Black Sheep presents The Director Series

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

By now you’ve likely already seen it.  I’m sure you, like myself, rushed to catch Christopher Nolan’s much hyped summer thriller, INCEPTION when it was released.  And so by now I’m sure you’ve formed an opinion on the subject as it seems to be taking shape as rather polarized film.  Given that Nolan’s popularity only seems to be getting more and more impressive with each film he releases, I thought it best to take a look back at some of the work that has gotten him to this point.  Now, everyone already knows that Nolan is the man behind the successful revamp of the Batman franchise, BATMAN BEGINS, and that Nolan went on to make what some consider the greatest comic book movie ever made, THE DARK KNIGHT.  Considering the familiarity with these works, Black Sheep will be taking a look back at Nolan’s non-caped crusader films, beginning with the one that got everybody both talking and scratching their heads long before INCEPTION was even conceived.

MEMENTO 

(2000)

After his first feature, FOLLOWING, garnered some solid festival response, Nolan’s next script was optioned for production for an eventual platform release.  Based on the short story, “Memento Mori” by Nolan’s brother, Jonathan, a frequent collaborator, MEMENTO would debut to impressive critical praise and would go on to become a cult classic.  Guy Pearce stars as Leonard Shelby, a man obsessed with revenge – if only he could remember what for.  I’m exaggerating but essentially, Leonard is not able to form any new memories so he forgets what has happened shortly after it happens to him.  He has suffered from this rare affliction since he was struck from behind when he walked in on the rape and  murder of his wife.  Through the use of a strict system using Polaroids of people and crude tattoos of the facts, Leonard spends all his time tracking down the man that took his wife and life away.

“Just because there are things I don’t remember doesn’t mean my actions are meaningless.  
The world doesn’t just disappear when you close your eyes.”

There is nothing particularly new about memory loss stories or stories about widowers bent on revenge so how is it that MEMENTO is best known for its originality? The answer can be found in the screenplay and the editing, fittingly the two aspects of this film that were honoured with Academy Award nominations.  Nolan tells us the story backwards, more or less, that is.  When Leonard kills someone just after we’ve met him, we have no idea why or whether he was justified.  Scene by scene, the events that led Leonard to this moment are revealed to us but at no point does the viewer feel comfortable enough to trust anyone Leonard comes into contact with, from his fast-talking, weasel of a friend, Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) to the gorgeous but damaged bartender who is helping him, Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss).  When your protagonist cannot remember anything, how can we trust anything he claims to know for a fact?  The approach results in Leonard trying to solve the mystery that is his own life while we are dragged down into the same madness that ensues from his attempts.

INSOMNIA 

(2002)

Naturally, Nolan had his pick of what his next project would be.  He decided to go the Hollywood route with the remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, INSOMNIA.  The cast was led by Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.  Albeit not officially credited – that honour belongs to Hilary Seitz – Nolan is said to have penned the final draft of this murder mystery.  Without the credit though, INSOMNIA remains the only film Nolan has been involved with where he does not have any writing credit.  The detachment does the director good as he takes what is essentially a very straightforward crime thriller and gives it class and savvy.  Pacino, a decorated police hero, has been summoned up to Alaska to consult on a case that has the local police baffled.  Pacino puts them all to shame when he gets there but it isn’t long before the round the clock sunshine starts to mess with his sleep and subsequently his head.

“A good cop can’t sleep because he’s missing a piece of the puzzle.

A bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won’t let him.”

It isn’t actually the light that is keeping Pacino up, even though it makes for a convenient excuse.  No, Pacino has a messy internal affairs investigation waiting for him at home and, unbeknownst to his fellow officers, he was involved in the shooting of another officer tied to the investigation.  Now, I happen to be someone who has on occasion battled with insomnia and I can say that Nolan gets the effect just right.  Pens tapping on a desk or fans rotating back and forth are ordinarily background noise but when you haven’t slept, they become isolated and exaggerated.  You become disconnected from what is happening all around you, missing moments and having visions.  Most importantly, when you haven’t slept, whatever it is that is keeping you awake has a tendency of creeping to the surface and driving you somewhat mad.  Unfortunately, this generally leads to more sleeplessness.  Albeit not as trippy as Nolan’s other works, INSOMNIA showed that Nolan could take somewhat generic material and make it compelling and memorable.

