Christopher Nolan and Inception essays

Christopher Nolan and Inception essays By definition the auteur theory holds that "a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary auteur. The auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process."1 With that in mind the auteur that I have selected is Christopher Nolan, writer/director of Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The film that I will be basing the majority of my essay on is Inception (2010). The reason I have chosen Christopher Nolan as an auteur is because of his "ultra-realistic society" approach to storytelling and his apparent control over his work. From writing the script to directing and producing his films, Christopher Nolan is seen as someone who allowed to have complete creative control rather than the production company. One of the criteria for being an auteur according to French New Wave film director and film critic Francois Truffaut is that "a good director (and many bad ones) exerts such a distinctive style or promotes such a consistent theme that his or her influence is unmistakable in the body of his or her work."2 This, it could be said, is especially true for Christopher Nolan and his work especially in the writing of his films and how he creates a relatible world within his films and matches it with a completely unrealistic plot. For example in the film Inception Nolan creates a real world in which the audience can completely relate to, setting the bulk of the film in Paris. However the plot of the film ensures that the Parisian location is set in a dream conscious state so it is not entirely relatible to the audience creating juxtaposition in the understanding of the film. Another way in which Nolan is the auteur of his films is in the control that he has over making the film itself. Nolan owns a production company call...