Christopher Nolan: The New whiz Kid

If you haven't seen Memento, you should. If you haven't seen Batman Begins, a curse on your house. If you don't see The Prestige, you will miss seeing one of Hollywood's finest up-and-comer ascend to greatness. Spielberg created the modern fairy tales - the triumph of the morality and honor against the corrupt, Lucas pioneered the sci-fi/fantasy adventure, Scorsese ripped open the seedy underbelly of modern American, Coppolla did a lot of drugs, and Christopher Nolan has stamped out his place in the brooding male protagonists dragging forth their dark psychological turmoil. I do not think we should underestimate this man as a future leader and legend of American cinema. This is not to say that his scripts are the finest, they don't have to be, or that ever twist and turn is unexpected, that's not the point. Christopher Nolan is a great director because he pulls the audience into the story through the use of his actors. It is obvious that he, much like Scorsese, views his actors as the best asset of the story. It doesn't matter how campy or ridiculous the scene seems on paper, it always seems believable and palatable on screen.

Last Thursday I walked into the small art house cinema, the first to take my seat at fifteen minutes 'till curtain, and I wondered how many people would actually show up to see a Thursday night preview of The Prestige. Low and behold, every seat in the theater was filled by the fading of the lights. (leaving me crunched up in my seat) As the film began and the audience calmed, I knew the anticipation was high, no audience quiets that quickly unless they have great hopes. I knew I was going to like the film from the beginning because I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Sure, you could guess that there were twists in the first five minutes, but even so you wanted to know how it all unfolded. It wasn't that I was shocked or grasped in suspense, I was mesmerised by good filmmaking. Nolan knows how to put on a show and hold that level of excitement throughout, which is why he is someone to watch. It's not always the story but how it's told. From the level of excited chatter after the film and the number of people who sat through the credits, I would say that most everyone agreed with me.

Of course, I can not slight his actors either. It is unfair to present it as a purely auteurist force, it rarely ever is. The combination of Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, and Michael Caine was absolutely spot on. Not to mention the cameos by David Bowie and Andy Serkis. I think that one of Nolan's best attributes is knowing how to step back and let the actors unleash their performances. This is more than obvious in Memento, where Guy Pierce seduces the audience, propelling every moment. Unfortunately, I don't think that Nolan's understanding of femininity is as thorough. He and his male actors really sink their teeth into the darkness of the male characters' psyche but when it comes to the women, he is pretty much at a loss. Most of the time they play confused bystanders to the tormented protagonist or, as in Memento, the quintessential femme fatal.

The reason I do not discount this against him as much as I wish I could is two fold: one, his experience has been as a male and he probably thinks that women have some sort of mysterious vision of life that he will never understand and two, pretty much all Hollywood films play to this male-centric vision - it is not a problem specific to him, misperseption of the "other" is a social universality. Don't get me wrong, I want there to be change and I deeply dislike the vision of "otherness" especially in terms of gender because it is probably the most widely felt bias - male-centrism suppresses the views of over half the population of the world. But this is an entirely different issue.

Anyway, the point is that Christopher Nolan has what it takes. He's not perfect, he's not revolutionary, but he has that something to make Hollywood happy. Plus, he likes Batman...which automatically makes him great in my book.