The Ultimate Christopher Nolan Analysis: How a Director Rises
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
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About this video essay:
An in-depth exploration of the movies of Christopher Nolan. This first episode - A Director Begins - covers Following, Memento, Insomnia and Batman Begins.
Content:
0:00 Introduction
0:57 Following
14:30 Memento
28:55 Insomnia
44:28 Batman Begins
59:28 The Breakout Years
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53:55
Personally what I like most about Nolan is that the film always feels like it matters to him, which is becoming less common for directors today. And I don’t even think it’s their fault in most cases- too many studios try to insert themselves and because most of the time the directors have to play the game, there’s a personality that’s being lost in filmmaking and it’s a shame.
A one hour LSOO video?! Heck yeah just what I needed!!
❤
Agreed! Especially one on the GOAT himself.
I have always been captivated by Christopher Nolan, an exceptionally talented director. I wholeheartedly recommend indulging in one of his finest yet somewhat overlooked films, "The Prestige." This cinematic masterpiece transcends mere entertainment and delves into the realm of pure artistry
The Angier duplicate(s) at the end are fake. Water + weeks/months = bloating and massive tissue degradation....unless it's fake. We're told from the very beginning..."you aren't really looking....you don't really want to know".
The Prestige is a masterpiece.
Yes, 'The Prestige' is highly underrated. I didn't realize until years later that Nolan directed it, making it so much sweeter since he's my favorite director.
My favorite movie ever (and my introduction to Nolan). I remember being so shocked when I first watched it that I immediately called my father and brother and made them watch it (I rewatched with them, of course).
I'm usually not one to re-watch movies but it goes to show how great it is
The Prestige is absolutely brilliant
This is one of those later entries in what I refer to as his "what if a movie" projects. In this case, what if a movie was like a magic trick? Other examples include Inception (what if a movie was like a dream?) Insomnia (what if a movie was like being constantly awake and active?) and Memento (what if a movie was like having no long term memory beyond what you're observing in the moment?)
I'm not saying the movies are explicitly about these things, but I think Nolan uses the themes of his movies to kind of deconstruct and reexamine what a movie is and what it can be. We seldom know anything about a film's subject before or after the small window of time in which we follow his story. We seldom view a subject during a time when he is not actively driving plot or character or both. We go into and out of scenes often without a full account of how we got there or how long it's been. And in The Prestige, the movie can tell us exactly what is happening, and we'll still look past it. Even though we know it's a fiction, we still experience the paradox of wanting to be fooled but also looking for a sophisticated explanation of the reality.
:edit: now in the context of the newest video I have to add Interstellar: what if a movie was something critically important and something that I am driven to do, but in doing so I sacrifice time with other things or people that I also love?
One of his best was The Prestige. It's beautiful from beginning to end.
that final reveal tho
It's still one of my favorites.
Nolan is the GOAT hands down, extremely thought provoking and emotion grabs that linger with every film. I hope he's already working on a new project, Oppenheimer will be nearly impossible to top.
I still remembered how floored I was upon seeing Batman Begins for the first time; we had never seen anything like it. I had always accepted that Bruce Wayne risks his life to be a vigilante instead of just living comfortably as a billionaire, because it's part of the setup, but once Nolan told his story, I understood *why*
Been watching you every day since your beginning and you’ve blessed me with an epic hour video on my birthday!
"He does over explain but he doesn't dumb down" I love this quote and it is so true.
Excellent work! A one hour video by LSOO on my favorite filmmaker
I have reserve tickets to see Oppenheimer July 20 in 70 mm at an IMAX theatre. This should be one of the best cinematic experiences of my life.
Anyone interested in Memento should check out Without Memory, a documentary about a man with a similar condition to Leonard's. It's a though provoking work directed by Japanese master Hirokazu Koreeda, who would repeatedly explore how memory forms our identity, most notably in After Life.
If there is anyone qualified to make this video, its you, Tom. That intro was fantastic, can't wait to watch this later.
