The Fictional Christopher Nolan

Author: Todd McGowan
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292737823
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
From Memento and Insomnia to the Batman films, The Prestige, and Inception, lies play a central role in every Christopher Nolan film. Characters in the films constantly find themselves deceived by others and are often caught up in a vast web of deceit that transcends any individual lies. The formal structure of a typical Nolan film deceives spectators about the events that occur and the motivations of the characters. While Nolan's films do not abandon the idea of truth altogether, they show us how truth must emerge out of the lie if it is not to lead us entirely astray. The Fictional Christopher Nolan discovers in Nolan's films an exploration of the role that fiction plays in leading to truth. Through close readings of all the films through Inception, Todd McGowan demonstrates that the fiction or the lie comes before the truth, and this priority forces us to reassess our ways of thinking about the nature of truth. Indeed, McGowan argues that Nolan's films reveal the ethical and political importance of creating fictions and even of lying. While other filmmakers have tried to discover truth through the cinema, Nolan is the first filmmaker to devote himself entirely to the fictionality of the medium, and McGowan discloses how Nolan uses its tendency to deceive as the basis for a new kind of philosophical filmmaking. He shows how Nolan's insistence on the priority of the fiction aligns his films with Hegel's philosophy and understands Nolan as a thoroughly Hegelian filmmaker.

The Fictional Christopher Nolan

Author: Todd McGowan
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292742789
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
This analysis of the role of fiction in the films of Christopher Nolan is “unassumingly brilliant and surgically incisive” (Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society). From Memento and Insomnia to the Batman films, The Prestige, and Inception, lies play a central role in every Christopher Nolan film. Characters in the films constantly find themselves deceived by others and are often caught up in a vast web of deceit that transcends any individual lies. The formal structure of a typical Nolan film deceives spectators about the events that occur and the motivations of the characters. While Nolan’s films do not abandon the idea of truth altogether, they show us how truth must emerge out of the lie if it is not to lead us entirely astray. The Fictional Christopher Nolan discovers in Nolan’s films an exploration of the role that fiction plays in leading to truth. Through close readings of all the films through Inception, Todd McGowan demonstrates that the fiction or the lie comes before the truth, and this priority forces us to reassess our ways of thinking about the nature of truth. Indeed, McGowan argues that Nolan’s films reveal the ethical and political importance of creating fictions and even of lying. Nolan is the first filmmaker to devote himself entirely to the fictionality of the medium, and McGowan discloses how Nolan uses its tendency to deceive as the basis for a new kind of philosophical filmmaking, aligning Nolan’s films with Hegel’s philosophy. “The most important work to date on Christopher Nolan. . . . [A] thrill to read.” —Hugh S. Manon, Associate Professor and Director of Screen Studies, Clark University

The Prestige

Author: Christopher Priest
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312858865
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
In 1878, two young stage magicians clash in a darkened salon during the course of a fraudulent séance, and from this moment they try to expose and outwit each other at every turn.

Batman Begins

Author: Christopher Nolan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781904720584
Category : Batman (Fictitious character)
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Book Description
Extensive reading improves fluency and there is a real need in the ELT classroom for motivating, contemporary graded material that will instantly appeal to students. Batman Begins is based on the 2005 blockbuster movie and will be immediately recognisable to teens of all nationalities.

The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy

Author: Jody Duncan Jesser
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN: 1613124147
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
Behind the scenes—and the mask—of the great Batman film trilogy, including stunning illustrations. In 2005, director Christopher Nolan reimagined and forever redefined the Batman legend when he began his epic trilogy of films—Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises—starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader in a fresh, dynamic reboot of the franchise. All three films would go on to blockbuster success and critical acclaim—including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger’s unforgettable performance as Batman’s eternal nemesis, the Joker. The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy tells the complete story of these three monumental films. Based on in-depth interviews with Nolan and all of the films’ key cast and crew—including cowriters David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan, cinematographer Wally Pfister, and more—the book reveals the creative process behind the epic Dark Knight Trilogy, supported by lavish art and on and off-set photos. This is a fascinating glimpse into the minds that gave new life to one of the most beloved and renowned superheroes in history.

