Christopher Nolan is a British-American film director, writer and producer whose work to date has grossed over $1 billion over his twelve feature films. In the industry, Nolan is well known for his traditional operating style such as the desire to use film stock, on location sets and physical visual effects. Nolan has worked on a variety of high budget Hollywood films, most, of which having a Sci-
Fi/Drama/Superhero genre. Nolan is also well known for his highly character driven performances, complex themes and in some cases,
Non-Linear storytelling (Wikipedia, 2015). I would consider Nolan to be one of the few Auteur Directors within Hollywood based mainly on his input into his films (although not as much as Independent Cinema directors like Jim
Jarmusch) and his consistency of cast and crew.
CREW
I have viewed a number of Christopher Nolan films including The Dark Knight trilogy (2005,
2008 & 2012) and his latest film, Interstellar (2014). Throughout all his films, I have noticed a number of similarities of which could indicate that these films were directed by Nolan and could possibly class him as an Auteur Director. One major characteristic of which identifies a
Nolan film is his consistency with crew. As with many well-known Hollywood Directors such as Stephen Spielberg, Nolan has worked on a number of films with the same crewmembers.
His regular collaborators include cinematographer Wally Pfister who has worked on seven of
Nolan’s film. Pfister has described his and Nolan’s relationship as ‘defined, quite simply, by the great respect we have for each other’ and ‘ We're also very like-minded, we share a sense of humor, and from the beginning I trust his judgement’ (Wikipedia, 2015). Nolan also collaborated with Pfister in 2014, producing Pfister’s directorial debut, Transcendence.
Another frequent Nolan collaborator is composer Hans Zimmer who has worked on five of
Nolan’s films, two of which with American Composer James Newton Howard (Batman
Begins [2005] and The Dark Knight [2008]). Zimmer describes Nolan’s input as ‘[Not getting] in the way of my imagination,’ ‘he [Nolan] works very hard at not having me confined by the mechanics of filmmaking.’ Zimmer also describes his relationship with Nolan as having a
‘great sense of trust and a great sense of balance that Chris brings to the composing process’ (TIME, 2014). Although Nolan and Zimmer have a good working relationship, after reading this article, it suggests that Nolan has general input into the feel of the music and then it is written, composed and produced by Zimmer meaning that this count against Nolan being categorised as a Auteur Director. Another collaborator with Nolan is editor Lee Smith who has worked on six of Nolan’s films since Batman Begins in 2005. Nolan described his collaborations with Smith as ‘risen to meet every technical challenge I have thrown at him’
(Flickering Myth, 2012). After reading an article, Hans Zimmer is quoted saying ‘Chris cuts his movies in his garage, (giving his films a sort of a homemade quality)’ suggesting that
Nolan has a significant input in editing the film along with Smith (TIME, 2014). Other frequent Nolan collaborators include his younger brother Jonathan Nolan who together has

written the screenplay for three films (The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and
Interstellar). Nolan has also worked with writer David S. Goyer on all of his Superhero films as well as 2013 film, Superman of which Nolan produced. Additional collaborations include working with Editor Dody Dorn and composer David Julyan on his early work. Another factor of which could make Nolan an Auteur Director is contribution not just to directing or writing but to producing is own films as well. Six of Nolan’s films are produced by himself and eight of his films are produced by his wife, Emma Thomas. Both Nolan and Thomas produce their films through production company Syncopy of which they both own respectively (Quora,
2014). Six of Nolan’s films have been produced under the banner of Syncopy including
2013’s Man of Steel leading to a total box office of just over $4 billion. Overall, by having regular crew contributors, Nolan is able to maintain his working style throughout his films and this can give special characteristics of which make Nolan’s films recognisable as his own.
However, Nolan may not be seen as an Auteur due to this mass collaborative effort on all his films. Despite having a influence of different parts of the creative process, it seems that
Nolan does not have overall control over the entire creative vision and I feel that it is impossible for him to make every decision in all aspects of the process, this of which could undermine Nolan as being a Auteur and having full creative control.