I would like to take a second to appreciate the level of research that was put into this video 😮 I'm half way through and already you have shared at least three different research papers and that's not including the film watching side - truly well done - like!
Excellent! I always get so much from your analysis, thank you for all of your hard work.
Just saw Following for the first time not too long ago and I love it even more now that you’ve examined it through such a fascinating lens. Great stuff!
I watched this unexpected (but incredibly appreciated) retrospective of one of my favorite filmmakers as soon as I possibly could, and having just signed up for Nebula (what timing!), I immediately watched the second and even better video. I appreciated so much of what you had to say about each film in Nolan’s journey, it would take pages to convey. I especially loved your breakdown of The Prestige, Inception, and TDKR. Taking out the good first step into Kai’s freak that was BB and the massive leap forward in his craft that was TDK, the three aforementioned films are such interesting place holders in his development. I especially appreciated your acknowledgement of how criticism for TDKR was instantaneous, often pedantic or in bad faith, for reasons that the much loved TDK could also have been criticized and yet wasn’t.
Your film analysis is so lucid, nuanced, and well considered. I don't mean this in a sinister way, but to quote Hannibal Lecter, "I think it must be quite something to know you in private life". I bet your friends and family get a kick out if your insights. Well done! Subscribed.
"I don't mean this in a sinister way" - proceeds to quote a cannibalistic serial killer character that wore one of his victim's facial skin as a mask 😂
No, no, don't worry bro, totally understand the kind sentiment 🙃
it is actually clumsy, lacks perspective and ignores solid principles of film theory and writing. I sincerely hope he doesnt have a background in film cos if so that is even worse
Great stuff. I always love it when creators put the next part of a series on Nebula instantly. Did not regret the subscription over the past year. Thanks!
I watch everything on Nolan over and over. Including your videos. Thank you for going deeper than deeper.
Brilliant, in depth analysis. Great job. Loved it.
Yay a new video!!!! Covering the main movie practically everyone wants to make sure to watch!!!
Just what I needed, thanks Tom!
Thank you for the time you put into these.
A beautiful video, as always. ❤
Excellent work! A one hour video by LSOO on my favorite filmmaker. A one hour LSOO video?! Heck yeah just what I needed!!.
looking forward to the next episode
Christopher and Hans are a lethal duo
its interesting to see how much work he does, from original ideas to rethinking of the batman.
probably my favorite movie creator off all time.
Oppenheimer is very anticipated for me.
Excellent work and narrative.
Very interesting work!! With my memory issues, obviously is Memento my favourite! But also, despite having watched most of these movies, I couldn't remember them properly, nor deducing similarities or differences. This was a great tool to appreciate the whole of the Nolan's filmography, thank you so much!!
I feel you. I have got negative pushback on my memory issues, other people thinking I don't remember because I don't care, or weren't paying attention, or I'm avoiding something in particular. It's incredibly frustrating!
Thank you for this video. Honestly, the way you offer insight and perspective has changed my opinion on film, stories and human nature. Great job :))
This is fantastic man thank you, would watch this series for the most influential directors 😄🙌🎥
excellent content and nice voice.
It was a pleasure to meet you guys.
thanks for your work
Ive been saving these videos to watch, 2 days to go and got my advanced Oppenheimer tickets and I thank you for these companion videos to watch while I wait sir!
Thanks for this.
Oh man I can't wait to watch this series
44:20 It's very convenient to act moral when your life is about to end. You sacrifice nothing by being moral here. That's why hearing confessions and regrets at deathbeds is a trope. But when there is still plenty of life left it's very hard to be moral rather than selfish, usually self-interest takes priority.
It's interesting you didn't comment about how Nolan's use of music in Following was the same as what he'd become known for years later. It was one of the first things I noticed when I first watched it.
As much as I want to watch this video now, I first have to go and watch this movie!
Thank you!
I know you have to split his movies up in the way that makes sense for each video time-wise, but I would argue Following to The Prestige is his 1st era, Dark Knight to Interstellar is his 2nd era, and Dunkirk to whatever comes after Oppenheimer is his 3rd era (it'll be hard to say exactly when his 3rd era ends until we're a couple movies past it)
I love that so many movies of the last few years are inviting us to view time in different ways and from different perspectives.
