Christopher Nolan is synonymous with the word director. He is responsible for some of the biggest movies of the last few decades, as he was the director of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Memento, Inception, and Interstellar, just to name a few. These movies are regarded highly by critics and film buffs alike. This is due, in large part, to the style that is expressed in his films, in addition to the talent that plays out the characters in his movies. As it is stated that "Christopher Nolan movies are great for filmmakers to study because he is one of the few directors who understand both how to craft a compelling story, and then support that story through very precise cinematic techniques."¹ His style is constitutive of many differing elements, but in a more simple expression, he has a tendency to use "aesthetic, cinematic scenes and themes."² In terms of cinematography, Nolan mostly shys away from CGI in favor of more practical and real effects.³ His camera work, in the way that scenes are shot, is a use of a similar concept in each film, that of which is the use of the rule of thirds which is "about composition in art, photography and design. The idea behind it is that the human eye will naturally be drawn to any object placed along the diagonal lines of a tic-tac-toe board, or at the intersection of two such lines."³ As previously mentioned, Nolan strays away from Computer Generated Images when possible, but in some cases rather than creating a practical alternative his films use unique camera motions to create a certain effect. The most notable example of this is "the Barrel Roll Shot... that is seen in every Nolan film… The shot is used when the set or the real world is completely turned upside down, both literally and figuratively. This technique puts the audience in the shoes of the protagonist."⁴ The shot is essentially a rotation of the camera to convey what the character in the movie is experiencing though they are flipped or spun. In a way to sum up the entirety of his style it is that "the main concept of Christopher Nolan’s directing style is vision. He is a director who tells stories that are new every time, even if they have similarities to other movies in some aspects. This can be seen as a good thing or not, but you cannot say that he doesn’t know what he is doing. Everything in his films comes together in order to create a great story and an experience for the viewers. One of the most important characteristics of his films is the viewer’s involvement in the story."³
With this in mind it gives a general overview of what to expect in Nolan's films as they, for the most part, follow one specific protagonist and build the plot and setting around them. In the movies that I, myself, have seen from Christopher Nolan, this very much rings true. In each of the films that build the iconic trilogy set in the Batman Universe, the story consistently follows and revolves around Bruce Wayne/Batman. This is only strayed away from as a way to provide context to the plot or showcase the villains of the films such as the beginning shot of The Dark Knight Rises that showcases and reveals Bane. This scene helps to set the plot in motion and show Batman's connection to the events that are set to unravel throughout the film. This strategy is also used in his prior film of The Dark Knight, which the opening scene showcases the Joker and introduces the audience to the type of person he is. This helps to build a sense of unpredictability that one would feel as if the Joker was an actual person, similar to how Batman would feel in his encounter with him. This method of character building refers back to the original concept of Nolan involving the audience into the film.³ A film's ability to provoke an emotion out of the audience is something that Nolan seems to utilizes in order to retain a viewers attention and interest.
Nolan also ties the audience into the movie by presenting the central concept of the films to the main characters at the same time that it is introduced to the viewers. This was something that I predominantly saw in his film Memento. In this film the main character is unfamiliar with what is occurring just as we, the audience, are. In Memento, this is done through the introduction of the main character's memory loss. Leonard Shelby, the main character of the film, in turn leaves himself notes to help him understand how he ended up where he is in his journey to avenge his wife.³ All extremely important information is tattooed onto his body and the film follows his journey to fill in the blanks and provide context to these tattoos, thus resulting in time shifts and flashbacks that provide the exposition and progress the film toward its finale.³ Due to his memory issues, each and every time he reads these notes and tattoos he is left just as unsuspecting and confused as the audience which creates a connection between them that in turn leads us as the viewer to feel exactly as the main character of the film does. We, as the audience, only know what we are told in the same way that the main character does and leaves us "glued to the screen" in order to figure out the mystery. The idea of time in itself is built upon by Memento and Nolan's films in general as "Nolan and time go hand in hand. There is not one Nolan film that does not deal with time. He either uses non-linear timelines which forces the audience to piece the film together or has characters that deal with time. No matter how complex a Nolan film is, there is one aspect that connects the audience to his films, which is time."⁴ This is shown because "Nolan uses two parallel running timelines, i.e. one running back and one running forward, and both of them finally meet an endpoint. Nolan keeps intercutting between the two different timeless and leaves the audience to piece them all together. To signify the different timelines, Nolan keeps one in monochrome black and white while the other one plays out in color."⁴
Christopher Nolan's unique directing style based around excessive elements of both time and story helped to cement his status in cinema. The aspects of the films mentioned prior, help to set his movies aside from the rest whilst also managing to fit in with audiences and critics alike. For an aspiring director his model helps to determine why his films are successful and sets a inspirational guideline. This guideline may help to steer an up-and-coming director onto the path to create their first successful film by inspiring them to be as creative and obsessive with each detail of their films. As for film buffs, an analysis of Nolan's style both in general and through specific examples of his films, helps us to enjoy his films in a new way with a different viewpoint.