In many cases, Nolan’s films end with some form of justified dishonesty. In ‘Memento’, Leonard is confronted by ‘Teddy’ with the fact that Leonard has already killed his Wife’s attacker and that he lies to himself because he needs to keep hunting for a culprit. Leonard goes into denial when he is told the truth and instead consciously chooses to ignore it, saying “Do I lie to myself to be happy? In your case Teddy, yes I will”. In ’The Prestige’, Cutter’s ending monologue explains what goes through the mind of the audience after watching a magic trick. He says “Now you’re looking for the secret. But you won’t find it, because of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled”. Another example of this technique is when Batman takes the blame for Harvey Dent’s crimes at the end of ‘The Dark Knight’. He says “... sometimes the truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded”.

The opening credits shot from ‘Memento’. The opening scene of ‘Inception’.

The opening flashback of ‘Insomnia’.

His films often conclude with two characters discussing the events of the film. ‘Batman Begins’ ends with Batman and Lieutenant Gordon discussing the idea of ‘escalation’, ‘The Dark Knight’ ends with Commissioner Gordon and his son discussing why Batman is taking the blame for Harvey Dent’s crimes and ‘Inception’ ends with Cobb discussing life after being reunited with his children.

Nolan’s films frequently contain characters that are determined to exact vengeance over the death of a loved one. This theme is most apparent in ‘Memento’, ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. Leonard’s sole purpose in ‘Memento’ is to track down his wife’s murderer, in ‘Batman Begins’ the death of Bruce’s parents fuels his drive to fight crime and turns him into the Batman and the main villain in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, Talia Al Ghul, fights to kill Batman after he murdered her father. The theme is also featured in ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Prestige’; Two Face’s violent, city-spanning rampage in ‘The Dark Knight’ is caused by the murder of his girlfriend and the rivalry between Borden and Angier in ‘The Prestige’ is triggered when Angier’s wife is tragically killed.

Nolan regularly works with (and is well known for using) non-linear timelines, often rotating between the three acts of the film. The best example of this is ‘Memento’. ‘Memento’ is told in two different timelines; one told in black and white, where the order of clips is chronological and another timeline which is told in colour, where the order of the clips is messed up, reflecting Leonard’s damaged mental state. Other films told in a non-linear fashion are ‘Following’, ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Prestige’.

Cobb is reunited with his kids. Batman and Gordon discuss ‘escalation’.

Commissioner Gordon and his son.

Nolan’s films often feature an unreliable narrator. The most significant example comes from ‘The Dark Knight’; reflecting his insanity, the Joker’s explanations for his extreme facial scars differ throughout the film. On the first occasion, he claims that his alcoholic father “put a smile” on his face with a kitchen knife. On the second occasion, he says that he gave himself the scars after his wife had the same thing done to her over a gambling debt. Borden’s journal in ‘The Prestige’ proves to be an unreliable source of information, because it is encrypted using a key word, meaning that his entries are indecipherable. Leonard’s short-term memory loss in ‘Memento’ means his narration is based on photos and scribbled notes that he has made, meaning the information is unreliable.

Nolan frequently employs the technique of cross-cutting scenes of action to build up to a climax. The technique is most significant in the endings of ‘Inception’ and ‘The Prestige’. During Borden’s execution in ‘The Prestige’, Angier (who is elsewhere) begins to realise that something is wrong; the shots continue to alternate until the climax is reached and Angier is shot. In ‘Inception’, as the dream comes to a close, the different layers of the dream are shown and constantly changing, until the van hits the surface of the water and the kicks begin to remove the characters from the dream. The technique is also used in ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.

Nolan has ended many of his films with a ‘jump cut’ to black. This technique is used for general dramatic effect and, in some cases, used to add a sense of ambiguity to the ending of his films. The most noticeable use of this technique comes at the end of ‘Inception’; as Cobb returns home he spins his spinning top on a table to confirm that he is in the real world. He leaves it to see his children; as the spinning top begins to fall, the shot jumps to black. The technique is also present in ‘Memento’, ‘Batman Begins’, ‘The Prestige’ and ‘The Dark Knight’.

He often works in fantasy-like worlds, with a heavy emphasis on scale. The two most noticeable examples are present in ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’ and ‘Inception’. Nolan’s Batman films are all set in the fictional world of Gotham city and ‘Inception’ takes place largely in the ‘dream world’ where the laws of physics don’t need to be obeyed. The other film set in a fantasy-like world is ‘Insomnia’, where due to the time of year, the sun doesn’t set at night.

‘Inception’; (Left) Ariadne experiments with physics and (Right) ‘Limbo’.

‘The Dark Knight Rises’; (Left) EWS of Gotham and (Right) a tracking shot of the city skyline.

Nolan typically works with the same major crew members on his films. Commonly featured names on Nolan’s films include Hans Zimmer (Composer), Wally Pfister (Cinematographer), Nathan Crowley (Production Designer) and Emma Thomas (Producer; Thomas is also Nolan’s wife). Nolan also refuses to use a second camera unit in his films; he instead, prefers to use one and oversee every shot himself with Wally Pfister. When filming, Nolan prefers to use film stock instead of digital alternatives.

My final of Nolan’s traits is that while the popularity of 3D films is growing these days, Nolan prefers to release his films not in 3D, but in the ‘IMAX’ format. ‘IMAX’ (Abbreviation of “Image Maximum”) is a type of technology that allows film makers to record and show their films in a larger image resolution than regular cameras. ‘IMAX’ cameras record the image onto a larger size of film stock and are projected onto screens much larger than normal sized cinema screens. Using this type of medium emphasises the sense of scale in Nolan’s films, in particular ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Inception’.

In conclusion, the combination of these techniques forms Nolan’s style of filmmaking.