Presentation Script 2

Presentation script

To what extent does the theme of loss as a narrative device define Christopher Nolan as an auteur?

Projector: Display an image of Christopher Nolan

Speaker: 'An auteur is a director who manifests a consistency of style and theme across his or her films.' [9] If this is the definition of an auteur then I believe that Christopher Nolan is in fact an auteur, due to his continual use of narrative devices and themes of psychological tumours, mainly loss across his films. Christopher Nolan is a director that uses similar themes and character roles/ types. For example, Film Noir's Femme Fatale and non linear narratives. There are other elements which could contribute to Christopher Nolan being an auteur such as working with his brother but I will discuss them later. Christopher Nolan has made a name for himself with his latest blockbusters such as the Batman trilogy and 'Inception' [3]. But he was displaying his techniques long before he was noticed by Warner Brothers with films like 'Following' 'Insomnia' and 'Memento' [2].


Projector: Display scene from 'The Prestige' [1] with a helpful quote (01:53:35-01:55:36)

Speaker: After Christopher Nolan completed Batman Begins he went on to film 'The Prestige' [1] which also displays a lot of his themes and techniques, although this film is not one of his own pieces, being an adaptation of a novel. Christopher Nolan has found similar themes that work well with his style within the narrative. In 'The Prestige' [1] he uses the theme of loss to challenge the audience, and a non linear structure as a the narrative device in order to leave the audience in the dark for most of the film. In this film both the main characters have suffered loss. Alfred Borden (Bale) is the more psychological and ... as this character suffers loss in a deeper sense, suffering the loss of his wife who committed suicide, the loss of his fingers after being shot off in a magic act, loss of his brother and lastly the loss of identity. In order to create the perfect magic trick one of the Borden twins a main character in the film doesn't have his true identity, as the twins take turns playing either Alfred Borden or Fallon. In this scene you have seen Borden confront Angier and explains about his life and magic trick 'simple maybe but never easy, there's nothing easy about two men sharing one life' [1] this displays Christopher Nolan's recurring theme of psychological loss and is shown in a montage sequence 'we each had half of a full life, which was enough for us. But not for them' [1]. Also Christopher Nolan explains what has happened through mise en scene in the montage, he shows the two brothers behind the trick and switching make up in order for them to play the part. Robert Angier (Jackman) suffers the loss of his wife who drowned in one of their acts, this sends him down the path of revenge. [00:23:05-00:24:35]

Projector:  Display scene from 'Memento' [2] (00:15:34-00:16:17)


Speaker: The film that got Christopher Nolan noticed by film production companies was 'Memento' [2] which is another one of the films I have chosen to help me argue my point that Christopher Nolan is an auteur, and similar to his other films the theme of loss is used as a narrative device to make the film interesting. Once again this film has a different narrative structure 'You cannot remove a scene from the film because each scene depends on its relationship between the preceding scene and the one that follows, it is total linear it's just reversed' say Christopher Nolan [2] and the main character has suffered different types of loss. Leonard (Pearce) has suffered the loss of his wife who was murdered and this sends him on a revenge mission, much like Robert Angier in 'The Prestige' [1]. This is also an genre convention for Film Noir, which influences Christopher Nolan's filming style. But also Leonard has suffered the loss of his memory, when he and his wife was being attacked he got hit on the head which resulted in him suffering with short term memory loss. This plays a big part in the narrative and the development of the character, 'The noir-ish indie feature starred Guy Pearce as an amnesiac man who relies on Polaroids and copious note-taking while seeking vengeance.' [4]. This results in Leonard never truly knowing the whole truth and will accept whatever truth is in front of him. In the scene I have just shown Leonard is talking on the phone, he is talking about Sammy Jenkis which is the person he uses to explain his condition. In this scene Leonard talks about how he has structure to his life by taking notes and having a system but most of all a purpose for life. Through the mise en scene the audience can see his tattoos of all the facts he has collected about his wife murderer but only once he looks in the mirror do they see his purpose 'John G. raped and murdered my wife' while this is being shown to the audience Leonard actually states 'I'm disciplined and organized, I use habit and routine to make my life possible, Sammy had no drive no reason to make it work, me, yeah I've got a reason' [2].