The Science of Interstellar

Author: Kip Thorne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393351386
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 560

Book Description
A journey through the otherworldly science behind Christopher Nolan’s award-winning film, Interstellar, from executive producer and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne. Interstellar, from acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan, takes us on a fantastic voyage far beyond our solar system. Yet in The Science of Interstellar, Kip Thorne, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who assisted Nolan on the scientific aspects of Interstellar, shows us that the movie’s jaw-dropping events and stunning, never-before-attempted visuals are grounded in real science. Thorne shares his experiences working as the science adviser on the film and then moves on to the science itself. In chapters on wormholes, black holes, interstellar travel, and much more, Thorne’s scientific insights—many of them triggered during the actual scripting and shooting of Interstellar—describe the physical laws that govern our universe and the truly astounding phenomena that those laws make possible. Interstellar and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s14).

The Making of Memento

Author: James Mottram
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571279511
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
The brilliance of Christopher Nolan's ingenious thriller Memento has had moviegoers coming back for more. James Mottram now offers the fullest imaginable guide to the film's many complexities. Memento's protagonist Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is on a mission to find the man who murdered his wife. But Leonard suffers from a rare form of amnesia, and in order to keep track of his life he must surround himself with written reminders, some etched on his own flesh . . . This invaluable guidebook steers the reader through the mysteries of the movie's making and its many possible meanings, with expert guidance from Nolan himself and his key creative collaborators.

The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan

Author: Jason T. Eberl
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498513530
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Book Description
As a director, writer, and producer, Christopher Nolan has substantially impacted contemporary cinema through avant garde films, such as Following and Memento, and his contribution to wider pop culture with his Dark Knight trilogy. His latest film, Interstellar, delivered the same visual qualities and complex, thought-provoking plotlines his audience anticipates. The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan collects sixteen essays, written by professional philosophers and film theorists, discussing themes such as self-identity and self-destruction, moral choice and moral doubt, the nature of truth and its value, whether we can trust our perceptions of what’s “real,” the political psychology of heroes and villains, and what it means to be a “viewer” of Nolan’s films. Whether his protagonists are squashing themselves like a bug, struggling to create an identity and moral purpose for themselves, suffering from their own duplicitous plots, donning a mask that both strikes fear and reveals their true nature, or having to weigh the lives of those they love against the greater good, there are no simple solutions to the questions Nolan’s films provoke; exploring these questions yields its own reward.

The Gradual

Author: Christopher Priest
Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)
ISBN: 1785653040
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
A composer’s tour of a mysterious chain of islands reveals startling truths in this “brilliant, meditative fantasy” by the multiple award-winning author of The Prestige (Barnes & Noble) Alesandro Sussken is a composer living in Glaund, a fascist state constantly at war with another equally faceless opponent. His brother is sent off to fight; his family is destroyed by grief. Occasionally Alesandro catches glimpses of islands in the far distance from the shore, and they feed into the music he composes. But all knowledge of the other islands is forbidden by the military junta, until he is unexpectedly sent on a cultural tour. And what he discovers on his journey will change his perceptions of his home, his music, and the ways of the islands themselves. Bringing him answers where he could not have foreseen them. A rich and involving tale playing with the lot of the creative mind, the rigors of living under war and the nature of time itself, this is multi award-winning, master storyteller Christopher Priest at his absolute best.

The Impossible David Lynch

Author: Todd McGowan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231139557
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Todd McGowan studies Lynch's talent for blending the bizarre and the normal to emphasise the odd nature of normality itself. In Lynch's movies, fantasy becomes a means through which the viewer is encouraged to build a revolutionary relationship with the world.