“You just can’t miss it. Leonardo Dicaprio is the lead in that movie”. I’m sure you must have heard this more than you can keep track of. Well, one may say that Christopher Nolan is the Leonardo Dicaprio when it comes to filmmakers. One just can’t miss his movies. This is the extent to which Christopher Nolan has embedded his position in Hollywood.
Best known for his mind-boggling and non-linear story-telling, Christopher Nolan was born on July 30, 1970, in London, England. Over the course of 15 exquisite years of film making, he transformed from making low-budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made.
He got acquainted with the camera at the age of 7 when he made his first short movie. He eventually joined the University College London, where he studied English literature and joined the school’s film society where he equipped himself with the skills he later utilized to make his first major debut, ‘Following’ in 1998 which was a low budget thriller. It was only uphill from here. The film’s non-linear narrative scheme was hugely appreciated which motivated Nolan to produce another classic, ‘Memento’ (2000) starring Guy Pearce, which revolved around an amnesiac man who relied on copious note taking only to seek vengeance, landing the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award nominations for best original screenplay. This was followed by another psychological thriller, ‘Insomnia’ (2002), which included big names like Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank.
The director’s career went sky high when he agreed to helm to re-launch of the comic book hero ‘The Batman’ in the movie ‘Batman Begins’(2005), starring Christian Bale, and well, the rest is history. The movie revived the batman franchise and went to earn as much as $372 million worldwide. Before moving on to a Batman sequel, Nolan released ‘The Prestige’ (2006), a story of two rival 19th-century magicians, Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, along with Scarlett Johansson. In July 2008, Nolan’s Batman sequel, The Dark Knight, opened and set the record as the highest weekend gross in the United States. The sequel went on to become as one of the best movies of the 2000s and also one of the best superhero film ever made. The movie also featured one of the greatest villains of all time, The Joker, played by Heath Ledger, who before the release, tragically passed away. He later bagged a Golden Globe and Oscar for his work, which was accepted by Nolan on his behalf.
Nolan returned to the box office with ‘Inception’ (2010), which remained the topic of discussion all throughout the year. The movie captivated the audience, starring Leonardo Dicaprio as the leader of a group of dream-traveling mercenaries. Among its many honors, the movie received four Academy Awards and eight nominations. Nolan followed Inception with the third blockbuster of the Batman trilogy, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (2012), this time starring Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy. The Batman trilogy, not only took superhero movies to a whole new level but also raised the standard of the villains, be it Joker or Bane, who enthralled the audience and imprinted themselves in the hall of fame.
Nolan put people’s thought provoking skills to work yet again with the release of ‘Interstellar’ (2014), a three-hour sci-fi epic that follows a team of astronauts seeking a new world. This movie posed a question of the fourth dimension which baffled many and gave them a topic of debate. With all these blockbusters, Nolan earned more fame and respect and hopefully he will find a new way to play with people’s minds as he expands his horizon.
Also Read : Christopher Nolan: The Cinematic Brainiac