Professional Documents
Culture Documents
filmmaker and a screenwriter. Nolan started creating films since he was 7 and always had an eye
out for film making. He traveled between Chicago and London as his mother was from America.
Nolan attended the Hailey Bury College studied Literature at University College London and joined
the school's film society. During his college years, he made short movies such as Tarantula and
doodlebug before stepping into the longer form of work. He, later on, he got married in 1997 with
Emma Thomas who he met at the University College London, who has also been working as a
producer on all of Nolans feature films. He has four children in total. Christopher Nolan first caught
the attention of the audience for his work, “Following” (1998) and “Momento” (2000). Even
though all of his works are extraordinary he has a very limited amount of films. Once Nolan got
recognition through his work for “Following” and “Momento”, he directed insomnia in 2002
starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, etc. Till now he has directed 10 movies and the 11th movie is
on its way. Christopher Nolan's work isn't similar to other Hollywood directors for a lot of reasons.
Nolans writing and directing skills are appreciated for its psychological depth and epistemological
themes. Nolan explores the concept of time, memory and identity. His psychological take on film
making makes it more relevant and remarkable. It adds texture to his films which makes it stand out
more than other filmmakers. His richly textured imagery and his accurate music and sound enhance
the value of the film. Nolan's different perspective on directing and in-camera effects makes his
films marvelous. All of Christopher Nolan's works have been considered to hit blockbuster. He has
made around US4.7$ billion worldwide through his movies. He singlehandedly made $1 billion for
his movie "The Dark Knight Rises". The DC trilogy that Christopher Nolan worked on has put a
staple on Hollywood. Christopher Nolan has won five Oscars to date and has been recognized as
"best director and "screenwriter" more than fifty times. He has been nominated in various Award
ceremonies for over five hundred and eight times and a hundred and eight of them.
DIRECTION AND SCREENWRITING 2
Christopher Nolan is regarded as a filmmaker who applies highly centralized and subjective
control too many aspects of his collaborative creative work. His work is recognizable because of his
style, Nolan does not copy other directors or writers and has his take on his writing and direction.
Nolan is also known for his low budget direction. Although he does not spend millions of dollars in
his production and film making, it is highly recognized and considered remarkable. A lot of
filmmakers spend millions of dollars into film making and still do not hit blockbuster whereas
Nolan's hand-held camera work and natural settings have been acknowledged widely. Many of
Nolan's films are heavily influenced by Hollywood crime drama. His movies include atmospheric
and natural music, expressions that make the movie minimalistic yet dramatic simultaneously.
Nolan's movies gradually turn more lush and kinetic throughout the movie. His work to date
has always been based on themes where he explores ethical, existential and epistemological themes
meaning his ideas are derived from subjective experiences, constructive personal identity and the
nature of time. He has a different perception of reality and looks at subjecting things over objective
things. He has his degree of ability presented in his work and tries to make the audience view reality
from different perspectives. One of the most spectacular themes that Nolan has worked on is the
concept of time, Nolan agrees that all of his films have had some odd relationship with time one
way or another.
Christopher Nolan is one of the most well-known filmmakers in the Hollywood industry.
One of his great works includes the movie "Inception" starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-
Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, and other Hollywood's finest Actors. Inception was inspired by
Christopher Nolan by Lucid dreaming and dream incubation relating it with Sigmund Freud's theory
Inception is a one hundred and fifty-minute long movie about dreams within dreams and the
power of the human mind. In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio playing Cobb and Joesph Gordon-
Levitt playing Arthur are thieves who steal information from Corporate Organizations by entering
the subconscious for a Secret Organization. Cobb could enter into people's dreams and take extract
DIRECTION AND SCREENWRITING 3
informations and ideas. Both the agents were working undercover apart from their loved ones until
one day when a big businessman offers them their old life back. Cobb gets a chance for redemption
but was offered an impossible task; to perform inception which meant he had to plant an idea into
someone's mind without them knowing about it, but Cobb had his demons as his wife killed herself
after Cobb performed inception with her. She was not able to differentiate reality with her dream.
As dreams feel real and you don't realize that you are dreaming until the dream is over. That is why
both Cobb and Arthur had totems to help them differ reality from their dreams. This movie is an
action-based movie that has a lot of "wow" factors in it. This movie has an ambiguous ending as it
ends in a cliffhanger when Cobbs totem does not stop spinning. Was it all a dream and Is Cobbs
Wife out there in the real world is the question that gets left behind when the movie ends.
Nevertheless, Christopher Nolan again proves himself worthy of all the awards that he won such as
the 83rd Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and
Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for a total of eight, including Best Picture and Best Original
Screenplay.
References:
Joy, S. (2012). Time, Memory & Identity: The Films of Christopher Nolan. GRIN Verlag.