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Christopher Nolan, a writer-director from London, will be awarded the fellowship by the British Film Institute next month. He is praised by the BFI for being a successful blockbuster filmmaker and advocate for cinema. With five Academy Award nominations, Nolan’s film Oppenheimer, which recently won a Golden Globe, is expected to do well at the upcoming Oscars in categories such as best film, best director, and best adapted screenplay.
This introspective three-hour film has surpassed all others in its genre, even the popular and flashy Bohemian Rhapsody, making it the highest grossing biopic to date. This is a testament to Nolan’s skill in appealing to mainstream viewers. Surprisingly, many who were initially drawn to the thought-provoking themes of Oppenheimer also chose to watch Greta Gerwig’s light-hearted Barbie movie, creating an unexpected success at the box office – Barbenheimer!
One of Nolan’s greatest strengths is his talent for blending high art and popular culture. I recall leaving an early showing of the superhero movie Batman Begins (2005) and telling my friend and colleague Nigel Floyd, “That’s the most expensive art film I’ve ever watched!”
From his low-budget first independent film Following (1998) to his latest blockbuster hit, Nolan has seen cinema as both a magical lantern and a time machine, choosing narratives that manipulate time like a deck of cards. His breakthrough movie, Memento (2000, based on his brother Jonathan’s short story Memento Mori), is a suspenseful thriller that uses a non-linear timeline to mirror the main character’s inability to form and retain new memories. Similar to its spiritual successor, Tenet (Nolan’s mind-bending 2020 high-budget thriller where different timelines form a symmetrical cinematic pattern), Memento assumes that all moviegoers will understand, simply by the nature of the medium, that time can be reversed, manipulated, and created artificially. In fact, who has ever watched a Nolan film and not instinctively realized that cinema mimics the collage of memory – a collection of moving images that can be watched and rewatched, at different speeds, in different directions, and in various orders.
This fundamental truth is the core element in many of Nolan’s films. In Inception (2010), time is slowed down and entire action-packed adventures occur while a van falls off a bridge. In Interstellar (2014), a journey to a distant planet causes crew members to age at different rates, resulting in the main character confronting versions of himself. Dunkirk (2017) weaves together multiple timelines of one week, one day, and one hour. The fact that these three films have collectively earned approximately $2 billion is evidence that audiences are captivated by Nolan’s creative use of time, rather than being turned off by it.
Nolan’s filmography also heavily incorporates the concept of magic, specifically the process of magic. As a staunch advocate for traditional film over digital in the burgeoning digital age, Nolan has made a conscious effort to bring attention to the format of his films, turning what could have been a niche topic into a major selling point. Fans of The Dark Knight (2008) were well aware that the key action sequences were shot and best experienced in Imax, the large-format that Nolan has put so much creative effort into, even utilizing it to redefine close-up shots in Oppenheimer. By the release of Dunkirk, audiences were choosing their movie tickets based on screen size and projection techniques, with a deep understanding of different ratios, image quality, and even the brightness levels measured in “footlambert.”
The fascination with the creative process brings us to the origins of cinema, when machines that appeared both demonic and magical created illusions at fairgrounds through the use of magic lanterns. It is no coincidence that Nolan’s most exceptional (and underappreciated) movie is an interpretation of Christopher Priest’s novel The Prestige, set in Victorian London and centered around two competing stage magicians. The story incorporates elements of time travel, teleportation, and the presence of electronic pioneer Nikola Tesla (portrayed brilliantly by David Bowie) in its captivating narrative.
The Prestige (2006) is a tragic love story and a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of magic. It takes us through the three stages of a successful illusion: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. Director Nolan artfully deconstructs the captivating history of cinema, inviting us to participate in a mesmerizing performance of illusions and deception. Despite knowing it’s all a trick, we willingly invest in the chance to be transported and share an otherworldly experience with others in our shared dream.
All titles can be rented on various platforms, unless stated otherwise.
What other things am I currently enjoying?
The Predicament of a Monster Fan
Claire Dederer’s self-narrated audiobook of her 2023 bestseller about terrible people who make great art (from Picasso to Polanski) is compulsive listening – personal, political, profound.
Scala!!!
The documentary “The Last Showman” by Jane Giles and Ali Catterall, which explores the wild cinema club in London, is now available in the UK. To complement this release, the BFI is hosting a season featuring some of the infamous films shown at the club, such as “Thundercrack!” and “Salo”. How exciting!
Source: theguardian.com