Projector: Display scene from 'Inception' [3] (01:18:53- 01:22:14)

Speaker: The same themes are displayed in his later work 'Inception' [3]. The main character Cobb has suffered the loss of his wife who couldn't accept what was reality. He then loses this children because of his job and his wife; he later choses his reality with his children and Christopher Nolan leaves the ending up to the audience. These themes are displayed to the audience in a fantasy style of dreams and the sociological aspects to a person's sub conscience. Christopher Nolan likes this audience to question things about life, with this film it is making you question what is reality and is it something that we just except. 'Memento' [2] he wanted the audience to question their memory, is it fact or has it been distorted over time and with other people's influence. Christopher Nolan uses the theme of loss to ask these questions. In this scene you have just seen Cobb is explaining to Ariadne what happened to his wife and how it affected his life now. Even though his wife has died she still appears on missions as Cobb's projection and his threatens the people that he works with. I have used this scene because it shows a lot of the elements of his continuing theme of loss to develop his characters.

'Total devotion to his art, utter self sacrifice' [1][00:16:42-00:16:52]

Presentation Script

Presentation script

To what extent does the theme of loss as a narrative device define Christopher Nolan as an auteur?

 

Projector: Display an image of Christopher Nolan

 

Speaker: In this presentation I will be arguing whether or not Christopher Nolan is an auteur. For an audience watching Christopher Nolan's films they can clearly see that there is a recurring theme of loss. Christopher Nolan uses different psychological tumours mainly loss as a narrative device, and I believe this could make him an auteur. In order to argue my case I need to explain what an auteur is, 'An auteur is a director who manifests a consistency of style and theme across his or her films.' [9] Christopher Nolan is a director that uses similar things such as themes, character roles/ types for example film noir femme fatale and non linear narratives. There are other elements which could contribute to Christopher Nolan being an auteur such as working with his brother but I will discuss them later.

 

 Projector: Display clip from 'The Prestige' with a helpful quote [00:16:42-00:16:52]

 

Speaker: Christopher Nolan has made a name for himself with his latest blockbusters such as the Batman trilogy and Inception [3]. But he was displaying his techniques long before he was noticed by Warner Brothers in films like 'Following' 'Insomnia' and 'Memento' [2]. But after Christopher Nolan completed Batman Begins he went on to film 'The Prestige' [1] which displays a lot of his themes and techniques, this is the film I have chosen to discuss in more detail. In 'The Prestige' [1] Christopher Nolan uses the theme of loss in a different way which challenges the audience, the narrative is non linear so the audience is left in the dark for most of the film which is a narrative device. In this film both the main characters has suffered loss. Robert Angier (Jackman) suffers the loss of his wife who drowned in one of their acts, this sends him down the path of revenge. Alfred Borden (Bale) is the more psychological and ... because this character suffers loss in a deeper sense, he suffers the loss of his wife who committed suicide, loss of his fingers after being shot off in an act, loss of his brother and lastly the loss of identity. In order to create the perfect magic trick one of the Borden twins doesn't have their true identity, they take turns playing a part, 'Total devotion to his art, utter self sacrifice' [1]

Projector: 

Speaker: The film that got Christopher Nolan noticed by film production companies was 'Memento' [2] which is another one of the films I have chosen to help me argue whether or not Christopher Nolan is an auteur, and like with his other films the theme of loss is used as a narrative device to make the film interesting. Again this film is non linear and the main character has suffered different types of loss. Leonard (Pearce) has suffered the loss of his wife who was murdered and this sends him on a revenge mission, much like Robert Angier in 'The Prestige'. But also Leonard has suffered the loss of his memory, when he and his wife was being attacked he got hit on the head which resulted in him suffering with short term memory loss. This plays a big part in the narrative and the development of the character, because 'The noir-ish indie feature starred Guy Pearce as an amnesiac man who relies on Polaroids and copious note-taking while seeking vengeance.' [4]. This results in Leonard never truly knowing the whole truth and will accept whatever truth is in front of him. As I mentioned earlier Christopher Nolan's continuing work with his Brother, Jonathan could be another piece of evidence for Christopher Nolan being an auteur. A lot of Nolan's films he has either written with his brother or like 'The Prestige' wrote the screenplay for an adaptation of the novel. Christopher Nolan seems to find work that suits his style perfectly and then he puts his own twist on filming.