I agree with you that the American versions of European movies don't have the same edge. The Dutch movie The Vanishing (1988) was very disturbing. The Hollywood version (1993) was a let down.
YES!! MY FIX FOR A WHOLE MONTH
This is insane!!!!!!!
Will Dormer going to jail and finally getting some sleep is a horrrrrrrrible idea lmao the ending is good as it is. He’s able to rest knowing his legacy will be tarnished but nonetheless truthful.
When my favorite film essayist creates an essay on my favorite director of all time.
Not the first deep dove into the Nolan filmography, but without s doubt building up to be the best!!!!
Genuinely fascinating dive into Nolan’s philosophical groundings and the patterns at play. I’d love to see how much of an evolution of Nolan’s statements we see
Hell Yeah!!! New video drop
Totally agree with Nolan's "punctuation". I feel I need to watch Oppenheimer again to understand the flow
As one of the twelve people who actually pitched a couple bucks to Nebula a couple months ago, that outro made me very happy.
Last night, I finished Christopher Nolan's filmography and this is a great video that mirrors a lot of my analysis of his work, at least so far in his early stages. As a director I believe that the increasing detraction against his philosophy is founded and simultaneously dismissive and even just knee jerk reaction contrarianism. As a filmmaker I don't agree per se with how he goes about with some of his choices, but I find that as an overall blockbuster presenter he is a cut above his contemporaries. He's complicated, clunky, but I always felt that I was getting Nolan's voice through his films, even his Batman trilogy. I don't know if I will ever consider him as one of the all time greats, but he is a voice that is definitely valuable and important for the landscape of 21st century, no matter your opinion on its state. Can't wait for part 2.
Love Chris Nolan. I can't wait for Oppenheimer 🤍🖤🎥📽🎬💣🔥
This beautifully shot, edited, and recorded in-depth look at one of modern cinema’s most influential filmmakers needs more views and comments. It simply DESERVES it.
"The achievement of redemption seconds before death, that part does feel kind of outdated now."
Well, Disney did that with Kylo Ren just three years ago, so.......
Black and white is also good for low budget because color theory is complicated-as in getting all the production design to have cohesive color is expensive and requires an experienced production design team. Bad color is a dead giveaway of an armature production. That problem is solved in black and white.
Complicit
40:14
Constantly chasing meaning becomes meaningful - illusion of becoming making it being
Another great video. Your perspective on the first Batman film is the same interpretation I hold. The first half of the film is the better story. The origin of Bruce becoming the Bat. I always get chills when he runs onto the boat, leaving everything behind, starting from scratch to reinvent himself. This is why I was abit disappointed with The Batman. I truly thought we get a Bruce becoming the Bat origin story. Traveling the world and finding unconventional teachers to help train his body and mind showing us the viewer he took more than inner pain and money to wear the mask. Hopefully the next Batman gives us some cool flashbacks.
Kierkegaard: Just take a leap of faith
Nolan: Beer my hold
Do a video on PTA or may be any one of his films.
Oh dear, you just made all the rabid fan-boys n girls salivate; an hour of Nolan!
There is this painting... the disintegration of the persistence of memory... by some minor artist called Dali... if I remember correctly.
As I'm watching the description of Christopher Nolan's work, what's really missing is a critique of his inability to explore strong and layered female characters, particularly in contrast with Villeneuve's wildly underrated Arrival.
I would like to see Nolan do a Bladerunner Movie to Finish the Trilogy.
I'm a fan generally, I really enjoy the Prestige and really love Dunkirk but there is something off about his films, like they are developed by scientists in a lab or developed by AI
Oof that's well said. I want to like them but they are a bit too neat and clinical, aren't they. I almost get the feeling that Nolan should have (also) been a professor or an author of books on cinema. He could be more subtle- it would help
I wish Nolan would adapt either Neuromancer or Ubik.