CAST
Nolan is also known for using similar cast members over different films and has also been known to hire actors from 1980’s in his films. One frequent collaborator with Nolan is veteran actor, Michael Caine who has worked with Nolan on six films including the Dark
Knight Trilogy, Inception and Interstellar. Other frequent collaborators with Nolan are
Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Trilogy), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Trilogy), Cillian
Murphy (The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception as well as Transcendence [Nolan as executive producer]) and Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar)
(Wikipedia, 2015). As with his crew, Nolan continues to hire Actors of which he has created a relationship with and this will be easier to achieve his on-screen vision. This controlling factor again would make Nolan a ‘candidate’ to be called an Auteur Director.
After watching Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Interstellar (2014), I have witness a number of similarities between how the film looks and how Nolan prefers to make his films.
One similarity between both of the films is the Genre of both of the films. Both The Dark
Knight Rises and Interstellar follow similar fictional stories with The Dark Knight focusing on the Superhero Batman and Interstellar following a futuristic style disaster film. One distinct difference however is that The Dark Knight is based on a comic book superhero whereas
Interstellar is based heavily on Science Fiction. This therefore means that although Nolan prefers to remain on fictional stories, he likes to switch between different types of story, with different characters and different situations. Both The Dark Knight and Interstellar can fit into a variety of genres including action and adventure. This switching of genre may suggest that Nolan wishes to create different films of which the audience will like and most of all make money, and this could detract him from becoming an Auteur Director. Another similarity between the two films is that they have screenplay of which are both written by
Nolan and his brother, Jonathan. Both films are also produced by Nolan and his wife Emma
Thomas as well as include usual collaborators, Hans Zimmer and Lee Smith. Although both

films were produced by the same people, particularly on the music front, both films were very different. Nolan wanted Zimmer to produce a very unique score for Interstellar, of which is completely different to the score of The Dark Knight. It has been reported that
Zimmer ’recycled’ a lot of music from the previous Dark Knight films for The Dark Knight
Rises whereas completely new music from a new direction was required for Interstellar
(Wikipedia, 2015) (Wikipedia, 2015). Both films were also shot by different
Cinematographers, with Hoyte van Hoytema taking over from long time Nolan collaborator,
Wally Pfister (due to filming his directorial debut). Although shot by different people, both
The Dark Knight and Interstellar are very much alike visually. Both films were mostly shot using 70mm IMAX cameras of which Nolan has come to love with dialogue scenes being shot in standard 35mm film due to the large amount of noise made by IMAX cameras. This allowed Nolan to shoot large scenes in high resolution and in wide-screen for both films
(space.com, 2014). Nolan is also very well known in the industry for his dislike of CGI and shoots the majority of his films on location or on sets. As a result, both films have very little in the way of CGI with the majority of The Dark Knight Rises being filmed in US cities, India and UK (IMDb, 2012) and with Interstellar being filmed in Canada, Iceland and Los Angeles
(IMDb, 2014). Both films were also filmed in studios with The Dark Knight Rises being filmed at an Airship Hangar in Bedfordshire and Interstellar being filmed at the Los Angeles
Convention Center and Warner Bro’s Studios. At both of these studio shoots, Nolan also continued to not use Green Screens of which is another dislike. Another similar feature on both films of which could class Nolan as an Auteur is himself being present at every stage of photography rather than use a Second Unit. Many modern blockbuster films will be partially shot by a second unit due to the size of the film and the limited timescale. Nolan however chooses not to and oversees every shot meaning that all the shots in both films meet
Nolan’s approval (Wikipedia, 2015). Both films also have very character driven stories of which are a recurring theme in many of Nolan’s films. Both films have specific moments where learning about the character is a key moment. This is particularly noticeable in
Interstellar when we watch lead character Matthew McConaughey watch messages from is family while up in space and during the introduction periods when he is with his family.
Intimate moments also occur throughout The Dark Knight Rises in scenes of which mostly include Michael Caine’s character, Alfred.
DIRECTOR COMPARISON
Christopher Nolan’s productions are very different to Jim Jarmusch’s productions in particularly in terms of visuals and stories. Nolan’s productions are often filmed in very large format and are naturally more large scale then Jarmusch’s. This will be mainly due to improvements in technology and bigger budgets for Nolan’s productions due to the fact that they are made for the mass market. Differenced in Technology and Budgets also mean that
Nolan’s films are often additionally lit using artificial lighting and this is particularly prevalent in studio work. Nolan can also afford to use more dramatic camera shots such as from cranes, helicopters on vehicles. This is very different to Jarmusch’s often-simple filming style. The stories that both directors tend to use are also extremely different, with Jarmusch choosing to feature mainly crime in his productions and are very much mainly drama based.
