Christopher Nolan
- 1. Christopher Nolan By Brendan Flynn
- 2. Background Christopher Nolan was born in London, England on July 30th of 1970. At the age of 7 he made his first short film. His mom was American and his dad was British so he spent time in both countries and has dual citizenship, much of his background comes from London and Chicago. He studied English literature at University College London where he joined the school's film team. Here he created the short films of Tarantula, Larceny, and Doodlebug, before he went on to write and direct in Hollywood.
- 3. Background Christopher Nolan's first feature length film was Following(2008) which he filmed with a budget of around $6000, however you could see his style emerge from this first film that influenced the rest of his films. The film was well received in the film festival community, winning 5 awards and was nominated for another 4 in 1999. This film helped him obtain enough money to shoot his second feature length film Memento (2000).
- 4. Major Films Following (1998) Director, Writer, Producer Memento (2000) Director, Writer Insomnia (2002) Director Batman Begins (2005) Director, Writer The Prestige (2006) Director, Writer, Producer The Dark Knight (2008) Director, Writer, Producer Inception (2010) Director, Writer, Producer The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Director, Writer, Producer Man of Steel (2013) Writer, Producer Interstellar (2014) Director, Writer, Producer
- 5. Signature Style Non Linear Storytelling One of Christopher Nolan's signature styles is the non-linear storytelling that encompasses almost all of his movies, with the exception of the Batman Trilogy. In Memento the story is told scene by scene from the ending to the beginning. In Inception the story slows down time within a man's brain as they pass through each level, it compresses time across the entire movie. In The Prestige the story telling aspect uses flashbacks within flashbacks to tell the entire story.
- 6. Signature Style Gray Morality of Characters Insomnia presents us with Will Dormer, a detective who confesses to planting evidence to put a pedophile in jail. Then in a later portion of the movie he plants evidence to make it look like the killer is the one who shot his partner, not himself. Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy has a collection of antagonists who you'd think would all be considered bad, and they are, but one character who you get to see as someone who turns to the bad side is Two-Face or Harvey Dent. He was once a man who stood for justice in Gotham city who ends up turning on the city after an explosion burns half of his face off.
- 7. Signature Style Twist Endings For Memento's ending we find out that Leonard has been falsely leading himself along to give purpose to his life, where at the end of the movie he writes down his handler's license plate which is why he was killed in the beginning of the movie. The Prestige has a twist at the end that shows us how the disappearing man trick works with Borden, he actually has a twin who take turns playing him every moment throughout the movie. In The Dark Knight Rises we find out that Bane wasn't Ras al Ghul's real offspring like we were led to believe, it was actually Miranda who becomes the main villain of the movie.
- 8. Video Example Insomnia this is an example of the gray morality in this movie, it's the beginning of a chain of events where Dormer covers up the accidental shooting of his partner to get himself out of trouble. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRXkLLBrBtA This video was from The Prestige where it shows the trick that was used to make the disappearing man act work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHKan75x7GI