Formal FIlm Study (Q2): Christopher Nolan

I decided to do my formal film study on director Christopher Nolan. When I was younger I had seen the film The Prestige and Batman Begins. These came out in 2005 and 2006 so I was about ten years old when I went to see these films. I had no idea they were Nolan films because I had no idea about films back then. All I knew was that I really enjoyed these movies at the time. When the Dark Knight came out, that's when I found out that he had directed those films that I had seen and Memento (which I had seen a little bit after I had seen Inception). But once I had realized who the director was, I was amazed by his talent. So I decided to study Memento, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises.

The style of Nolan's films are very noticeable. If you watch a Nolan film, you can tell it's him. But out of these three films, I feel like TDKR (The Dark Knight Rises) and inception are closer in style than Memento. Let's start with Memento. This is Nolan's oldest film of the three and definitely had the smallest budget. Memento had an "indie" feel to it. It seemed a little grainy. The flashbacks were in black and white, during the colored scenes, the colors seemed faded. Overall, it was a dark film. A lot of close shots in Memento. Since he had a small budget for this movie, it seemed to come out that way, but for this type of movie, it seemed to work. It was a thriller where no CGI was needed. Just pure camera work and actrors. With TDKR and Inception, Christopher Nolan had a huge budget to work with. If i could describe the style of these two films in one word, the word would be massive. These two films are massive. What I mean by that is that the action is huge and when it comes to setting, he uses an enormous visual scope to portray where these characters are located. For example in TDKR, when they're in Scotland in the beginning, the setting looks beautiful and enormous. There are also a lot of air shots filming the city of Gotham. Same goes for Inception. In Inception they are in a lot of different settings, including places of their dreams, which includes a lot of CGI. But these places are shown in a grand scale. Both Memento and Inception have a non-linear story line, a common thing that Nolan likes to do in his films. Also talking about the style of these films, Nolan does a lot of fast cuts and even has people talking still while he jumps to the next scene. The technology is pretty stellar in these three films. In Memento the most important technological aspect is the editing. Because of the non-linear story line, this is crucial. I feel that cinematography in TDKR and Inception are very important just because they are grand scale films. These films portray revenge, redemption, and reality. The three R's. I feel like in these three films, the characters always have psychological problems. In Memento, the protagonist has short term memory loss. In Inception, Leonardo Dicaprio was obsessed with his wife and reality. And in TDKR, Bruce Wayne has lost everyone he's loved and feels like he owes everything to his beloved city.

The overall big thing I have seen in these films is that all his characters have an obsession. Bruce Wayne is obsessed with being Batman. In memento, he is obsessed with finding his wife's killer. And in Inception, Leo is obsessed with his wife, going back to his kids, and realizing reality. Overal Nolan's films make you think a lot.

MYST #2 Lincoln (Q2) 3.5 out of 5

I found myself watching a lot of movies over break, and one of the most memorable ones was Lincoln, directed by Spielberg and having an all-star cast, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The movie focuses on Lincoln in his final months in office as he tries to abolish slavery. I enjoyed this film very much so. Like most people in the theater  I think they thought that since it was a Spielberg film, it was going to be a huge epic adventure with tons of action, but it was the complete opposite. It was a civil war drama and it focused on the political side of the war. I expected it to be like this that's why I enjoyed it.

This film was directed by Steven Spielberg. It's different from his other epic films in a way that this film has no action. I think that he took the criticism he was receiving saying that he was trying to be like John Ford and make only epics. Obviously this film is about a huge moment in our history, but he managed to make it an actionless drama that was actually enjoyable. Daniel Day-Lewis did an amazing job portraying Abraham Lincoln. It really felt as if he became one with his character. But an actor that I thought stole the show was Tommy Lee Jones. He played an angry and radical politician and he did great. One problem I had with the film was that I felt like it didn't focus enough on Lincoln. Most of the time that he was on screen he was telling a story from the past and acting very nonchalant. I thought that Tommy Lee Jones's character was almost as equally important, and if the movie is called Lincoln, it should focus on Lincoln.

Well since being a Spielberg film, the camera work wasn't anything special. I'm speaking for myself, but when I think of old events in our history I think of a time that was very grey and not colorful, and with this film, it felt just like that, and I liked it. A lot of the times when Lincoln was on screen, the lighting was very dramatic on him, for example when he was arguing with his cabinet in the dark room or when he was at home waiting for the results of the voting, you couldn't see him because the sun was cast on him. Very dramatic. Overall i think a key thing in this movie was the lighting and color. 3.5 out of 5.

MYST #3 (Q2) The Hobbit 4 out of 5

I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings series but I enjoy them very much so. Usually I'm not a fan of fantasy movies but when I saw the first installment of the Lord of the Rings, I liked it a lot. I found myself rooting for Frodo and the rest of the fellowship. I was satisfied when the final movie ended because I thought Peter Jackson did a terrific job with the franchise overall. Then years later, Peter Jackson announced that he would be directing the Hobbit in a three film series. I saw the first installment and I was blown away. The film was shy of three hours but it didn't feel long at all. I felt like throughout the film there were no slow moments in the film. As they say it, it was action packed from start to finish. I found myself cheering for Bilbo and a lot of the characters.

A huge part about this movie that really sold  me were the visuals. Peter Jackson decided to shoot this film at 48 frames per second, two times the regular amount. Some people did not like this at all because it seems too real but I thought that it looked amazing. It looked so real, almost like you were watching a blu ray disc at the movie theater. Since it was one of Peter Jackson's fantasies, there was a lot of long shots showing all the scenery. Compared to the LOTR movies, this movie seemed a lot more colorful and bright. I think this is because The Hobbit is a children's book, but Peter Jackson made it is own. Overall this movie blew me away. 4 out of 5.