 

To what extent are the characters in the Urban Stories you have viewed victims of a more dominant social and political ideology?

To what extent are the characters in the Urban Stories you have viewed victims of a more dominant social and political ideology?

In both films I have studied 'La Haine' and 'Princesas' there is a recurring theme of race. In 'La Haine' the 3 main characters Vinz, Said and Hubert could be argued that they are victims of social ideologies, this is shown through the scene where the media show up to get interviews about the riots and this is shot like a documentary/News style. Also it is shot from a high angel to show that they have a loss of power and deemed as animals in cages. I could argue that they have been made victims by themselves and the media in this situation. But not all the character's ideologies are the same there is always a more violent one in a group, in this group it is Vinz because he likes action films and the violence in them where as Hubert is different. This is shown when Hubert is in his room and through the mise en scene the audience gains his view on race and equality. The theme of a violent person in each group is relevant in the police force as well, it could be argued that there is two scenes where this is shown, one where Hubert and Said are getting tortured by the police and the trainee doesn't agree, and also the scene at the end with the police and the gun, he ends up accidentally killing Vinz. In 'La Haine' people are victims of Political ideologies because the people living in the projects are separated because they are viewed as not 'being French' but also the police are put in a difficult position because they are sent to keep the peace in an environment that maybe they don't agree with, this is shown when a police officer steps in and helps Hubert and Vinz after Said starts something in the hospital.
In 'Princesas' the social ideologies are that the women are not proud of what they do for a living, this is shown when Caye doesn't tell her family what she does for a living. But these women see it as the easiest way to get women and also the believe they have all the power because they say how much, when and where but in reality they don't have power because they want the business, this is shown through Caye's character, she wants a boob job to get more business she does her hair differently because it helps with business. The political ideologies in the film are complicated because prostitutes can advertise for business in the newspaper, it is more accepted but the political ideologies in the film deal with the issue and being an immigrant and what they have to go through, this is shown through Zulema and who she has to sleep with and put up with to get working papers.
In 'City of God' social ideologies are that you will not get anywhere if you are not in a gang and protected by them, this is seen through the montage scene when people are signing up to the two different gangs, these people are of all ages. Also in this film there is a more violent character which is Li'l Ze, this is seen throughout the whole film, and the montage sequence where he is just shooting people. But Li'l Ze obsessed with power and he can not get enough, this is shown through the scene when he is talking to Benny about getting more power you have to take out the best and through the mise en scene and dialogue the audience learns that drug dealer with all the gold is the one that needs to be taken out. But Rocket is a different type of character in urban stories, there seems to be no escape from the gangs and that lifestyle but Rocket manages to make it out in a sense. Rocket grow up with an older brother and a caring father, both of these men didn't want him to go into the life of crime, so Rocket preferred to shot a camera than a gun. Becoming a photographer was his way out and he worked hard to get there, starting from the bottom. the political ideologies in this film are similar to the social ones in a way that the police are corrupt and think about what would happen if they committed the crimes, also the police don't go after the gang leaders or drug dealers. In 'City of God' the political ideologies are different to the other films, this is shown through the corrupt cop such as Melon Head. Melon head has been corrupt from the start asking the other police what they would do with the money that the Tender trio stole, but his corruption is shown through the scene just after 'Uncle Sam' Charlie sold the guns to both sides of the war, Melon Head profited from the war which he should have been stopping.