Nolan’s productions are a lot more dramatic often featuring large-scale action, pyrotechnics and violence. The music for both Nolan’s and Jarmusch’s productions are also very different, with Nolan’s music designed to make the audience feel as certain way (e.g. scared, excited)

and influence the atmosphere as certain scenes are shown. Jarmusch’s scores are often very abstract and are mainly jazz style whereas Nolan’s are very much orchestral. Jarmusch’s films tend to include a score that represents the story rather than the atmosphere created during events, and this makes it unique. A final big difference between each director’s works is the availability for visual effects in Nolan’s films. Although he prefers not to use it, Nolan has the ability to improve the visuals if need be after principal photography to quite high detail. This however was not available to as much extent during Jarmusch’s productions.
Interstellar
Christopher Nolan is well known in the industry for his relatively complex themes and stories and after watching Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises; it is proving difficult to identify what structure both the films could fit into due to the complicated story lines. After looking at each of the films storylines, I conclude that both fit into a non-linear style of film due to their often-overlapping storylines and changes in time during the course of the film.
Interstellar has a number of references of which makes it a Non-Linear story, most commonly due to time and the way the main character moves through the story, bouncing back between the future and the past. Interstellar begins by introducing us to the main character Cooper (Played by Matthew McConaughey), a former NASA pilot and now farmer.
Throughout the first 30 to 45 minutes, we learn a lot about the current situation of earth
(increasing crop failures/changing climate) and how that is effecting Cooper, his family and the community of which his lives. We also have a scene of which suggests that there house is being haunted by a ‘Ghost’ of which turns out to be a unknown intelligence sending out coded messages using gravitational waves. After translating this code, it leads Cooper to a secret NASA facility of which is lead by Professor John Brand (Michael Caine). At about 50 minutes into the film, we see Prof. Brand explain to Cooper the entire situation of earth at the current moment and goes on to explain NASA’s plan of evacuating earth and move people to a new planet, near black hole. Cooper is then sent out to scout three planets of which could be habitable and which the human race could move to. After scouting the three planets, we see a scene of which Cooper detaches into a black hole. During this scene of which happens around two hours into the film, Cooper emerges in a inter-dimensional world of which he is able to see his house and his now grown up daughter. Cooper then realises that the ‘ghost’ in there house was actually humans in the future of which constructed this space in order for him to communicate with his daughter and send a message to evacuate earth to one of the three planets. The final half hour of the films sees
Cooper wake up on a NASA spaceship where he reunites with his now elderly daughter. This highly complex storyline of which sees the main character bounce between different locations and different times makes Interstellar undoubtedly non-linear. (Wikipedia, 2015)
(Wikipedia, 2015)
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises can also be classed as a Non-Linear film but this time because of the way the story flows and of which does not have any distinct turning points. The Dark Knight
Rises also has a number of sub-plots with other characters. As this is the third film of the
Dark Knight Trilogy, it was not needed by Nolan to have the first half hour dedicated to introducing us to the characters, as most of them were already known. The first half hour sees us get introduced again to the storyline left off after the last film and we begin with

Police Commissioner Gordon who explains what has happened to Batman and what is being done in Gotham after the death of Harvey Dent. We are then quickly introduced to cat burglar, Selina Kyle (played by Anne Hathaway) before being introduced to the films main protagonist, Bane (played by Tom Hardy). After about 40 minutes, we are then introduced back to Bruce Wayne and we are shown the current situation of his company and what the
Wayne Enterprises’ latest project has been. We also learn of his retirement from being
Batman and how Alfred (played by Michael Caine) wishes him to stay like that. Meanwhile we see Bane planning on destroying Gotham by stealing the Wayne Enterprises latest project of which could be turned into a nuclear weapon. After escaping a prison of which
Bane put Batman after their last encounter, Batman enlists the help of Selina Kyle as well as others to stop the bombs detonation. A plot turn then occurs around two hours into the film in which sees one of Batman’s allies turn against him, and intends to detonate the bomb.