THE PRESTIGE 

(2006)

In 2006, Nolan was paired with two gentlemen that he would go on to work with regularly.  THE PRESTIGE, a period piece about two magician’s struggles to impress the masses while out doing each other, pits Hugh Jackman against Christian Bale and places Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson in between them.  I’m not sure if Nolan just didn’t get on with Jackman and Johansson (who oddly enough would go on to star in another movie involving what was supposed to be magic, Woody Allen’s SCOOP) but of course Bale would go on to be Batman with Caine as his Alfred.  It is another Nolan regular that would go on to earn his first of three cinematography Oscar nominations for THE PRESTIGE, Wally Pfister.  Pfister has lensed all of Nolan’s pictures (safe for FOLLOWING) and was also nominated for both of Nolan’s Batman features.  Something tells me we might be hearing his name tossed around again this year for INCEPTION too.

“Are you watching closely?”

When I first saw THE PRESTIGE, I enjoyed the tricks and twists but watching it again now, it seems an awful lot more like illusion instead of true magic.  As Caine explains early on in the film, there are three parts to every magic trick.  First, set up the trick; build the intrigue.  The next bit is called “The Turn”, in which case you pretty much turn your back to the audience and make something ordinary look extraordinary.  None of this matters without what the third part – The Prestige.  If you make something disappear, it only matters if you bring it back.  Nolan seems to be trying the entire way through to fit the film into these three sections but by the time his personal prestige is revealed, the steps he’s taken to get there have rendered it somewhat unimpressive.  It might have something to do with the completely unnecessary love triangle between Jackman, Johansson and Bale.  Then again, it might just be that Nolan isn’t as good a magician as he thought he was.

If you’ve read my review for INCEPTION, then you know I had mixed feelings about it.  Great or not though, there is no denying that Nolan is now a name and he has entered the ranks of contemporary auteur directors.  You don’t get on that list for being known though.  You get there for having a voice.  It may not have its full range yet but his voice is definitely distinct.

INCEPTION

Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine

Eames: If we’re going to perform inception, then we’re going to need imagination.

I knew there was a good reason I fought so hard every night to hold on to my conscious mind and not let my unconscious mind take over.  I’ve got to make sure no pesky extractors get in there to steal my highly sought after secret thoughts.  More importantly, I’ve got to make sure that nobody gets in there and plants an idea that I would go on to believe is entirely my own upon waking up.  This latter assault is called INCEPTION and the extremely dangerous process involved in making it happen is the premise for Christopher Nolan’s film of the same name.  Nolan’s skill as a director gives him the tools to delve deep into the viewer’s mind but after waking up from the dreamlike state INCEPTION creates so delicately, it doesn’t feel like he left anything in there to hold on to.

In order for Nolan to sell INCEPTION, he has a lot of ideas to implant in the audience from the very beginning.  Leonardo Dicaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play professional dreamers, men who, when connected to a fancy box that puts you right to sleep at the push of a button (where can I get this box?!), enter other people’s subconscious minds.  It’s way more complicated than that and INCEPTION does its best to ensure the audience understands its complex ideas.  To begin with, Nolan starts the action with Dicaprio and Gordon-Levitt in the middle of a mission.  This way we get to see first hand what their alternate reality is and it conveniently allows for explanation between characters indirectly aimed to help the audience situate itself.  Comparisons to THE MATRIX are not shocking to me.  Like that film, INCEPTION is a visual marvel that requires a lot of contextualization to get lost in.  And again, like that film, explanatory scenes that stop the action cold are necessary to keep everyone following.  THE MATRIX does one thing differently though – it makes it all about us at the same time so once we do get lost, we have just as much to lose.