Please make a video on nolan after oppenheimer....
1:05: 🎥 The video discusses Christopher Nolan's evolution as a director and the importance of capturing the details and progression of his work.
5:48: 🔍 The video discusses the plot of the movie 'Eyes Wide Shut' and how it relates to the concept of Inception.
11:01: 🎥 The video discusses the themes and production elements of the film 'The Prestige'.
16:43: 🎥 The unconventional structure of Memento, with two separate story threads, makes the movie fascinating to experience.
22:07: 🧠 The video explores how our memories can be distorted and how this affects our sense of identity and morality.
27:33: 🔑 The video discusses the theme of belief and faith in the movie Memento and how it relates to the protagonist's tragedy.
33:15: 🎥 The video discusses the seamless transition and strong sense of place in Christopher Nolan's remake of Insomnia.
38:49: 👮♂ The video discusses the moral struggle and internal conflict faced by a corrupt cop named Dormer.
44:52: 🦇 The video discusses Christopher Nolan's exploration of philosophical ideas in his films and how it leads to the creation of a truly heroic Batman in Batman Begins.
50:42: 🦇 Batman Begins starts with Bruce Wayne losing his parents and feeling responsible, leading to his struggle against injustice.
55:56: 🦇 Batman Begins is a straightforward hero's journey where the character escapes his broken world and self to restore both.
Recap by Tammy AI
Yay! This was a great one. I assume you keep going back to Nolan because he's one of the few artsy-fartsy directors who're truly worth talking about that also draw views on UA-cam. I imagine you don't get quite the same number of clicks for your videos about Werner Herzog or Bela Tar. Nevertheless, I really enjoy these, for the very reason that Nolan makes his films so accessible, and they're fun to watch again and again, while Herzog and similar directors are often a challenging experience. It's nice to get both a popcorn movie experience AND a powerful draft of philosophy from the same source.
I also usually don't pay for the deluxe versions of things, but I'm a Nebula subscriber specifically for people like you, so thanks for that bonus material. Heading over now. :D
Is this a new video or a re-release? I could swear I have seen this already from this channel.
He's done one on Nolan earlier as well. But it was done from a different lens. He even mentions it in this video.
It was such a privilege growing up with the Dark Knight trilogy in cinemas, as opposed to the adaptations nowadays feeling more like content than art. Granted Gunns Guardians 3 is probably the best MCU film.
That's because ultimately, GotG Vol. 3 isn't really a MCU movie, it's a James Gunn movie. Just like the previous ones were too - Vol. 2 moreso than 1.
Insomnia is underrated
Did you experience Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies in theaters? Yeah, BATMAN Begins was Revelatory!
When is the next part release?
Sergio Leone next please 🙏
Fuck yeah.
These movies were made by a WIZARD- a man who could actually do what filmmakers pretnd to do.
Make a movie already!
When you talk about the prestige I hope you mention the fact that the movie itself is meant to be a trick on the audience, with the cloning machine being a lie that fools the audience in the same way it fooled the characters. Every film analysis I’ve seen just takes it at face value and thinks the machine literally actually clones it which I don’t think is correct and actually the movie is better and the plot makes more sense when you view it as the machine never having actually worked
It’s such a weird approach to explore subjectivity through his nearly purely objective lenses
He's our Hitchcock.
If anyone doesn't think Memento is an instant classic, they clearly weren't watching with me in the AMC theater in Times Square in 2001 or listening to me on the train. Might have been a Lowes....
He's clearly the most succesful british-american filmmaker since Hitchcock, and I love both.
@@jesustovar2549 I'm just saying that, for this era with this set of movie making capabilities and aesthetics, he deals with concepts in an analogous way to Hitchcock.
4 the algorithm
we want a Tarantino series after this
I wanted to ask if you like watching anime or reading manga. There are many great stories hiding in that medium. And it’d be cool to watch a video on one of those stories, like AoT, HxH, Cowboy Bebop, Berserk etc.
