Small Scale Research Project
Presentation Script
Slide 1
Title
Christopher Nolan's ‘signature’
Slide 2
Presenter:
Focus Film: Inception (2010)
Related Films: Memento (2000) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Slide 3
Presenter:
Director as Author
It is hard to consider him creating a brand of movie which is clearly identifiable - as on the case of other filmmakers such as Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino - , however, there are some elements, which combine to create recognisable filmic fingerprint. Such as:
- All of his films contain a major reference to the film prior to it.
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Image: poster of The Dark Knight and Inception [14]
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- Often uses the same crew, employs the best of British and international talent. [12] Most frequently: Michael Caine, Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard.
Slide 4
Presenter:
Focus Film - Inception (2010)
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Image: DVD cover of Inception [15]
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Synopsis
Cobb and his crew has the power to enter and manipulate people’s minds. The Asian multimillionaire Saito sends them on a mission which would save his company and reward the team generously. But Cobb cannot let go of the past. The pain he feels over the loss of his wife and children endangers his friends’ lives who join in to the ride into his subconscious not knowing what to expect.
Related Films
Memento (2000)
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Image: DVD cover of Memento [16]
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Synopsis
Leonard has lost everything in one the day. His wife was killed in their own home and due to a head injury he cannot make new memories for any longer than a few minutes. Unable to forget the past he tries to take revenge on the murderer of his wife. But how much can he rely on notes, photographs and tattoos? The bartender Natalie seems to help him, but in fact she has her own selfish reasons as everyone else.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
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Image: DVD cover of The Dark Knight Rises [17]
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Synopsis
After defeating the Joker, Batman is lonelier than ever - he is chased by the police and his former fans. His love Rachel died, but he doesn’t know that earlier she chose somebody else instead of him. The appearance of a new mysterious villain, Bane and the forming anarchist plot against authority in the city calls for a real hero. It is the time when Bruce Wayne needs Batman to emerge from the ashes. There always are helpers, such as the Catwoman but that who can be trusted is questionable.
Slide 5
Presenter:
Narrative techniques + narrator
- [12] Employs non-linear storytelling techniques, often flipping around the three acts of a movie to tell the story in an interesting fashion (eg.: Memento) or includes a number of flashbacks (e.g.: Inception)
Video clip: Memento opening sequence
- [10] Combines Hollywood conventions with labyrinthine narrative structures
- Characters who are unreliable narrators
Editing
- Crosscutting several scenes of parallel action to build climax [13]
- 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 as far as to nearly cut off character's lines in order to quickly and efficiently get to the next scene.)
Slide 6
Presenter:
Dreams & Memories
Dreams and Memories have a crucial role in his stories.
Recurring theme of blurring reality with imagination/ hallucinations.
- In Inception, Cobb can't get over the loss of his wife, which he has caused unintentionally.
Video clip: Inception - Cobb reveals the truth to Ariadne in the limbo
- [4] In Memento, Leonard keeps talking about Sammy Jenkis and the death of his diabetic wife, when, in fact, it was his own story
- [6] In Batman, Bruce feels guilty over the loss of his parents, because if he wasn't afraid of bats they wouldn't have left the theatre and they wouldn't have been shot in the alley.
[4] Recurring theme of deception and self-deception
- In Inception, Cobb creates a realistic projection of his dead wife to re-experience the time they have spent together
- In Memento, Leonard ‘creates a puzzle he can never solve’. Because he can’t rely on his own memories he draws plausible but deceitful connotations between data based on his notes.
- In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman is chased by the police for murdering the city hero Harvey Dent, who in fact was the crazy killer, Two-Face.
Slide 7
Presenter:
Characters - The Protagonist
- [13] His protagonists will often resort to tactics of physical or psychological torture to gain information (ABJECT) [12]
- Lonely troubled protagonists who are unwillingly forced to hide their true identity from the world.[7]
- The hero often chooses the world of lies, dreams or fantasy instead of the pain to accept reality. ‘The trick is that we want to be fooled.’
His films usually revolve around characters that are afflicted with some kind of psychological disorder. (phobia, dual personality, insomnia etc.)
- In Inception, Cobb loses the ability to distinguish dreams from reality.
- In Memento, Leonard has his 'conditioning', a memory problem.
- In Batman, Bruce Wayne suffers from bat-phobia since his childhood accident.
Slide 8
Presenter:
Characters - The Antagonist
- [12] Villains in his films often threaten to harm the Hero's friends or family rather than the hero himself.
- The villains often reflect the hero's mistakes and humiliate them in public. [10] They mirror and question the hero. They are ‘really getting under his skin’.
