Presentation Script 3

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 Batman Begins Christopher Nolan 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 some 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 doesn't have his true identity, as the twins take turns playing either Alfred Borden or Fallon. In this scene you have seen Borden confronts 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 becuase 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 suffers with short term memory loss, when he and his wife was being attacked he got hit on the head. 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] (01:13:08- 01:18:49)

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 cannot see his children because of his wife. Christopher Nolan leaves the ending up to the audience and makes them question what reality is. Much like with 'Memento' [2] which makes the audience question whether they can trust their own memories,is it fact or has it been distorted over time and with other people's influence 'Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.' 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 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 she 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. Aldo his use of montage to almost fill in the gaps that the audience do not know, in this sequence it is jumping through time from the past to the present to explain and gain knowledge in both times, this is similar to 'The Prestige' [1].

Speaker: From the description of an auteur and the evidence that I have shown you, I do believe that Christopher Nolan is an auteur.

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