FILM PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH

Christopher Nolan
Born in London in 1970, Christopher Nolan began making films at the age of seven using his father's super 8mm camera and an assortment of male-action figures. He graduated to making films involving real people, and his super 8mm surreal short 'tarantella' was shown on PBS' 'image union' in 1989. Chris studied English Literature at University College London while starting to make 16mm films at the college film society. His short film 'larceny' was shown at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996, and his other 16mm shorts include a three- minute surreal film called 'doodlebug'. Trade Mark Begins his movies and introduces his main characters with a close up of their hands performing an action. Often works with editor Lee Smith, composer David Julyan, cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley and wife-producer Emma Thomas. Often casts British or non-American actors in American roles. Frequently casts Christian Bale, Michael Caine. Usually starts films with a flashback or a scene from the end of the movie. When shooting a dialogue scene, the actors are often framed in wide close-up with a shallow depth of field to blur out the background. His main characters are usually men with a goal who face adversity. Films conclude with the two central characters discussing the preceding events and the results which have stemmed from said events. Non-linear timelines (Following (1998), Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006)) Crosscutting several scenes of parallel action to build to a climax (The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008)) His endings have a recurring theme of justified dishonesty. (Examples: Guy Pearce's "Do I lie to myself to be happy" monologue in_Memento (2000)_, Michael Caine's closing remark that the audience "wants to be fooled" from _The Prestige (2006)_, and Christian Bale's rationale of how the citizens of Gotham City "deserve to have their faith rewarded" at the end of _The Dark Knight (2008)_) His films usually revolve around characters that are afflicted with some kind of psychological disorder. (Examples: Guy Pearce's short-term memory "condition" in Memento (2000), Al Pacino's titular sleeping disorder in Insomnia (2002/I), Christian Bale's phobia of bats in Batman Begins (2005), and Aaron Eckhart's dual personality in _The Dark Knight (2008)_) The storyline in his films usually involves a determined character seeking vengeance over the death of a loved one. (Examples: 'Guy Pearce (I)' in Memento (2000), Christian Bale in Batman Begins (2005), Hugh Jackman in _The Prestige (2006)_, and Aaron Eckhart in _The Dark Knight (2008)_) Often casts actors in roles contrary to their usual screen persona. Frequently uses hard cuts when transitioning to the next scenes. This is most prominent in his films from 'Batman Begins' onward, especially in 'The Dark Knight', where, in some instances, the hard cuts he uses will go so far as to nearly cut off character's lines in order to quickly and efficiently get to the next scene. All of his films contain a major reference to the film prior to it. His protagonists will often resort to tactics of physical or psychological torture to gain information (e.g. (SPOILERS) in 'Batman Begins', Batman uses the hallucinagenic fear compound on Jonathan Crane in order to gain information about his "boss"; in 'The Prestige', Angier buries Borden's assistant alive in order to get Borden to talk; in 'The Dark Knight', Batman throws Salvatore Maroni off a building, breaking his legs, in order to gain information about The Joker; in the same movie, Harvey Dent puts a gun to one of the Joker's henchman and flips a coin for his life every second he doesn't talk to scare him into talking; in 'Insomnia', Dormer drives into oncoming traffic in order to scare the victim's best friend into talking). Employs non-linear storytelling techniques, often flipping around the three acts of a movie to tell the story in an interesting fashion. Characters in films often gain a physical or psychological handicap in the course of the film (SPOILERS: in 'The Prestige', Angier gets a crippled leg while Borden loses two fingers; in 'The Dark Knight', Salvatore Maroni gets a crippled leg; in 'Insomnia', Dormer gets insomnia; in 'Memento', Leonard gains a memory handicap, the event of which is shown in flashback during the film) His films often have obsessive protagonists with a troubled past, who are obsessed to gain justice by any means in life (e.g. Leonard in_Memento (2000)_, Al Pacino's character in Insomnia (2002/I),Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins (2005). Also