- The villains often try to achieve an inversion of society. For example, The Dark Knight Rises’ villain, Bane was largely based on figures of the Russian Revolution and films such as Dr Zhivago [10]
- [12] His Antagonists are often motivated by a philosophical belief rather than Money
eg.: in The Dark Knight Trilogy - The Joker, Bane, Talia
Video clip: The Dark Knight Rises climactic sequence - Talia reveals the truth
The villain and the hero can be the same person.
- In Inception, Mal is only a projection reflecting Cobb’s own sense of guilt.
Slide 9
Presenter:
Noir Elements - Femmes Fatales
In the traditional sense, femme fatale is part of the conventions of film noir. It is a powerful female character, who is portrayed as a sexual beauty, therefore easy to fall in love with, but only causes trouble for the hero.
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Image: Marion Cotillard [18]
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Mal (Inception, 2010)
Meaning of the name: the French noun 'mal' means evil, sickness, trouble, ache and death. The fact that it's the name of the main character's wife, symbolises the danger of being close to her. Her beauty is in contrast with her inner (rather negative) qualities and the suppressed feelings she holds such as her incredible rage and pain.
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Image: Anne Hathaway [19]
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Catwoman (The Dark Knight Rises, 2012)
The story of Catwoman never clarifies her true nature: sometimes she's a thief, sometimes she saves the day. Undoubtedly an ideal partner for Batman, who himself had trouble with the police and the expectations of the public.
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Image: Carrie-Anne Moss [20]
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Natalie (Memento, 2000)
A girlfriend of a drug dealer who takes advantage of Leonard’s condition to manipulate him into serving their own ends. [4]
Slide 10
Presenter:
Noir Elements -
Setting & Themes
[6] Christopher Nolan is a Noir fan himself, and he deliberately uses elements from the ‘60s cinematic scene.
- Most of his films are set in an urban area.
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Image: Inception teaser poster [21]
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- The hero is often a detective or a person who is searching for something. [8]
- Tensity, countdown nature of storyline.
- The element of fear: today’s America is most afraid of terrorism and chaos.
Often there is a young, inexperienced character who is being introduced to the scenario and we follow the story from his/her perspective.
- eg.: Ariadne in Inception
- Robin in The Dark Knight Rises
Binary opposites:
- Strong conflict between the wealthy and the poor (see The Dark Knight Rises)
- The lives of the happy and the troubled (see Inception and Memento).
All of these are apparent in Christopher Nolan’s work.
Slide 11
Presenter:
Audience Response
Web.
Christopher Nolan, as most of today’s filmmakers, puts a strong emphasis on being in connection with the fans, making the stories almost ‘interactive’. The portals are open on several social networking sites and blogs. E.g.: The visualisation of the character of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises was almost entirely based on fans’ drawings and ideas.
[1] His labyrinthine narratives have made mainstream cinema more popular among fans of the indie. And it is true the other way as well: mass audiences finally have a chance to see more complicated stories and philosophical ideas.
Question of originality.
According to Ien Ang [3] we are ‘living in a world of schizophrenically fragmented instants’ in a ’bricolage’ of information. We constantly recycle the mediated past, such as Edith Piaf’s song ‘Je ne regrette rien’ in Inception. These are references to pop culture rather than simply stealing ideas and inevitable in the process of making emotional connections with the audience.
Moral Panics.
Critical appreciation is not everything a filmmaker can get. After the infamous Aurora massacre, Christopher Nolan had been accused of being ‘irresponsible’. [2] Viewers claimed that making villains sexually attractive, such as The Joker played by Heath Ledger, influences young consumers to identify with their socially distorted ideas. In the past there were many films facing the same criticisms such as Fight Club, Child’s Play and Clockwork Orange. However, in most people’s view, one bad example doesn’t prove that the whole media is wrong. [1]
Slide 12
Presenter:
Endings
- His endings have a recurring theme of justified dishonesty.
- Typically ends his films with a character giving a philosophical monologue [7, 8, 12]
- [12] Often ends his films with a jump cut to black and displays the title before the end credits.
- Ends almost every time with the characters fate open to interpretation.
Video clip: Inception ending sequence
Most endings are beginnings. After the turbulences Batman has caused, we can assume that the story Superman in Man of Steel (2013) will be more reassuring and offer more hope to the audience. [1 & 2]
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Image: poster of Man of Steel [23]
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Annotated Catalogue
Books & Magazines:
Item 1: McCLINTOCK, P. ( 2012). How Going to the Movies Will Change.The Hollywood Reporter. (Aug. 3, 2012), page 45- an account on the effect of the Aurora massacre on the screening of The Dark Knight Rises in the USA. New regulations and security rules have been issued in most parts of the US.
