I think audiences get too comfortable and familiar in today's movies. They believe everything they're hearing and seeing. I like to shake that up.
— Christopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan (b. 1970) is an English-American screenwriter and director, known for making several Mind Screwy neo-noir movies, and recently for reviving the Batman film franchise. As a good sign of his quality control, his worst rated film on Rotten Tomatoes, The Prestige, still has a 76% "Certified Fresh" approval rating (if you discount Man of Steel).His films tend to emphasize themes of obsession, deception, guilt, and order versus chaos. And all of his films focus on a man lying to himself or others to cope with grief.
An Insert: A close-up shot of hands or seemingly non-threatening objects tend to appear in his films. Often at the very beginning, but not always.
Anti-Hero: Morally ambiguous, psychologically obsessed protagonists are his trademark.
Awful Truth: Many of his protagonists must deal with this.
Ignorance Is Bliss: Nolan's films often deal with the theme of fooling either one's self or other people into believing something that's easier to digest than reality.
Central Theme: Obsession, deception, and guilt are common themes shared by almost all his films.
Mind Screw: Nolan's short film Doodlebug would be the most straightforward example. His resume outside of the Batman films to a lesser extent as well, which can be confusing to follow due to their chaotic narrative structures.
Moral Dilemma: Many and the 'right' choices are often debatable. Usually happens to the protagonists, but sometimes not even secondary characters or extras are spared.
Mr. Fanservice: The men in Nolan's films tend to be extremely...pretty.
Playing Against Type: If you only see the casting list of his movies without knowing the characters the actors play, it'll be difficult to guess who are playing the good guys and who are playing the villains.
Plot Twists: All the freaking time! Even though it's quite difficult to pull off in this time and age.
The Dark Knight Saga takes many liberties with the Batman universe, but they are considered to be among the greatest Batman adaptations ever.
The Prestige changed everything from the plot to characterization, but all without detracting from the original work. And is widely considered better than the usual book-to-film adaptations.
Production Posse: Often works with the same actors in different films, even beyond the Batman franchise.
Michael Caine especially for appearing in every one of Nolans films since Begins. Other actors in this posse are Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard and Anne Hathaway. Goes double for Tom Hardy, who played the villain in Star Trek Nemesis. It was supposed to be his breakout role into stardom. Instead, it murdered his acting career right until this little movie called Inception came out... and now he's going to be Bane in the third installment of the The Dark Knight Saga. If Caine's career was saved, Hardy's career was resurrected and injected with steroids.
On the other side of the camera, he collaborates with his brother Jonathan on writing (see below), his wife Emma Thomas produces, Lee Smith edits, Hans Zimmer often scores his films, and Wally Pfister has done the cinematography for all but one of his films (which was Following and it was during a festival showing he met Pfister, they have worked together since).
Reconstruction: The Dark Knight Saga in particular, which takes the pretty fantastical concept of a masked vigilante superhero dressed as a bat and grounding it in a somewhat realistic worldscape.
Stuffed into the Fridge: One of the most common criticisms of his movies is his tendency to use female character's death as a plot device for the main male character to angst about
Tropes that apply to him:
Auteur License: Hollywood is under the impression that any film in which he has the slightest involvement will turn to box-office gold. Considering his solid three-film streak, it's not exactly far-fetched.
Creator Couple: He is married to Emma Thomas, who has produced all of his films since Following.
Limited Wardrobe: Nolan's signature dark suit, no tie, and dress shirt with a few buttons open. Sometimes he includes a vest or tie.
Person As Verb: After his approach on the Batman film series, "Nolanize" has been used as a term used by fans, meaning rebooting a science-fiction/fantasy series to strip away all unrealistic elements from it.
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