“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you… stranger.”
As the Joker took off his mask to reveal the menacing smile scarred across his face, writer-director Christopher Nolan’s name was forever cemented in cinematic history. From the caped crusader in Gotham to multilevel dream heists, his films have earned the love and respect from audiences and critics alike as one of the greatest directors of this generation. While Nolan is known for crafting intricate stories with complex sci-fi concepts, his films are also supported with an array of technical details that ultimately engages the audience into an immersive cinematic experience.
“Are you watching closely?”
Like the magic tricks in The Prestige (2006), his period piece about two rivaling magicians, Nolan’s stories demand the viewers’ close attention as they are often constructed in non-linear fashions. The Prestige is told with multiple layers of flashbacks; Tenet (2020), his latest espionage action thriller, explores time inversion by traveling forwards and backwards through events with the protagonist. Even Dunkirk (2017), the war film depicting the evacuation of 340,000 Allied troops across the English Channel during WWII, was told with three narrative lines. Though some critique the complexity of his films, Nolan’s style of intercutting between different points in time or plots heightens the action and drama and often elevates the message behind the stories. Instead of undermining his films with oversimplified narratives, Nolan assumes the intelligence of his audiences, allowing them to take his films seriously.
Supporting the intricate stories, Nolan’s dedicated use of practical effects heightens the action in his films. With today’s CG technology, no matter how realistic, the human eye can always perceive what is photographed and what is animated. Therefore, Nolan only uses computer technology to enhance what is photographed and captures as much effect practically in camera as he can. For example, in Inception (2010), the hallway fight scene with Joseph Gordon-Levitt was filmed by building an actual set that rotates 360 degrees. Later in the film, the exploding snow fortress was captured by destroying a miniature model with explosives. For The Dark Knight (2008), the crew flipped an 18-wheeler with TNT and a piston in the streets of Chicago, and in Interstellar (2014), no green screen was used at all throughout shooting. Photographing these stunts adds to Nolan’s films a realism that no other big-budget films can match, which, again, contributes to his vocabulary for enhancing the cinematic experience.
Furthermore, Nolan, along with directors such as Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino, remains one of the few filmmakers who still shoots on celluloid film today. In the modern digital world, the traditional definition of the cinematic experience has changed. For more than a century, cinema meant reeling a roll of celluloid film through a projector to be shown to a theater full of audiences. However, full-frame digital sensors replaced 35 mm film; digital projectors took the place of film projectors. Yet, Nolan still produces every one of his movies on celluloid. “For me,” as the director explains in an interview with BBC Newsnight, “film always has this wonderful richness, the analogue color, [and] the superior resolution, and when film is projected, the way it was originally intended to be seen…there’s a very unique experience for the audience that they can’t get in their living rooms.” Starting with the 28 minutes of IMAX sequences in The Dark Knight (2008), Nolan has been pushing the boundary of film imagery using 70 mm IMAX, a film format nine times the size of the standard 35 mm. In Tenet (2020), the footage shot in IMAX even progressed to 50% of the runtime. To him, film, with superior, irreplicable color and higher resolution, is an essential part of the theatrical experience and thus an integral part of cinema, and his work is helping the new generation of filmmakers and audience value the medium that many regard as obsolete.
From complex story structures to practical effects and celluloid film, Nolan’s dedication to the technical details immerses the audience in his storytelling. And with such a heightened cinematic experience, Nolan continuously takes his viewers on jaw-dropping adventures and challenges their minds with questions about truth and morality. Thus, in a time dominated by franchise movies born out of the same mold, Nolan stands out as a true auteur by crafting original works of cinematic art that simultaneously receive the popularity of big-budget blockbusters.
Monthly Movie Vote!
As most of you already figured out, April Fools! The great dictators of this magazine decided that all of their columnists must play this “heartless” prank on their loyal readers, so for those of you who were a bit upset, I must apologize. However, my gratitude for all of you is true. As this article marks the end of my time as a writer at clay, I want to offer my deepest thanks to all of you who are continuously willing to read my nerdy rants on movies and filmmaking. Having readers like you who engage with the articles through comments and voting is the greatest source of joy and blessing I can get as a columnist. So, thank you again for your time and support.
Lastly, just for fun, I would like to end my column with one last poll. To see which aspect of filmmaking you enjoyed reading about the most, this time, you will vote for your favorite film column article of the year. Cast your vote here: https://forms.gle/ME9zUWcaF9UkXk418
Thank you, and goodbye!
Works Cited:
“Christopher Nolan Directing — A Video Essay on Nolan and Time.” YouTube, uploaded by StudioBinder, 28 June 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrRe3QL08Xs.
“Christopher Nolan: The full interview – Newsnight.” YouTube, uploaded by BBC Newsnight, 16 Oct. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtH6kiPbMBw.
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“How Christopher Nolan Writes and Directs a Movie | The Director’s Chair.” YouTube, uploaded by StudioBinder, 27 May 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZJi_78XUVg.
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Indiewire, https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/shutterstock_5885451k.jpg?resize=800,533.
Kandell, Zachary. “How Christopher Nolan Pulled Off The Dark Knight’s Truck Flip (Without CGI).” ScreenRant, 31 Mar. 2020, https://screenrant.com/dark-knight-movie-nolan-truck-flip-scene-no-cgi/.
Randomwire, https://randomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/inception-timeline.png.
Twitter, https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EUSSZVPX0AYYTvl?format=jpg&name=large.
Tyler, Adrienne. “Inception: How The Zero Gravity Hallway Fight Scene Was Filmed (Without CGI).” ScreenRant, 1 Feb. 2021, https://screenrant.com/inception-movie-corridor-fight-scene-cgi-shot-how/.