Once everyone is on the same page, which takes almost half the film to accomplish, the real mission begins.  Inception, the concept of that is, is thought to be purely theoretical but Dicaprio is determined to make it a reality.  Dicaprio’s team, also including Ellen Page, Ken Wantanabe and the deliciously smarmy Tom Hardy, has been contracted to go deep into the mind of Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), the heir to an internationally successful corporation.  Once they get deep enough, they must implant an idea that will trigger Fischer to want to dissolve the company when he wakes up.  As the leader of the team, and the dreamer who has been doing this the longest, Dicaprio’s personal issues, primarily the ones involving his secretive past with his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), keep creeping into the collectively shared dreams.  Here, dreams and memories get easily confused and threaten to bring everything toppling down.  The corporate espionage angle though keeps the audience at a safe distance when we should all be able to draw upon the shared experience of getting lost in dreams.

Visually, there is no question that INCEPTION will have you dreaming of the fantastical sets and effects long after you’ve seen it.  As Nolan takes us deeper into dreams within dreams, he has total control over all the layers he has designed so deliberately one on top of the other.  He wows us with everything going on around us and grips us by making the success of the mission dependent upon a multitude of factors that must align perfectly within a very small window of time.  Considering how much work is involved in getting this deep and keeping all these layers balanced though, it seems odd that Nolan doesn’t appear to have any grander a purpose to achieving this feat other than proving he could.  In order for inception to work, to ensure the idea really sticks, the subject has to believe that the idea came from himself, like true inspiration.  Nolan burrows into the extreme depths of his subjects but leaves little to nothing insightful behind in the viewer to inspire us when we all wake up.

It's still a good time, mind you ...

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: A Bright Weekend for a Dark Knight

I was telling a friend of mine that THE DARK KNIGHT had beaten SPIDER-MAN 3 this weekend to claim the title of best 3-day opening weekend of all time. His response, big deal. Apparently, he’s heard enough of box office record breakers. It seems that every weekend some new movie has claimed the title of best R-rated, live action July opening for a non-sequel in a language other than English. It’s a shame really because all these box office boys calling wolf makes it hard to spot the real deal when it happens. And the records set by THE DARK KNIGHT this past weekend are definitely the real deal.

THE DARK KNIGHT, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, set one record before it even began its Thursday night midnight screenings. Playing on 4,366 screens across North America, THE DARK KNIGHT had the widest release of all time, besting the previous record by PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END, which launched on 4,362 screens. The film then broke another record before its official launch date. Pulling in over $18.5 million from its Thursday midnight screenings, THE DARK KNIGHT bested the $16.9 million taken in from midnight showings by STAR WARS EPISODE III: THE REVENGE OF THE SITH. And that didn’t even include the extra screenings movie houses added at 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM to accommodate for the demand.


Going into its first official day of release with its head held very high, THE DARK KNIGHT then took in an unprecedented first day tally of $66.4 million (including the overnight screenings). These numbers bested the record for one-day take previously held by SPIDER-MAN 3, which took in $59.8 million on its first day in theatres. Prognosticators expected THE DARK KNIGHT to do well before the weekend started (you’d have to be pretty daft not to have figured that out) but it was not expected to shatter record for all-time best opening weekend. SPIDER-MAN 3 claimed that title last summer when it opened to an awesome $151.9 million but the bar has now been bumped up that much higher as THE DARK KNIGHT estimates have come in at $155.4 million.

I can’t say whether the excitement over THE DARK KNIGHT comes from an overwhelming interest in Batman movies, an audience that has grown exponentially since Nolan’s last Batman pic, BATMAN BEGINS (which, comparatively made a scant $47 million on its opening weekend) or whether the Heath Ledger fascination factor made the difference but whatever the reason THE DARK KNIGHT led the way for Hollywood’s most successful non-holiday weekend in history. The overall box office tally this weekend was roughly $250 million, besting the previous 3-day weekend record set on the weekend of July 7-9, 2006, where PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST led the way to a total of $218 million.


Yes, folks, movies other than THE DARK KNIGHT played in theatres this weekend. Musical MAMMA MIA! found its own following, taking in $27.6 million, narrowly besting the opening weekend take of last year’s sleeper hit, HAIRSPRAY. SPACE CHIMPS couldn’t pull any monkey love away from WALL-E, earning a scant $7.4 million.