Item 2: McCARTHY, T. (2012). The Dangers of Film’s Dark Side.The Hollywood Reporter (Aug. 3), page 47 - questioning whether or not mass media influences young viewers to act aggressively
Item 3: ANG, I. (1996) Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World. Oxon: Routledge
- he suggests that the behaviour of today’s audiences changes as much as the form of the programmes
Item 4: TISO, G.(2006) Impossible Recollections The Troubled Imaginary of Mediated Memory [Online] Victoria University of Wellington
Available at: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/gtiso/impossible_recollections.pdf
Available at: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/gtiso/impossible_recollections.pdf
- A long and detailed analysis of films concerned with psychology and the human mind. I found some very interesting points made through critical approaches in key sequences of Memento.
Visual Resources
Item 5: Charlie Rose - interview with Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale on Batman Begins, 2005 (Also available on YouTube)
- Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale explain how they created the new gritty hero from the classic comic-book character Batman.
Item 6: THE CULTURE SHOW (Aug, 2012) Interview with Christopher Nolan (Also available on YouTube)
- The interview was made before the Aurora massacre, therefore there is no sign of any sense of responsibility for any negative influence the director might have done. To the contrary, he talks about his intent of sending a positive message to the audience through a hero who is able to rise up again and get over his weaknesses.
Item 7: THE PRESTIGE. (2006) Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD]. Los Angeles, Warner Brothers
- Employs the actors Christian Bale and Michael Caine, who both played in the Batman Trilogy. Helped me to discover additional recurring features in his films.
Item 8: INSOMNIA. (2002) Directed by Christopher Nolan [DVD]. Los Angeles/ Quebec, Warner Brothers.
- An earlier film by the director, which was a remake of a Swedish production of the same title. To reestablish the natural environment in American land, they transported the story to Alaska. The story serves as additional evidence for the director’s deep interest in psychology.
Item 9: MEMENTO. (2000) Directed by Christopher Nolan [DVD]. Los Angeles, 20th Century Fox. Bonus Feature The Independent Focus interview with Christopher Nolan, host Elvis Mitchell
- The conversation explores the filmmakers intentions and the immediate audience response concerning Memento. The director also talks about his relationship with his brother, Jonathan Nolan, who is the writer of the novel Memento Mori and the founder of the fan website irom otnemem. (which is the title, Memento Mori backwards)
Audio Resources
Item 10: THE TREATMENT. (2010) Host: Elvis Mitchell. Interviews with Christopher Nolan on Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. (Available at: www.kcrw.com and on YouTube)
- *KCRW: Southern California’s leading National Public Radio and the community service of Santa Monica College. There is a large number of radio programmes available online concerning Hollywood movies and interviews with filmmakers.
- *KCRW: Southern California’s leading National Public Radio and the community service of Santa Monica College. There is a large number of radio programmes available online concerning Hollywood movies and interviews with filmmakers.
Item 11: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. (2012) Directed by Christopher Nolan. [DVD].
Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc. Bonus Feature 'The Journey of Bruce Wayne' with director Christopher Nolan, writer Jonathan Nolan and co-writer David S.Goyer
Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc. Bonus Feature 'The Journey of Bruce Wayne' with director Christopher Nolan, writer Jonathan Nolan and co-writer David S.Goyer
- Explores the process of recreating the superhero Batman as a more human character
Internet Resources:
- It shows a list of film he directed and wrote including casting and other information. Served as a primary source in recognising his trademarks.
Item 13: www.lovepomo.blogspot.co.uk
- My own blog on postmodernism involving contemporary movies, music, paintings and other art forms. It is also connected to a Facebook page where I received many comments by fans and opposed audience.
- My own blog on postmodernism involving contemporary movies, music, paintings and other art forms. It is also connected to a Facebook page where I received many comments by fans and opposed audience.
Images:
Item 14: The poster of Inception and The Dark Knight compared to each other.
Item 15: The DVD cover of Inception
Item 16: The DVD cover of Memento
Item 17: The DVD cover of The Dark Knight Rises
Item 18: Marion Cotillard
from:
Item 19: Anne Hathaway
Item 20: Carrie-Anne Moss
Item 21: urban setting of Inception
Item 22: drawing of Bane
Item 23: Man of Steel poster
Unused items
A.) http://www.mylearnedfriends.com/2012/07/the-brilliance-of-dark-knight_26.html
A fan review (dated July 2012) on Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of Batman
A fan review (dated July 2012) on Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of Batman
- The review contains quite a lot of factual information, but it isn’t objective enough for my research.
B.) Film Studies For Free. ‘Christopher Nolan Studies’ edited on 21 July 2010
(accessed 29/09/12)
Available at: http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=christopher+nolan
(accessed 29/09/12)
Available at: http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=christopher+nolan
- There is little stated on the blog itself about Christopher Nolan and his work, however, there is a number of links that I have found useful, because they led me to other sites.
C.) NEWMAN, K. (2005). Cape Fear. Sight and Sound. 15(7,July), page 18-21. - Explores the influences of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy (back to the origins such as Frank Miller’s graphic novel Batman - Year One). There is little analysis of cinematic features and more on the development of the story and characters.
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