Director Profile - Christopher Nolan
British Director of Batman Begins, Memento and Dark Knight
Aug 19, 2008
Los Angeles based, British born Christopher Nolan was brought up between London and Chicago. He began making movies by pointing a super 8 camera at his toys, and graduated to fully formed short films at University College, London, where he studied English Literature.
Where Film and Literature Meet
Nolan's obvious love of literature is an integral aspect to his style as a film-maker. Here he elaborates on what has become a noticeable characteristic of his films:
“ I studied English Literature. I wasn't a very good student, but one thing I did get from it, while I was making films at the same time with the college film society, was that I started thinking about the narrative freedoms that authors had enjoyed for centuries and it seemed to me that filmmakers should enjoy those freedoms as well.” (Quote taken from Wikiquote, accessed 19/08/08).
Christopher Nolan has built up a group of talented and reliable actors and technicians, many of whom he works with over and again. His brother Jonathan Nolan has worked as a writer on several films, and his wife, Emma Thomas, is his producer.
Christopher Nolan Filmography
Some of Nolan's early shorts, such as Doodlebug, are available to view on the Internet, for those who wish to seek them out. His film-making career proper started with the feature Following.
Following (1998)
This film is about a writer with a strange fascination for following people in order to pick up ideas. He gets more than he bargained for when a burglar he's been following invites him into the criminal world. Following introduces sequences that are presented out of chronological order, leaving the viewer to slowly piece the story together - a technique that has become synonymous with Nolan, and was used to even greater effect in his next film.
Memento (2000)
Memento is a polished and highly individual film about a man with short term memory loss, searching for revenge against the person he thinks killed his wife. As his memories are jumbled he keeps copious amounts of notes to help him retain important information,
Insomnia (2002)
A very dark film, despite being set in permanent daylight, Insomnia follows a pair of police officers investigating a murder in Alaska. The film twists and turns on a moral dilemma when one cop accidentally shoots his partner during the investigation.
Batman Begins (2005)
As his previous films would suggest, Nolan's revival of the Batman franchise has taken it in an altogether darker, more serious direction. Batman Begins is an origin story that introduces the idea of a man using symbols, smoke and mirrors to strike fear into the criminal underworld. It moves away from the comic book style violence of its predecessors, and into a world grounded in realism.
The Prestige (2006)
A flawed but intriguing story of bitter competition between magicians, The Prestige weaves a delicately intertwining story of jealousy and obsession, building to a dangerous and deadly climax.
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins follow up The Dark Knight is a rare, shining example of a blockbuster worthy of the mountainous press attention it has received. The tragic death of Heath Ledger may have dominated the pre-publicity surrounding the film, but his portrayal of the Joker has certainly made good on the psychotic intensity promised. Thankfully, Ledger's Joker is not the standout performance of The Dark Knight, but sits comfortably alongside terrific work from Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon and Christian Bale returning as the Caped Crusader.
Director Nolan has shown once more that he is capable of sustaining interest and tension throughout a multi-stranded story. The Dark Knight, like Batman Begins and Memento, challenges the audience to try to understand complex and often conflicted characters. It continues Christopher Nolan's brave and admirable position of making exciting, intelligent films that show respect for the audience, whilst maintaining all the action a summer blockbuster demands.
Further reading: A Tribute to Heath Ledger and
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