Christopher Nolan

If the life of Christopher Jonathan James Nolan were counted backwards, it would be necessary to conclude with his origin in the British capital, on July 30, 1970. The son of a British publicist and an American flight attendant, he has dual nationality, and has spent his life on horseback between London and Chicago, where his paternal family resides. He was a precocious child who at the age of 7 took his father’s Super 8 camera, to shoot short shorts with his toys as protagonists.

Christopher Nolan studied Literature at University College London (UCL), an institution he chose for one reason only, he knew that this university had 16mm cameras and editing tables available to students. In a short time he became president of the Film Association formed by fellow locals. While he was a member of this association, he filmed his shorts Tarantella , Larceny and Doodlebug .

When he finished his studies, he kept in close contact with his colleagues from the select club, who collaborated with him on his first feature film, Following , in 1998. Shot in black and white with a tiny budget over three weekends, it already revealed the enormous talent of Christopher Nolan.

Some elements were also present that would later be repeated in his filmography. For example, he already used a risky structure, with numerous flashbacks, and like almost all of his subsequent films, it described two antagonistic characters who ended up having a final confrontation.

It also highlights its close tone, unpretentious. It unfolds the story of a young aspiring writer who is going through a huge creative void. He decides to start following passers-by that he finds on the street, to see if they suggest any stories on his journey. He always ends up chasing the same individual who, after discovering him, decides to start a conversation with him.

In college, Nolan had met the woman of his life, Emma Thomas, who would eventually become his regular producer. They got married in 1997, and currently reside in Los Angeles, where they educate their four children.

And it is that Christopher Nolan is a family man, closely linked to his own. This is the case of his younger brother, Jonathan Nolan , who with one of his writings inspired him to shoot Memento , one of the most original films remembered for its structure. The story of Leonard, amnesiac in search of the man who raped and murdered his wife, is narrated through ordered sequences from back to front. As the tape progresses, the causes of what has been seen are discovered instead of the consequences. Black and white images arranged chronologically are interspersed between the main scenes, which are eventually joined with the others.

The film causes the same confusion that the protagonist suffers, achieving a connection with him that few achieve. Guy Pearce looks like a typically ‘Nolanian’ character, that is, a tremendously particular guy, forced to take photographs and take notes to inform himself of what he is going to forget, and even gets to tattoo important clues.

It will be liked more or less, depending on the type of public, what is evident is that Memento gave a lot to talk about, and placed Nolan in the first division cinema. The brothers were nominated for an Oscar for the original screenplay.

With a medium production budget, he shoots the thriller Insomnia (2002) , with leading figures: Al Pacino , Robin Williams and Hilary Swank . It also has a special protagonist, Will Dormer (Pacino), a police officer who, while investigating a murder in northern Alaska, suffers from insomnia tormented by the false evidence that he has planted throughout his career to supposedly solve his cases. . He takes the prize for the misty sequence in which the character believes he has besieged the assassin and shoots him, but it turns out to be his partner.

The success of this film allowed him to sit down with Warner executives to negotiate a project that stems from his love of comics. In 1997, after the bad reviews of Batman and Robin, which had not obtained the expected box office results, the company had paralyzed the Batman saga. But Nolan, with the help of screenwriter David S. Goyer, convinced them to restart the franchise from scratch by giving it a more adult feel. The result was Batman Begins , with an intense performance by Christian Bale , which underlined the anguished nature of the character, thirsty for justice due to the childhood trauma of having lost his parents to a criminal.

After the success of the film, Warner quickly commissioned Christopher Nolan to shoot the sequel. But he feels the need to shoot something completely different first, and makes the second part subject to the completion of The Final Trick , an adaptation of a fantasy novel written by Christopher Priest , which the director himself adapts with his brother Jonathan. Through a flashback, it develops the rivalry between two magicians, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale .

Again with Jonathan Nolan, he writes the script for The Dark Knight , the second installment of his Batman trilogy that became a phenomenon. Rounder than its predecessor, with it the superhero genre, at its peak, comes of age as the western did with Stagecoach , by John Ford . After finishing filming, a tragic news shocked public opinion, the premature death of Heath Ledger , at the age of 28, due to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. The actor had embroidered the role of villain, the Joker, achieving the feat that the public did not miss the great Jack Nicholson, who had previously played him. Not surprisingly, the actor posthumously won the Oscar for Best Secondary that year, which was collected by his parents and his sister. The film also triumphed in the sound editing category.

Before finishing the Batman trilogy, Nolan needed to freshen up again with a different project. He wrote and directed the creative Inception , with Leonardo DiCaprio playing a futurist skilled at entering other people’s dreams. Nolan risked a lot on this occasion, due to the complexity of the story, which could have alienated the general public. However, he was a hit thanks to his mesmerizing images and stunning visual effects. Nolan himself returned to reap Oscar nominations, in the categories of best script, and film, the latter shared with the other producer, Emma Thomas, his wife. Ultimately the film took home four technical awards.

With The Dark Knight Rises , Nolan closes the superhero trilogy with a flourish. He also leaves the feeling that it is a perfectly structured and thought-out saga. Again Christian Bale shines, as a Bruce Wayne anguished almost to madness by his feelings of guilt. And it is that the director’s cinema is distinguished by his careful interpretations, in many cases of actors with whom the director usually repeats, such as Bale himself, the veteran Michael Caine , Tom Hardy , Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt .

As in the previous Batman, other news, even tougher, somewhat overshadowed the success and good reviews. A disturbed man, inspired by the Joker character, opened fire on the attendees of one of the first screenings in a Denver cinema, causing a massacre. “This is a senseless tragedy,” Nolan said ruefully.