A master of the thinking person's thriller, and the filmmaker who saved Batman.
"I didn't go to film school. I guess my whole experience has been just to make films."
The London-born Nolan began shooting super 8mm films - featuring an action figure cast - with his father's camera from an early age. Attending University College London, where he studied English literature, he advanced to 16mm filmmaking when he became president of the college film society, taking advantage of the camera and editing equipment at his disposal to make a number of short films. His English lit studies allowed him to consider the narrative freedom enjoyed by authors, and subsequently apply it to the art of filmmaking.
"At the time I did Following, I was looking at American ultra-low-budget model that didn't really exist in the UK."
After graduating from UCL, Nolan made a living producing corporate training videos. In 1997 he married his college sweetheart, Emma Thomas, who has since served as a producer on all of his films. Nolan wrote, directed, shot and edited the low budget black and white feature Following in 1998, which took a year to complete.
When it came to secure funding for his second film, Memento, Nolan approached the 1999 Hong Kong Film Festival audience, who were attending the screening of Following, asking them to donate. He secured the bulk of Memento's five million dollar budget on the day.
"Superheroes fill a gap in the pop culture psyche, similar to the role of Greek mythology."
For all his artistry and non-linear storytelling genius, Nolan will forever be associated his Batman blockbusters. As much as this would seem to be the result of their collectively massive box office haul, perhaps its also because of the similarities between Nolan and Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne. The filmmaker has an undeniably visceral connection to the spirit of the Batman legend. Both he and Wayne are millionaires, snappy dressers (Nolan famously wore a blazer in the heat of California's San Fernando valley while filming Memento) and find success easily, yet handle it with responsibility. Wayne inherited his wealth - Nolan has an uncanny knack for writing and directing films that produce returns on a scale more often associated with winning the lottery.
The '90s
"We've got a pretty serious claim on being the cheapest film ever made."
The themes and narrative structure that would define Christopher Nolan's later films are evident in his micro-budget, 16mm, black and white feature debut Following (1998), in which a bored writer decides to follow random strangers and spy on their everyday lives. A chance meeting with a thief allows him to take his voyeuristic pursuit to the next level...
Shot on weekends over the course of a year and featuring an amateur cast, Following can be considered a template for Nolan's next film, Memento - the characters and plot are fragmented, and it's up to the viewer to piece the puzzle together.
The 2000s
"I always find myself gravitating to the analogy of a maze".
Working from a short story by his brother Jonathan, it's a credit to Nolan's screenwriting ability that Memento (2000) pulls off its central conceit so brilliantly and successfully. Few thrillers are as cleverly constructed and intricately plotted as this tale of a man (Guy Pearce) seemingly determined to find his wife's killer and avenge her death.
The amnesiac protagonist doesn't know who he is or what is going on, and consequently, neither does the viewer. A critical and box office hit that was Oscar-nominated for Original Screenplay and Editing, Memento announced the arrival of a new and exciting filmmaker.
Nolan's next film, Insomnia (2002), was a remake of a 1997 Norwegian thriller. A gripping game of cat and mouse ensues when a pair of LA detectives (Al Pacino and Martin Donovan) investigates the murder of a teenager in a remote Alaskan town, where the sun doesn't set.
In 2005, Warner Bros. enlisted Nolan to revive the Batman franchise and the result, Batman Begins, was a character-driven superhero origin story anchored in reality.
"What I wanted to do was tell the Batman story I'd never seen," explained Nolan, "the story of how Bruce Wayne became Batman."
Nolan's new Batman, Christian Bale, returned for The Prestige (2006), alongside Hugh Jackman. The director's non-linear approach to plotting was also back in this period tale of a pair of rival illusionists who discover the true nature of magic.
The second Batman film, The Dark Knight (2008), proved to be Nolan's biggest hit to date. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won Sound Effects Editing and Best Supporting Actor for late star Heath Ledger's knockout performance as The Joker.
The 2010s
"I've been interested in dreams my whole life, really, and in the process of dreaming."
Inception (2010), Nolan's challenging, mind-bending journey into the dreamscape, is a wild and original sci-fi thriller that blends The Matrix with the espionage action of the Bond and Bourne films. But it's also much more than that.
Nolan's ability to juggle multiple narratives and the fresh and ingenious ideas he brings to the concept of manipulating the dreams of others is a triumph in storytelling and special effects.
A dense and cerebral thriller that only a filmmaker as highly regarded and respected as Nolan could have pitched to Hollywood - and then delivered on his promise.
Influences:
Christopher Nolan cites Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick as major influences. "I have always been a huge fan of Ridley Scott and certainly when I was a kid, Alien and 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."
Trademarks:
A Nolan script is frequently akin to chronology thrown into a whirlwind. Central characters and events arrive and unfold in a non-linear fashion that makes it impossible to predict an ending mid-stream. The Oscar-nominated (Best Screenplay) Memento exemplified both this approach and Nolan's propensity for afflicting his central characters with deep emotional conflictions or mental issues. The Prestige utilised similar narrative convolutions, and Nolan's flair for layered and labyrinthine storytelling reached its apogee in the mind-bending Inception.
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