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Christopher Nolan (born July 30, 1970) is a British film director, writer
and producer.
Like many future filmmakers, British-born Christopher Nolan began making
amateur movies at an early age, playing around with a Super 8mm camera that
belonged to his father. When his family relocated to Chicago for three years
during his formative years, this child of a British father and American
mother traded tips on movie making with pals Roko and Adrian Belic (who in
1998 premiered their documentary "Genghis Blues"). While an undergraduate at
University College in London, Nolan saw his short "Tarantella" air in the
USA on PBS in 1989. By the mid-90s, he had hooked up with Jeremy Theobold
who appeared in the shorts "Larceny" and "Doodlebug".
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Theobold would go on to produce and star in Nolan's feature directorial
debut, "Following" (1998). Serving as director, co-producer, co-editor and
cinematographer, he inverted some of the conventions of the film noir to
recount the tale of a blocked writer (Theobold) who spends his days stalking
strangers in the hopes of jump-starting his imagination. Then, one of his "victims"
turns the tables and invites the scribe to join in a series of petty thefts.
Juggling time via flashbacks and flash forwards, Nolan established a key
signature of his work in which chronology takes a back seat to character.
Critics found much that was admirable in Nolan's first feature, although
most felt it was a marginal achievement, at best.
Nolan took a giant leap forward with his second film, "Memento" (2000),
working from an unpublished short story by his brother Jonathan. An
intriguing skewering of the conventions of film noir, "Memento" centers on a
man with "anterograde amnesia", a condition that does not allow him to form
new memories, who is seeking the man who raped and murdered his wife. While
the heart of the piece was a conventional revenge drama, the story unfolded
in an intriguing manner -- backwards, with bits of additional information
added each time. Fascinating and complex, "Memento" earned great acclaim
when it opened in Europe in fall 2000 and at its US premiere at the 2001
Sundance Film Festival where Nolan picked up the Waldo Salt Screenwriting
Award. The film also earned him numerous citations from critics' groups.
Despite the fact that the idea for the story originated with his brother's
fiction, Nolan's screenplay was deemed an original for the purposes of
Academy Award consideration, in part because the film had premiered in both
Great Britain and the USA before the short story was published in the March
2001 issue of Esquire. Capitalizing on his success, Nolan directed the
English-language remake of the 1997 Norwegian crime thriller "Insomnia"
(2002), starring three previous Academy Award winners, Al Pacino, Robin
Williams and Hilary Swank . The critical response to the film was mixed:
while some labeled the thriller as an early Oscar contender and heaped
praise on Williams' smart, controlled performance, others found the film a
lackluster sophomore follow-up to the bravura efforts of "Memento."
Nevertheless, Warner Brothers, which produced "Insomnia," was still
confident enough in Nolan's talents to tap him to direct its long-aborning
effort to revive the all-but-defunt "Batman" franchise after various other
incarnations failed to make it into production. |
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CHRISTOPHER NOLAN PICTURES |
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MOST POPULAR
Angelina Jolie
Jessica Alba
Paris Hilton
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Jessica Simpson
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ADDITIONS
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