Christopher Nolan Auteur Theory
Christopher Nolan Auteur Theory
Our purpose is to prove that Christopher Nolan is indeed, an Auteur director. The
Definition of an Auteur Director is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as follows:
Auteur Theory, which was derived largely from Astruc's elucidation of the concept
of caméra-stylo (“camera-pen”), holds that the director, who oversees all audio and visual
elements of the motion picture, is more to be considered the “author” of the movie than is
the writer of the screenplay.
The Auteur theory originates on the work of a group of cinema enthusiasts who wrote for
Cahiers du Cinema and argued that films should reflect a director's personal vision. The
championed filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, and Jean Renoir
are known as absolute "auteurs" of their films. But, Andre Bazin, co-founder of the
Cahiers, created a forum for auteurism to expand, he explained his concern about its
excesses in his article "On the Auteur Theory" (Cahiers Du Cinima #70, 1957).
Another element of auteur theory comes from Alexandre Astruc's notion of the caméra-
stylo or "camera-pen", which encourages directors to wield cameras as writers use pens
and to guard against the hindrances of traditional storytelling. As mentioned before, we
have chosen to break down the career and films of Christopher Nolan, with the purpose
of proving that he uses certain tactics, shots, and other elements in all of his films.
Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear story-telling, acclaimed writer-director
Christopher Nolan was born on July 30, 1970 in London, England. Over the course of 15
years of film-making, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on
some of the biggest blockbusters ever made.
At 7 years old, Nolan began making short movies with his father's Super-8 camera. While
studying English Literature at University College London, he shot 16-millimetre films at
U.C.L.'s film society, where he learned the guerrilla techniques he would later use to
make his first feature, Following (1998), on a budget of around $6,000. The noir thriller
was recognized at a number of international film festivals prior to its theatrical release,
and gained Nolan enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for
his next film.
The Following is a list of the movies he has directed (not including his short in 1997)
2014 - Interstellar
2012 – The Dark Knight Rises
2010 - Inception
2008 – The Dark Knight
2006 – The Prestige
2005 – Batman Begins
2002 – Insomnia
2000 – Memento
1998 - Following
What I have noticed and enjoyed about Christopher Nolan with his movies are that they
are his movies, meaning he directed and wrote 8 out of the 9 movies on that list
Christopher Nolan likes to turn your world upside-down. In each of his films, there comes a
moment when you start to realize that the hero isn’t quite who you thought he was. When
The Dark Knight’s Harvey Dent says, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see
yourself become the villain,” he could be speaking about the fate of just about every Nolan
protagonist: Leonard Shelby in Memento the dueling magicians in The Prestige even Cobb
from Inception.
This theme is reinforced by Nolan’s repeated use of a very unusual shot: The roll, a camera
movement in which the camera does a barrel roll that turns everything in view on its side,
or—if it keeps turning—upside-down. Directors and cinematographers use this very rarely,
but Nolan loves it, and he employs it at key moments for a particular purpose: To make us
feel, as the protagonist does, that the world is literally and figuratively turning on its head
He uses this shot very often in Inception another example is the ending scene in The Dark
Knight Nolan uses the shot at the moment when the Joker come’s closes to convincing
Batman of his worldview, the Joker is more interested in changing Gotham’s perception of
itself than in taking physical control of the city, and so when Batman has finally captured the
Joker—leaving the villain hanging upside-down—the Joker switches from fighting Batman
with bazookas to trying to defeat him with a rather lengthy barrage of ideas. In short, he
wants Batman to embrace moral anarchy, break his “one rule,” and kill him. Just as Batman
seems to consider this, the camera rolls on its side, and soon the Joker appears to be right-
side up, while the world behind him has turned upside-down.
Another example is in Inception. It’s at the end of Inception that we once again lose our
equilibrium just as we’re seeing the protagonist from a new angle. It happens when we finally
witness how the hero, Cobb, ended up (arguably) killing his wife, Mal. Cobb explains how he
succeeded in convincing her that she was dreaming, and therefore needed her to kill herself to
escape the dream. Just as we’re beginning to wonder if we can trust Cobb anymore, the
camera, once again, is rolled on its side. Cobb and Mal are both lying on their sides on the
fatal train tracks, but they now appear to be right-side up.
