Beyond Space, Time, and Mind: Exploring the Genius of Christopher Nolan
Watching Christopher Nolan’s movies can make you feel you are the dumbest person on earth. At least this is what we feel when we watch Nolan’s movies, right? There is no doubt that most of Nolan’s movies contain complex stories which are hard to be digested by the brain.
Having a career spanning around 2 decades, Nolan consistently pushes the boundaries of storytelling and challenges his viewers to witness his complex narratives that crosses time, space, and the depths of the human minds.
With his unmatched abilities to attract viewers and push the boundaries of storytelling, Nolan is considered as one of the best and most influential directors of this time. This is proven by winning Best Director and Best Picture awards for Oppenheimer at the 96th annual Academy Awards.
Born on July 30th, 1970, in London, England, Sir Christopher Edward Nolan developed his passion for filmmaking from a young age. He studied English literature at University College London and joined the school’s film society. When he grew up, he was likely to be influenced by the works of some directors, such as Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott, whose movies later influenced his cinematic style.
At the beginning of his career in the world of filmmaking, Following (1998) was the first long movie which he directed. The movie was black-and-white and produced with small-budget. The movie is about a lonely writer who is obsessed with some strangers and then becomes friends with a burglar.
Complex Narratives and Nonlinear Storytelling
Inside of Nolan’s mind, lies his ability to produce complex narratives that unfold like a puzzle waiting to be solved. One of his movies which contains complex narratives is Memento (2000), a neo-noir thriller which breaks the traditional way of storytelling by unraveling its plot in reverse chronological order.
Through the point of view of Leonard Shelby, a man who suffers from short term memory loss, Nolan invites viewers into a fragmented world where the past, present, and future collide with clarity.
As Leonard struggles to arrange the enigma of his wife’s murder, viewers are drawn into a series of deception and self-deception and forced to face the elusive nature of memory and identity. Besides, the reverse chronological order in Memento also challenges the viewers to arrange the enigma alongside with the protagonist in the movie.
This anti-mainstream narrative gives Nolan widespread acclaim and makes him a filmmaker who is unafraid to break the boundaries of traditional storytelling.
On the other hand, one of Nolan’s movies which contains nonlinear storytelling is Inception (2010), a mind-bending movie set within the worlds of the subconscious mind.
Blending elements of sci-fi with existential philosophy, Nolan composes a story which makes the lines between reality and illusion become blurred. It leaves the viewers questioning the nature of their own perspective and reality. The movie drags the viewers to think about which one is real and which one is dreams.
Through the main character of this movie, Dom Cobb, a professional dreams extractor to steal secrets, Nolan explores the themes of guilt, redemption, and human imagination. The storytelling becomes nonlinear as the protagonist dives into dreams within dreams, adding layers inside the story and timeline.
Apart from the fact that Nolan’s movies often explore complex narratives and nonlinear storytelling, they are grounded in deeply human stories and interesting characters. One example which covers these aspects is the Prestige (2006). In this movie, Nolan plants a sense of emotional feelings which touches the hearts of the viewers.
The Prestige is not just a movie about a neat magic trick, it’s about rivalry, obsession, science vs. magic, and class warfare. In the movie, Nolan drags the viewers to feel what the characters feel like in a difficult situation. The big twist of the movie also adds a nonlinear storytelling where Nolan invites the viewers to discover the connection of the story line.
“So I often use non-chronological structures, non-linear structures. That was something that was done a lot in the silent era, in early talkies, right up until television comes along. And then television sort of imposes a more linear, a more simple approach, because of the way in which we watched television from the 1950s onwards. Then when home video DVD comes along and now streaming we can once again be more adventurous because you can watch something, you can stop it, you can rewind something, have a look at it. And so we can make more dense narratives, more complicated narratives”, Nolan said on Screen Rant on July 27th, 2023.
By subverting chronological order and manipulating time, Nolan invites the viewers to be the active participants in unraveling the mysteries within his films.
Playing with Space and Time
In addition to his mastery of complex narratives and nonlinear storytelling, Nolan is also known for his movies which are messing with the concept of space and time. One of Nolan’s famous movies which embodies the manipulation of space and time is Inception (2010).
In this movie, Nolan explores the concept of dreams within dreams which creates multiple layers of reality where the characters manipulate space and time within the dream world. In Inception, the time in the dream world passes more slowly than in the real world.
With the bending of flow and distorted perception, Nolan drags the viewers on a journey through the corridors of consciousness and the depths of the human experience.
Furthermore, Nolan’s movie which explores space and time is Interstellar (2014). This movie provides the concept of dilation of time and higher dimension. This is where the confusion starts. The story takes the viewers into the chronological order which passes across space and time.
Another movie which plays with space and time is Tenet (2020). What is special about Tenet is that this movie explores the backwards and forwards at the same time, making it one of Nolan’s movies which is hard to understand.
The time inversion in the movie is something which makes the viewers think about the chronological order throughout the movie. Nolan gives an experience that time is reversed whenever an object crosses a temporal turnstile but time is still proceeding in a forward direction for the objects which don’t cross the temporal turnstile.
“Time is the most cinematic of subjects because before the movie camera came along, human beings had no way of seeing time backwards, slowed down, sped up. And I think that went some way to sort of explain to me why I’ve been interested in exploring it in movies because I think there’s a really productive relationship. And I had this visual notion of a bullet that’s in a wall, being sucked out of the wall and into the barrel of the gun it was fired from”, Nolan explained about the theme of time in Tenet to Ari Shapiro on NPR on December 14th, 2020.
Some might say that Nolan’s movies lack emotions but that’s not totally true. For example, in Interstellar, love is emphasized as something which can cross the boundaries between space and time. These emotions are conveyed by characters like Cooper who is still young but his daughter, Murph, grows old as he’s back from space exploration.
Less Use of CGI
Apart from his mastery of complex narratives and nonlinear storytelling, Nolan is also known for his preference to use less CGI. This can be found in his movies like Oppenheimer (2023), Tenet (2020), and Dunkirk (2017).
In Oppenheimer, Nolan revealed that the atom bomb explosion was created without using CGI. Nolan only uses TNT which has the same explosion as a real atomic bomb. However, the movies still use IMAX cameras to make a better cinematic experience in terms of graphics and resolution.
“I think computer graphics, they’re very versatile, they can do all kinds of things, but they tend to feel a bit safe. That’s why they’re difficult to use in horror movies. Animation tends to feel a little safe for the audience. The Trinity Test, ultimately, but also these early imaginings of Oppenheimer visualizing the Quantum Realm, they had to be threatening in some way. They had to have the bite of real-world imagery”, explained Nolan on Collider on July 10th, 2023.
The same thing also happens in Tenet, where the actors have to perform some actions backwards. “The actors — you know, they’re learning how to throw a punch backwards. They’re also trying to work with the stunt team to determine what an inverted punch against somebody who’s not inverted — what effect that has ’cause it’s not just straight backwards punch. And so you’ve got all of these different levels of complexity. And that took months of sort of development. And then the actors coming in — you know, they had to learn how to walk backwards, talk backwards…”, Nolan said to Ari Shapiro on NPR on December 14th, 2020.
Nolan’s cinematic genius gives its own color to the world of cinema. In his hands, space and time are not just plot devices, but portals to a universe of infinite complexity and limitless imagination. His courage to step out of the mainstream world of cinema indicates that he is an amazing director.
