Movies - Christopher Nolan

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	Movies - Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan (born July 30, 1970) is a British film director, writer and producer. He is married to Emma Thomas who has produced all his films to date and they have three children.

Early life

Nolan began filmmaking at age of seven by using his father's Super8 camera and his toy action figures. His short film Tarantella was shown on Image Union, an independent film and video showcase, in 1989.

Nolan studied English literature at University College London while filming several short films in the college film society. His short film Larceny was shown during Cambridge Film Festival in 1996. He married Emma Thomas in 1997.

Themes

Nolan's work is often based around an emotional or conceptual theme, often associated additionally with guilt. Memento
is about guilt (Leonard's failure to save his wife and inability to remember what he has done about it since) and the human reliance on memory. Insomnia
is about guilt (Dormer accidentally kills a friend) and the human reliance on sleep. Batman Begins
is about guilt (Bruce Wayne's belief that he was responsible for the deaths of his parents) and the nature of fear.

Professional career

Following

Nolan directed his first professional film, Following, in 1998. The film depicts the story of a writer who becomes obsessed with following random people. Scenes are shown out of chronological order, and as such the viewer becomes disoriented, having to piece together the elements of the story in the same way as the protagonist pieces together what is going on around him.

Nolan presented this film during the 1999 Hong Kong Film Festival and raised money to write and direct his most successful psychological thriller to date, Memento
.

Memento

While not a box office hit, Memento
(2000) is a critically acclaimed cult classic and was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award (Oscar) for best screenplay.

The movie, based on a short story written by Christopher's brother Jonathan Nolan titled Memento Mori, follows widower Leonard Shelby (played by English-born Australian actor Guy Pearce) who, as a result of a head injury delivered by his wife's rapist and murderer, is unable to form new memories. What distinguishes the film within its genre is Nolan's technique in presenting events within the storyline in reverse-chronological order. Using this technique, Nolan forces viewers to relate with the mentally-impaired protagonist, since they encounter each event disoriented.

The same method of disorientating audiences is used in Nolan's previous film Following, which is very much a precursor to the production of Memento. Following, however, presents a three-act structure in which the three acts are cut together, whereas Memento presents two linear timelines -- one running forwards, one backwards -- which are cut together and meet in the middle. The changeover from forwards to backwards is signified by the transition from black and white film stock to color.

As of 2006, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) ranks Memento at number twenty-two in its list of the top 250 films of all time. IMDb's rankings are based on ratings by Internet users.

Insomnia

In 2002 Nolan directed Insomnia
, an American remake of a 1997 Norwegian film of the same name (although with major changes in both the plot and the nature of the main character). The plot involves two police detectives as they search for a killer. The film stars Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank.

Mr. Hughes

Prior to the announcement by Martin Scorsese that he was planning to make The Aviator
, Nolan had begun scripting his own biopic of Howard Hughes, to star Jim Carrey. Nolan, in an interview with Empire dated July 2005, stated, "I guess I just didn't write quickly enough." The project was ultimately abandoned.

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