You Can’t Forget About Forgetting

Christopher Nolan has been one of the most influential movie directors for the past 18 years, and he is still directing movies that appear at the top of the box office. His latest movie, entitled Dunkirk, made an approximate total of 525.6 million US Dollars.

Nolan created his first short film at age seven in his home city of London, England. Although he grew up there and attended University College London, he often traveled to Chicago where his mother was from. (Biography.com Editors) His first movie, Following (1998), “gained [him] enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for his next film.” (IMDb) His second film, however, is more famous because of its unique narrative structure and interesting twist in plot toward the conclusion of the movie. Memento (2000) “introduced a new talent” while “breaking cinematic rules.” (Ressner) Because of its ability to “put the audience into the shoes of the protagonist,” its non-linear structure makes this film Nolan’s most significant film. (Schmidt 16) Although The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) made the most money out of all of Nolan’s movies, they are superhero movies that do not promote thinking or make a statement about culture. Memento carefully uses “22 colour and 22 black and white sequences plus a very important opening credit” (Schmidt 17) to turn what seems to be a psychological thriller into what Schmidt describes as a “noirish revenge film.” Nolan’s little use of CGI as well as plot-twist endings and use of point-of-view shots and flashbacks make his style so unique.

CGI stands for computer-generated imagery. Currently, it is a major component of movie-making because it allows visual effects that could not occur in real life to occur on screen. Whether the reason for this is because the scene would be too hard to build, it would be too dangerous, or because it simply doesn’t exist, CGI can make anything seem real. The best example of a movie with incredible CGI use is Avatar (2009), directed by James Cameron. It seems as though there is an alternate reality, with blue creatures and a “magical” land called Pandora. With the entertainment industry becoming more and more competitive, CGI is becoming more and more common. Christopher Nolan, however, does not commonly use it as he believes that “however sophisticated your computer-generated imagery is, if it’s been created from no physical elements and you haven’t shot anything, it’s going to feel like animation.” (Ressner) He prefers models and in-camera effects to make the film feel more like real life. He puts a significant amount of time into matching original film to enhancements to fool the audience with the seamless transitions. “Nolan is a gestalt thinker and entertainer, and he thinks that it’s technical details like these, even the ones we register only unconsciously, that make the theatrical experience a vivid and continuous dream.” (Lewis-Kraus) One example of this is the tunnel scene in Inception (2010). Instead of using CGI with green screens, Nolan decided to use an actual tumbling hallway. (Ressner) His minimal use of CGI makes his movies, especially his action and psychological thriller movies, seem real because no editing is noticeable.

Inception may have the most controversial ending to any Christopher Nolan movie because, theoretically, it does not end. The top seems as though it is about to fall, but it is still spinning when the screen goes black and the movie ends. Nolan likes this mystery-ending effect because it lures an audience in; people like the element of mystery because it allows them to figure things out for themselves. It allows them to be fooled. Interstellar (2014), a sci-fi action movie, has a very confusing ending that left many people just as confused as Inception left its audience. (Lewis-Kraus) Although Memento doesn’t have a mystery ending, the whole movie is a mystery because the audience doesn’t know what occurred before the scene they are seeing. (Schmidt 16) Then, there is a plot twist at the very end, followed by a monologue about living a lie to be happy. “To say that Chris Nolan films leave people pondering deep (or at least confusing) ideas would be an understatement.” (Kofi Outlaw) Some people love the mystery of Nolan’s endings, while others think they are predictable or are sick of the philosophical conclusions. Kofi Outlaw says, “At this point in his career, it’s become fair for critics of Nolan to point out how these fogs of mystery are more of a gimmick than anything.” Personal preference aside, the way Nolan ends his movies is one of the major components that makes up his individual style. “Nolan’s choices have significantly influenced filmmaking, proving that complexity can exist in the commercial.” (Biography.com Editors)

“Now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it…because you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.” –Christopher Nolan

A point-of-view shot, or a POV shot, is a shot that appears to be what a certain character in the movie is seeing. Directors use these shots to allow the viewer to see what the characters see. When Jeffrey Ressner asked what constants run through all his films, Nolan replied “An absolute concern with point of view. I can’t cut a scene if I haven’t already figured out whose point of view I’m looking at, and I can’t shoot the scene in a neutral way.” There are many of these shots in Memento. Most shots “are very subjective and from Leonard’s point of view. The camera is always kind of over his shoulder or right behind him.” (Schmidt 19) This cinematography observation adds to his personal overall style because his movies make their audiences feel as though they understand what the characters see at any given moment, rather than feeling detached due to watching the movie from an unknown point of view.

