Christopher Nolan films have a lot in common. They look absolutely spectacular, with visuals that are always pushing boundaries. His films also have really memorable scores, even if we’ve all heard the “Inception” boom a million times in every film that’s trying to be epic. Finally, he always brings big ideas to his films, from the completely iconic re-imagining of the Joker to theories on black holes. What seems to always be lacking in his films is the emotion.
Nolan has heard this criticism quite a bit over the years, and he’s finally responding.
“I try not to be obvious about it. That gives people a little more freedom to interpret the movies their way, bring what they want to it. I’ve had people write about my films as being emotionless, yet I have screened those same movies and people have been in floods of tears at the end. It’s an impossible contradiction for a filmmaker to resolve. In truth, it’s one of the things that is really exciting about filmmaking though. I seem to be making films that serve as Rorschach tests,” he said in a recent Playboy interview.
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While he brings up some interesting points, the whole “I have seen people cry!” defense is a bit anecdotal at best. And of course, we all want a little nuance in our films, but using the excuse that he gives the audiences freedom to interpret the films on their own is a bit of cop out.
Look at “Memento,” for example. The basis for the whole film is that the main character is on a mission to find the people responsible for murdering his wife. That premise alone is enough to have obvious emotional beats to it. Instead, the film leans heavily on its own gimmick and barely touches anything close to emotion. Throughout the rest of his filmography, there’s a trend where it almost seems as if a robot is constructing his films. The action scenes are fantastic, and the emotional scenes are only included when absolutely necessary and almost feel forced. It’s almost as if he wants to rush through them to get to the action.
With all that being said, Nolan is still an amazing filmmaker, and one of the creators willing to take risks each time out. Nolan also scores big at the box office every single time, so there’s really no reason for him to change his ways now. [via JoBlo]