I would have chosen other film makers for the comparison. Jim Jaramusch for instance. Nolan has a beauty in darkness. Opening doors like Guillermo Del Toro. Starting small, philosophical, dark with inner light, absolute brilliance.
In my opinion, Nolan is the top directer of this millennium, and second all time, only to the great Stanley Kubrick.
Edit: no hate on the plenty of other masters out there. Just my personal taste.
Nolan Kubrick Cameron R.Scott Herzog
^ sort of my “Mount Rushmore” of directors of our generation.
@@smillman437 not a bad Rushmore at all
If you're interested, I can give you fifty names of far better directors only in the millenium, for all time the list would be too long
@@marcogianesello6083 well, as I said, that’s my opinion. I’d love to see your list I may find new films to watch
Auteur?
He writes or co-writes, produces and directs his own movies. And he has total control over the production with no restrictions from studios. So yes, he's an auteur.
@@foglias - You believe this to be true? Even if so, you don't think there's more to being an auteur than this? Good to know. Tell you what. I've an opportunity for you. Let me talk to you about this bridge...
Don't get wrong but I believe that Nolan has fallen in his own trap of believing that he can't do wrong and nobody has the balls to tell him "no" , the best example of this is "Tenet".
Wrong.Tenet is amazing!
He wishes he was an auteur. Pity everything is stolen.
What are you referring to
Nothing creative appears out of the void. Everything is reference to something else. Creativity lies in how shape this pre-existing knowledge or concept into your own vision and voice.
Dude all directors steal from everyone else.
Christopher Nolan is a very talented director and some of his films are almost transcedent (the prestige and interstellar for example) but he is not an Auteur, if such a thing even exists at all which is debateable. You are not analysing these films you are just... describing them. I will tell y'all something about inception that all screen writers know; it was a very clever film but only cos it was so utterly dumb and predictable and yet it leads ppl quite smartly and lets them figure it out on their own which makes them feel very smart but anyone who studied film theory knew exactly what was going to happen for the whole film after the first 20 minutes. It is by far Nolan's most overrated work and one of his most ordinary films but it was a good original idea they just executed it poorly
Most overrated director on planet earth.
Tell me why he is overrated! I really want to know. Or is it nowadays a fashion to call Nolan a overrated Director?
@@sajidahmed4332 Because he gets too much praise for what are really not great films.. His Batman films are artistically dull compared to the Burton ones ... Interstellar is derivative ... Inception is one of the lamest films about dreams .. Hes just an alright director in an age of crappe so we think hes good for some reason.
@@retter2critical All those "reasons" are common places that we've all read in the past, no substance at all. Kind of like a copy/paste. Your comment is derivative.
@@foglias Where have you read that Inception is the lamest film about dreams?
The most overrated cinematographer of the 21st century in my opinion.
His biggest problem is humor (lack of) associated with extreme heaviness and coldness.
For exemple Inception:
It is far more a straitforward videogame cliché than an onirique movie. I found amuzing that the hero seek an architect when really he should look after a level designer.
All the mechanics are cold and really far from the folly of a dream.
He really doesn't want the mistery to exist, either by explaining everything (with bs gibberish of course), either by saying to the audience "shut up its magic".
And of course the theme of love is always handle with the subtelty of a elephant in a porcelain shop (like in Interstellar with the love vs gravity nonsense).
He is no David Lynch or Terry Gilliam for sure.
For me it's really like comparing Milan Kundera to Albert Cohen. Both portray romantic relationships in the midst of grand history, but only Albert Cohen keeps his characters grounded through humor and derision.
Nolan is incapable of this.
His movie The Prestige is a great summary of his tropes. To brainwash the public with tricks that you don't want to see up close because they're so obvious and often of bad faith (the whole magic scenery with the supernatural at the end is a shame).
And even on a moral standpoint, the guy is kind of cringe. His Batman trilogy is an absolute mess on that regard.
His also seems to really not like details, only vague leading ideas. His depiction of Gotham is the worst of all movies and animated films or comics for exemple (again, my opinion).
1 hour video?!?!?! Lets gooo