This is then stopped when Batman hauls the bomb over ocean and it detonates. In around the last 20 minutes of the film, Batman is presumed dead and honoured as a hero. Bruce
Wayne is then seen in Florence with Selina Kyle and the Batcave is inherited by Police
Officer Blake who previously helped Batman. Due to the way the story is timed, no turning points happen during the specified times on the Three-Act structure meaning that the film is non-linear. The relationships between the differing characters also mean that there is not the traditional one Antagonist and one Protagonist. (Wikipedia, 2015) (Wikipedia, 2015)
After looking extensively into Jim Jarmusch’s work, I can conclude that can be seen as an Auteur due to the significant input he has on the different areas of production and in particularly, the creator of the story.
His consistent use of crew and his way of creating a story not aimed at pleasing the mass-market means that he has a distinctly different film making style compared to contemporary mass-market directors. His very unique style of filming and story telling makes his work highly recognisable and this would allow him to be called an Auteur Director.
Although making films to please a mass-market, I feel that the way Nolan makes his films, the way they are written and the alternation between non-linear and linear narratives make
Nolan very unique in the crowded industry that is Hollywood directors. His extensive input into the story, production and his dedication to production by overseeing every shot could class
Nolan as an Auteur Director. However, although he has an influence at different stages through using the same crew time and time again, I feel that this may only be a general overview and it would be up to the crew member to do the work, based on Nolan’s vision.

Although both Chris and Jim can be classed as an Auteur Director, I don’t believe that
Auteurs exist. I feel that it is simply impossible for a director to make every creative decision in the making of a film and a director is not an expert in every technical element on the production of a film. Although the director might have an influence on different stages of production, I feel that the director does not make every decision like a author of a book would and this means that Auteurs cannot exist in the film industry. I believe it is too much of a collaborative effort for a director to be called the sole Auteur in film production.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014. Auteur Theory. [Online]
Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44609/auteur-theory
[Accessed 8 January 2015].
Flickering Myth, 2012. Dark Knight: Lee Smith talks about Christopher Nolan. [Online]
Available at: http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2012/12/dark-knight-lee-smith-talksabout.html
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
IMDb, 2012. The Dark Knight Rises - Filming Locations. [Online]
Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836/locations?ref_=tt_dt_dt
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
IMDb, 2014. Interstellar - Filming Locations. [Online]
Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/locations?ref_=tt_dt_dt
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
Quora, 2014. What does Warner Bros, Syncopy or Legendary do in a film?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.quora.com/What-does-Warner-Bros-Syncopy-or-Legendary-do-ina-film
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
Rotten Tomatoes, 2015. Jim Jarmusch. [Online]
Available at: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/162653074/?search=Jim Jarmusch
[Accessed 9 January 2015]. space.com, 2014. 'Interstellar' in IMAX: Christopher Nolan's Lessons on Space Film-making
(Exclusive). [Online]
Available at: http://www.space.com/27742-interstellar-imax-featurette-exclusive.html
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
TIME, 2014. Hans Zimmer on Interstellar and Working With Christopher Nolan. [Online]
Available at: http://time.com/3579481/hans-zimmer-christopher-nolan-interstellar/
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. Breathless (1960 Film). [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathless_(1960_film)
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. Christopher Nolan. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nolan
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. Christopher Nolan - Method. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nolan#Method
[Accessed 15 January 2015].

Wikipedia, 2015. Christopher Nolan - Reccuring Collaborators. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nolan#Recurring_collaborators
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. Interstellar - Plot. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_(film)#Plot
[Accessed 16 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. Interstellar - Sound Design & Music. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_(film)#Sound_design_and_music
[Accessed 15 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. Jim Jarmusch. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jarmusch
[Accessed 9 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. Nonlinear narrative. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_narrative
[Accessed 16 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. The Dark Knight Rises - Filming. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_Rises#Filming
[Accessed 16 January 2015].
Wikipedia, 2015. The Dark Knight Rises - Music. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_Rises#Music
[Accessed 15 January 2015].