Flashbacks are used to show a scene that already happened within a scene that is currently happening. Flashbacks may occur in dreams, or perhaps something that reminds a character of their past may spark one. Christopher Nolan commonly uses flashbacks in his movies. In Memento, flashbacks are used to tell how the main character accidentally killed his wife. The scenes are shown in black and white, and “the black and white sequences are more or less a successively told flashback.” (Schmidt 18) Within the black and white scenes, flashbacks are used to show the memories the main character has of his wife. The “flashback within a flashback” non-linear structure is one of the main reasons why Memento is such an influential piece when discussing style and cinematography. Flashbacks are also used in Inception when the protagonist remembers his wife, as well. This structure is different from that of Memento’s because it is more of a “flashback inside a dream” structure, where the audience is confused about the multiple realities within the film. It is just as complicated as it sounds, but that is why it “was another critically lauded blockbuster for [Nolan], and won four Academy Awards for its technical wizardry.” (Biography.com Editors) Interstellar concludes with the discovery of a fifth dimension where the main character can see the past and try to alter it. Biography.com describes this movie as “visually arresting,” and even before it was released Lewis-Kraus said, “It’s also hard to see how Interstellar won’t make another billion-plus dollars.” Without the ending containing flashbacks and making its audience question the concept of time, the movie would not have had such great reviews. The flashbacks were the key components that made the movie great. Because of the heavy use of flashbacks in all of these films, Nolan’s fans have trained themselves to be prepared for this type of structure when going to see one of his movies. (Kofi Outlaw)

Memento is the epitome of Christopher Nolan movies because it contains (or doesn’t contain) all of the elements Nolan is known for. (It is a holistic Nolan film, seeing as it was written by his brother Jonathan). As discussed above, Chris dislikes using CGI, and because Memento takes place in normal settings to suggest a real-life plot, minimal CGI was used. There was a plot twist ending: the audience spends the duration of the film feeling bad for the man with anterograde amnesia (the main character, Lenny) only to find out that he purposefully allows himself to forget about killing people so his life will have a purpose. The use of POV shots is critical in the movie because the viewers are only allowed to see what Lenny sees, making them feel the same confusion that Lenny feels. There are also flashbacks used to show the happy memories Lenny has with his wife, but are revealed later on to be the reason Lenny’s wife died. Although the film contains many elements that all Chris Nolan movies do, the film “was certainly one of the most successful films in the United States in 2000. In most cinemas it was shown for more than 15 weeks in the summer season – the most competitive season of the year.” (Schmidt 3) This is simply because all of the elements of the movie, especially the editing, are overwhelming. The non-linear structure involving two separate plot lines that conjoin in the middle keeps an audience guessing with every scene that occurs. The black and white filter of every other scene lets viewers know which ones occur in a standard, linear sequence. (Schmidt 18) The ending and the flashbacks make the plot more interesting without changing any cinematography. The conclusion even leaves viewers with anger that the protagonist isn’t actually a good character, confusion, and a philosophical theory about revenge and the purpose of life. This movie does an incredible job making the audience feel as though they are detectives, or that they themselves have anterograde amnesia. Christopher Nolan is a genius director and screenwriter, and his film centered on forgetting is not easy to forget.

Works Cited

“Christopher Nolan.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

“Christopher Nolan Biography.” Biography.com. Ed. Biography.com Editors. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. “The Exacting, Expansive Mind of Christopher Nolan.”The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

Outlaw, Kofi. “5 Christopher Nolan Movie Criticisms That Are Totally Valid.”Screen Rant. Screen Rant, 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

Ressner, Jeffrey. “The Traditionalist.” DGA. Directors Guild of America, Apr.-May 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

Schmidt, Torben. Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Department Of England- And America-Studies, and Frankfurt Am Main. ““Christopher Nolan’s Memento – Analysis of the Narrative Structure of a Noirish Revenge Film.” “Christopher Nolan’s Memento – Analysis of (2003): 1-28. Print.