The Inception scene on the train tracks recalls a similar scene from Nolan’s breakout
film, Memento. That film returns again and again to the moment when Leonard and his wife
have been knocked to the bathroom floor by intruders who have broken into their house.
Lying on their sides and slipping out of consciousness, they stare across the floor at each
other as the life drains from Leonard’s wife’s eyes. When we return to the same shot later, we
discover that Leonard’s wife actually survived, that Leonard eventually killed her, and that
Leonard has been lying to himself, and giving himself puzzles to solve, to keep himself from
confronting the truth.
This is a great theme in Nolan’s films. The world is a horrible place, and many of us are
horrible people, but we trick ourselves into feeling otherwise. No one thinks of themselves as
a villain, and even the murderers tell themselves stories about how they’re actually the
heroes. As Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) tells Leonard in Memento: “So you lie to yourself to be
happy—there’s nothing wrong with that, we all do it. Who cares if there’s a few little
details you’d rather not remember.”
The Prestige is another great example, where we have the obsessions of two men driving
them to commit terrible acts and convincing themselves that they are justified.
Christopher Nolan has definitely a unique talent for creating movies with a content of abstract breaks, idealism and conventional behavior. Nolan has a history of making film from the age of seven; fascinated with the concept of breaking down personal barriers he began the laborious project of drafting screenplays and gathering resources for his film’s productions. At his young age he has gained popular and critical success, as well as impressive credibility on his future films.
Wanting to give the viewer a great experience, Nolan creates complex screenplays to involve and demand experiences that the audience will want to see his movies more than
once.
Another achievement that made him credible was the fact that he has been offering a handful of excellent performer on his films, first rate actors like: Al Pacino, Martin Donovan, Maura Tierney, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, among others.
Nolan has been nominated 116 times for several categories including: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Picture, and Best Film. And won 120 awards including: Movie of the Year – 2013, 2011, 2009 AFI Awards, USA, Screen Writer of the Year – 2002 AFI Award, Best Original Screen Play – 2010 Writers Guild of America, Best Director – 2008 Austin Film Critics, Best Adapted Screenplay – 2008 Austin Film Critics, Best Director – 2008 Online Film Critics Association, Best Screenplay – 2001 American Film Institute, Best Director – 2001 Independent Spirit Awards, Best Screen Play – 2001 Independent Spirit Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Toronto Film Critics Association, more.
among many
Scenes to show in presentation.
The Dark Knight – last Joker scene
Inception – Train scene
Memento – Ending scene1
Christopher Nolan in the famous for Memento film with the main character's perspective, the possibility of using memory hypotheses. Psychological defense mechanism to explore a cannot avoid guilt caused endless cycle, revenge heart derived the will to live, also put forward the humanity evil psychological impossible salvation. Memory has become the theme in the director, time into the form, and the revenge into motivation. People in this great psychological shadow, self-deception may have is a temporary salvation, but the existence of virtual memory, and the external social view has become less important.
In Insomnia this movie, the director once again challenge the ability of human nature in the extreme, time long day and night Alaska insomnia conditions, the limit of human physical and psychological changes and judgment of right and wrong, seem to blur. Right and wrong are often more than is measured from the external social judgment, is all of its value judgment. In the extreme environment, judgment test personal will, as necessary hardships can pass the test of self-salvation. Montage art in the film in full play, beat quite poetic film.
The Auteur Theory is very relevant in our era of film making. There are many signature shots or tendencies each director has. In the case of Christopher Nolan his precise shots in his films or the little things that he does is like a stamp that he slaps on the film showing that it is his movie and he approves its content. The Auteur theory probably isn’t a term that would be thrown around in everyday language; however, by us seeing these signature parts in these films we say to ourselves, “Oh yes, this is definitely a Christopher Nolan film.” Even if the language is different we still recognize the Auteur Theory.
This paper has been written by multiple people and everyone has said, in one way or another, how this theory is important to the film making business. In reality without the Auteur Theory there would be no identity between every directors films, where would be the fun in that? The Auteur Theory is one of the reasons why we go to movies in the first place. With Christopher Nolan’s films we know that he will use certain camera shots and we will make the protagonist become an antagonist. We know that he will do a number of different things but it is how and when that we don’t know and why we love to go to see his films. This same thing goes for any other Auteur, we love going to films. The “How” is the whole reason we go to films it is the “How” we learn that certain movies are from certain directors, and it is that “How” that makes a director an Auteur.
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