NEXT WEEKEND: THE DARK KNIGHT faces some reasonable competition but should remain victorious. Well, I guess every X-phile could leave their basement for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE. Or maybe people are truly desperate to see grown men, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly act like prepubescent punks in STEP BROTHERS … I mean, we’ve NEVER seen that before!
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THE DARK KNIGHT

Written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman


Alfred Pennyworth: Some men simply want to watch the world burn.

There can only be one Batman and as I sat amongst a full crowd that was silent in awed anticipation at the crack of the film, it is clear that director, Christopher Nolan’s Batman is the one. In BATMAN BEGINS, Nolan (whom at the time he attempted to revive the franchise had only directed a handful of indie projects) took an icon and made him human. Batman, and of course his real life persona, Bruce Wayne, was damaged. He had fears; he had frustrations; he had to find himself. What he found with a little push from Nolan was a flawed figure but also a man whose heroism was defined by his humility and relentless pursuit of justice for those incapable of demanding it for themselves. With the arrival of THE DARK KNIGHT, Nolan has finished with his foundation and taken to the vertigo-inducing heights on the tallest of Gotham’s buildings to analyze the city and all its inhabitants. Gliding both gracefully and dauntingly through all of it is the dark knight himself (reprised by third time Nolan collaborator, Christian Bale). What he sees from his unique view that becomes our privileged spectacle is world of delineating lines and order that is about to torn apart by chaos and chance.


Gotham City must be pretty far down the list of safest places in America to live. Not only does there seem to be nightly violence at the hands of common street thugs but all the crazies seem to end setting up shop there too. Enter the Joker (Heath Ledger). We know nothing of what made him the homicidal maniac he is nor does he have any regard for human life. In fact, he has nothing but disdain for it. Humanity’s rules and order may disgust him but they also make it possible for him to predict how people will behave, allowing him the chance to throw out loops to throw them off and laugh at their expense. The Joker is frightening enough in concept but Ledger’s performance is down right terrifying. As he constantly licks his lips with self-assured cynicism, he cuts to the chase in every scenario. He has no time for any games other than the ones he orchestrates himself and commands control everywhere he goes. His idea of playing always involves games with the ultimate consequence and the highest of stakes. In order to win these games, you must reject what you know and become everything you denounce. Only winners will know the rewards of living both sides of the coin and the Joker is counting on fear to prevail so that he can finally have someone to play with.


Along with his brother, Jonathan, Nolan has crafted a dark, twisted dissection of duality and morality that is often shocking, unexpected and intricately detailed. In every superhero tale, everyone always wants to know the man behind the mask. The mask itself, the creation of another persona other than the one that sits safely behind it, initiates the duality that permeates the notion of the superhero figure. Batman is the dark knight. He only comes out at night and no one would suspect the man he is by day might be one and the same. The Joker’s chaos theory ruptures Batman’s controlled existence and forces him to think in a darker fashion than he has ever had to before. Thinking that darkly though can leave you stranded in that space and this is what the Joker is counting on. What makes THE DARK KNIGHT so rich is that almost every character has conflict and questions their actions and motivations. No answer is the clear right answer and deceit seems to play a role in even the most well-intentioned decisions. The greatest irony is that the darkest character actually has the purest of souls while the would be clown seems to have no soul at all. This is perhaps what makes them such worthy adversaries and why they both almost seem to enjoy the challenge.


When THE DARK KNIGHT feels like it might be ending, the anxiety mounts because you won’t want it to end. It has an enormous scope but is somehow still subtle. It is incredibly complex but yet still simple. The film itself is steeped in just as much duality as its hero. Nolan never loses control of his dualistic duty – to create a Batman film that pleases both the masses and the fans, that encompasses the grandness of a blockbuster with the darkness of the independent spirit and wows without resorting to cheap tricks. Once again, Nolan has grounded the sensational on a very firm footing by never allowing Batman to be anything other than a man. We can then stand on the same level ground as the giant bat and feel a satisfaction that is both real and incredible.