the_Following (1998)_ protagonist and Hugh Jackman in_The Prestige (2006)_ were obsessive) Lonely troubled protagonists who are unwillingly forced to hide their true identity from the world. Typically ends his films with a character giving a philosophical monologue. Frequently in his films the protagonists, at some crucial moment, feel let down or betrayed by their mentors whom they have been following blindly and with respect. (e.g. The protagonist being cheated by Cobb in Following (1998), Leonard "discovering" that Teddy is the culprit in Memento (2000), Hilary Swank's character respecting Al Pacino as a great detective in Insomnia (2002/I) only to find out that he is also flawed, Bruce Wayne and Liam Neeson's character's confrontation in Batman Begins (2005), Cutter not supporting Angier in The Prestige (2006)) His films' protagonists have mostly lost their loved ones &/or failed in love, a circumstance that causes them turn into malevolent &/or apathetic forever. (e.g. Leonard in Memento (2000) has lost his wife in a brutal murder in the past, Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins (2005) has lost Rachel Dawes' faith in him throughout the film, Borden in The Prestige (2006) does not get his wife's love because of his character's 'act' in the movie and Angier loses his beloved in a mishap during a magic trick, Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight (2008) loses Rachel as well as Bruce Wayne is not able to win her love back) Often casts non-American actors in American roles. (e.g. Guy Pearce, Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson) Uses camera revolving around a character. (The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Memento and Inception) Displays the title before the end credits (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception) The original scores of his films usually play over most of the film, or one piece of music will play over many small scenes, as if they are edited in a montage; there are few moments in his films when there is no music playing in the background. Characters who are unreliable narrators (e.g. Borden, through his Journal, in "The Prestige", the Joker through his conflicting monologues in "The Dark Knight", and Leonard through his memory problem and 'conditioning' from "Memento").     TRIVIA Gained major funding during the 1999 Hong Kong Film Festival by showing his film Following (1998) and then asking the audience to donate money to his next film Memento (2000). Brother of Jonathan Nolan Nephew of John Nolan Is red and green colorblind. Studied English Literature in college. He is a big James Bond fan, and said to David S. Goyer, that his favorite James Bond movie, is "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" His top ten favorite movies are: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Black Hole (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Chinatown (1974), The Hitcher (1986), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Topkapi (1964), as well as anything by Stanley Kubrick. Doesn't like CGI in movies and purposely avoided it when he made Batman Begins (2005). Following Insomnia, his next project was going to be a Howard Hughes biopic starring Jim Carrey. Nolan had the screenplay written (calling it "one of the best things I've ever written"), but once it became apparent Martin Scorsese was making his own Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004), Nolan reluctantly tabled his script and took up directing Batman Begins (2005). Spent his childhood moving back and forth between United Kingdom and the United States. His accent is mostly English, but occasionally varies into an American accent. Nolan is comfortable with and knowledgeable of both cultures. Has both US and UK citizenship. He is a big fan of the band Radiohead. Resides in Los Angeles with his wife Emma Thomas and their three children. Always has both his US and UK passports with him at all times, just in case of emergency. Is of Irish descent. As of 2010, five out of seven films Nolan directed are on the IMDB's top 250: The Dark Knight (2008), Batman Begins (2005), Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010)_. Was doing camera and sound work on training videos before making his film debut. His film "Inception" is the fourth consecutive movie of his to have a role played by Michael Caine. Considers Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott as his primary influences. Adapted Ruth Rendell's novel "The Keys to the Street" into a screenplay that he was set to direct for Fox Searchlight after "Insomnia". However, he instead went on to direct "Batman Begins". "Keys to the Street" remains unproduced.
