Fill the Reckless: Chris Nolan

                                    On Chris Nolan and why he shakes me off my stupor.

                                     

So every time a film ends with a jump cut to black, every time I revel a trifle solemnly and every goddamn cell is shaken off its recessionary stupor; it is indisputably a Nolan stir-me-up. I think I recognize the touch now. Is it the beginning, the end, am I sozzled or what? That's that! Christopher Johnathan James Nolan. The fog which has lasted well 5 years, had vanished last Friday, and the sky is bright. Distant Bruce Wayne, absolutely charming, bows in acceptance: "By your leave!"

But what about Nolan? That, he is one of the cleverest plotter-the creator-the magician-the non- conformist, has been established with very little side split-ends. So, what of him? That he gives you a world, some impetuous and determined characters, psychological thrillers, employs an interesting storytelling technique; and before you know it, you are involved. Oh, boy! You are, you're subconsciously engaged in little spurts of his narrative. It is the job of an illusionist well done and credits to him.

But of course, there is a pattern. Nolan's storytelling is superbly distinct and non-linear; apportioned in acts. Most of them begin where they end, and wherefore to this end the characters move thereon is determined. So when Cutter in The Prestige (2006) speaks of the three acts or parts in every great magic trick, he seemingly echoes Nolan: The Pledge, The turn and The Prestige. Metaphorically, for me, the Batman trilogy is a perfect divvy of these acts and ends marvellously with this: “The Prestige”- The Dark Knight Rises.   

Interestingly, the protagonists in most of Nolan's films display single-mindedness, are extremely passionate about their respective goals, have some psychological disorder or obsession and are basically forked out in some parallel reality or the semblance of it. Remember Marion Cotillard and Leonardo in Inception, Guy Pearce in Memento, Al Pacino in Insomnia, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in The Prestige, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Nolan explores the tension of these central characters in the external subjective reality of the world they live in and the internal objective reality they believe in or occasionally slip into. This is precisely what makes his voice exciting: the exploration of the known (obvious) and the true (unknown) world. So his main man will always have several contradictions, extreme psychological splits and an affinity to this parallel reality. And hey, you get a movie where one plus one doesn't always equal two (It could be four if all twos, as you deduce in logical reasoning, equal to four). Yeah, yeah. Something like that.

A bit of a personal bias would not be disconcerting then. The man is well read, sophisticated, speaks impeccably, has a thing for fantasy and phantasm, holds a degree in English literature, is a Bond freak and generally with it. And Batman and Inception and Magician and the Joker and....Nikola Tesla and.... No, wait, superlatively brilliant! My proclivity to announce-a-fine-man when I see one stands vindicated. Christopher Nolan has the valet's unerring eye for a thoroughbred (well, so do I for fine men), and his characters-colleagues are manifestly that. The other day I read about his red and green colour blindness and thought of the film noir. In a way, this medical deficiency has evoked a kind of cinema that doesn't signify red (symbolic of a pause-stop) or green (symbolic of a go-run YES) but one that keeps you on-the-edge, ready to crouch, to leap.

And the music, yes the music! You see, his films usually have a lyrical quality, a single piece being used effectively throughout to build up the tempo. The song, beat, rhythm starts with a faint note and builds up slowly till the scene is one with the sound; reflective of the mood. Remember the 'Inception' score? Hans Zimmer brought the 1960 French song to create a mood of nostalgia, gloom and sadness which reflects the latent turmoil of Dom Cobb played by Leonardo DiCaprio. 

If I go on a few lines more about Nolan, I'd go incoherent and begin to stutter in some unintelligible script. Fastest way to learn Chinese!

So, here we are. A distant Christian Bale, absolutely charming, bowed in acceptance: "By your leave!"  I gushed delightedly: "Non, je ne regrette rien." (No, I have no regrets.)

(Christopher Nolan and how he makes me stand still: in admiration, with delight!)