Read more
From Following (1998) to Interstellar (2014), Nolan's films have explored the philosophical concerns of cinema articulated through a distinctive cerebral style that is marked by a frequent experimentation with non-linear storytelling, and yet remains integrated within classical Hollywood narrative and genre frameworks. Through the contextualization and close readings of each of his films, this collection brings together academic work from a range of disciplines to examine the director's central themes and preoccupations - memory, time, trauma, masculinity and identity - whilst also offering analyses of otherwise marginalized aspects of his work, such as the function of music, video games and the impact of IMAX and other new technologies.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Foreword: Are You Watching Closely?, by Will Brooker
Introduction: Dreaming a Little Bigger, Darling, by Stuart Joy
1. Developing an Auteur Through Reviews: The Critical Surround of Christopher Nolan, by Erin Hill-Parks
2. Cinephilia Writ Large: IMAX in Christopher Nolan's
The Dark Knight and
The Dark Knight Rises, by Allison Whitney
3. Nolan's Immersive Allegories of Filmmaking in
Inception and
The Prestige, by Jonathan Olson
4. Saints, Sinners and Terrorists: The Women of Christopher Nolan's Gotham, by Tosha Taylor
5.
Memento's Postmodern Noir Fantasy: Place, Domesticity and Gender Identity, by Margaret A. Toth
6. Men in Crisis: Christopher Nolan, Un-truths and Fictionalising Masculinity, by Peter Deakin
7. Representing Trauma: Grief, Amnesia and Traumatic Memory in Nolan's New Millennial Films, by Fran Pheasant-Kelly
8. 'The dream has become their reality': Infinite Regression in Christopher Nolan's
Memento and
Inception, by Lisa K. Perdigao
9. Revisiting the Scene of the Crime: Insomnia and the Return of the Repressed, by Stuart Joy
10. 'You keep telling yourself what you know, but what do you believe?': Cultural Spin, Puzzle Films and Mind Games in the Cinema of Christopher Nolan, by Sorcha Ní Fhlainn
11. Stumbling Over the Superhero: Christopher Nolan's Victories and Compromises, by Todd McGowan
12.
Inception's Singular Lack of Unity Among Christopher Nolan's Puzzle Films, by Andrew Kania
13.
Inception's Video Game Logic, by Warren Buckland
14. On the Work of the Double in Christopher Nolan's
The Prestige, by Kwasu David Tembo
15. No End in Sight: The Existential Temporality of
Following, by Erin Kealey
16. Hearing Music in Dreams: Towards the Semiotic Role of Music in Nolan's
Inception, by Felix Engel and Janina Wildfeuer
17. About Time Too: From
Interstellar to
Following, Christopher Nolan's Continuing Preoccupation with Time-Travel, by Jacqueline Furby
Index
About the author
Edited by Jacqueline Furby and Stuart Joy