Personal Quotes "The best actors instinctively feel out what the other actors need, and they just accommodate it." - commenting on working with actors who have distinctively different styles. ...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. As soon as television became the only secondary way in which films were watched, films had to adhere to a pretty linear system, whereby you can drift off for ten minutes and go and answer the phone and not really lose your place. A lot of it is being done in commercials and music videos. I've never done them, but I think that those are forms in which cross-cutting and parallel action are absolutely standard and accepted as a mainstream language. Film-makers like myself enjoy the fruits of that experimentation and absorption by the mainstream. I think people's capacity to absorb a fractured mise-en-scene is extraordinary now compared to forty years ago. Yes, to me that's one of the most compelling fears in film noir and the psychological thriller genre - that fear of conspiracy. It's definitely something that I have a fear of - not being in control of your own life. I think that's something people can relate to, and those genres are most successful when they derive the material from genuine fears that people have. The term 'genre' eventually becomes pejorative because you're referring to something that's so codified and ritualised that it ceases to have the power and meaning it had when it first started. What I'm trying to do is to create modern equivalents that speak to me of those tropes that have more of the original power. I have always been a huge fan of Ridley Scott and certainly when I was a kid. Alien, Blade Runner just blew me away because they created these extraordinary worlds that were just completely immersive. I was also an enormous Stanley Kubrick fan for similar reasons. [On using CGI in Batman Begins] "I think there's a vague sense out there that movies are becoming more and more unreal, I know I've felt it. The demand we put on ourselves was to be as spectacular as possible, but not depend on computer graphics to do it." [On casting Batman] "Batman is a marvelously complex character-somebody who has absolute charm and then, just like that, can turn it into ice-cold ruthlessness. There are very few actors who can do that, and Christian is one of them." I think there's a vague sense out there that movies are becoming more and more unreal. I know I've felt it. Superheroes fill a gap in the pop culture psyche, similar to the role of Greek mythology. There isn't really anything else that does the job in modern terms. For me, Batman is the one that can most clearly be taken seriously. He's not from another planet, or filled with radioactive gunk. I mean, Superman is essentially a god, but Batman is more like Hercules: he's a human being, very flawed, and bridges the divide. But there's a very limited pool of finance in the UK. To be honest, it's a very clubby kind of place. In Hollywood there's a great openness, almost a voracious appetite for new people. In England there's a great suspicion of the new. In cultural terms, that can be a good thing, but when you're trying to break into the film industry, it's definitely a bad thing. I never had any luck with interesting people in small projects when I was doing Following. Never had any support whatsoever from the British film industry, other than Working Title, the company that [producer] Emma Thomas was working for at the time. They let me use their photocopier, stuff like that, which is not to be underestimated. I never considered myself a lucky person. I'm the most extraordinary pessimist. I truly am. We all wake up in the morning wanting to live our lives the way we know we should. But we usually don't, in small ways. That's what makes a character like Batman so fascinating. He plays out our conflicts on a much larger scale. Working with a legend like Michael Caine is about as enjoyable and relaxing an experience on set as one could hope for. His vast experience gives him an air of good-humored calm that you could almost mistake for complacency until the camera rolls, and you see his focus and efficiency nail each scene on the first take. He once told me that he's never asked for a second take -- he's happy to do one if you have an idea for him to try, but he brings a definitive interpretation to every line. His method has the casual air of effortlessness that can only come from decades of dogged hard work, and you sense that he's still as hungry for every last morsel of a part as he was when he first captured everyone's imagination. A fine actor first, and screen icon second, he's a director's dream. At the time I did Following, I was looking at the American ultra-low-budget model that didn't really exist in the UK. A low-budget film in England tended to be about £500,000 to £600,000. In America, there was a tradition of guys like Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith making films for thousands, and that's what we'd been doing for short films. So it was really just a case of using that knowledge and expanding it to feature length. I hear of people doing it in the UK now and I think that's a great thing. (On "Memento") The budget was about £3million, which is low for an independent film - but yes, it was a huge leap of faith. Memento was clearly on a bigger scale than Following, but at the same time there were very strong stylistic connections. People want to see something that shows them you can do what you say. That's the trick. The procedure is basically to try to get into film festivals. I'm half American, so I was able to come over to America and live here and start battering the American film festivals. There are a lot of great festivals, not just Sundance. So the key is to get it screened at a festival and start interesting people there. I didn't go to film school. I guess my whole experience has been just to make films. What I've talked about on the commentary to the DVD of Following is the production method and how things came about. I feel like that might be a point of interest that a lot of people might be thinking about with their own films, so I've tried to put in as much of the detail as I can remember. The more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that everybody's situation is unique, and the one thing I've learned is that instead of copying someone else's model for a low-budget film, you really have to look at what you've got available and see how you can tell the story you want to tell, using the things that you have around you. That's what we did with Following, and on the DVD I try to explain how it worked for us and what I learned from it, but at the same time suggest that it'll be different for someone else. (On "Following") We've got a pretty serious claim on being the cheapest film ever made. I always find myself gravitating to the analogy of a maze. Think of film noir and if you picture the story as a maze, you don't want to be hanging above the maze 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, that keeps it more exciting...I quite like to be in that maze. Films are subjective-what you like, what you don't like. But the thing for me that is absolutely unifying is the idea that every time I go to the cinema and pay my money and sit down and watch a film go up on-screen, I want to feel that the people who made that film think it's the best movie in the world, that they poured everything into it and they really love it. Whether or not I agree with what they've done, I want that effort there-I want that sincerity. And when you don't feel it, that's the only time I feel like I'm wasting my time at the movies.