Thesis advisor: John Michalczyk / Despite a long affiliation with film dating back to the French New Wave, existentialism has remained a fascination reserved for art film producers and intellectual viewers for decades. In the early twenty-first century, director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy marked the first time existentialism bubbled over from niche art films into the most blatant form of popular culture: the summer blockbuster. This analysis explores Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as up-to-date pictures of modern existentialism, embodied by Bruce Wayne’s journey through fear, chaos and rebirth, mirroring the existentialist advancement through uncertainty to freedom and self-creation. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Constas / Thesis advisor: Brian Braman / The literary character of Batman, first introduced by Action Comics in 1939, has been reincarnated several times in popular culture through graphic novels, radio, video games, television shows, and movies (Boxer). Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, however, portray only a fraction of the episodes and villains presented in the comic books, while reflecting on universal cultural, psychological, mythological, and social themes, archetypes, and conflicts. In an interview with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Nolan explains that he was trying to portray Batman as an extraordinary character in the fabric of an ordinary city with familiar traits that would be recognizable to the audience. The theatrical Batman, with high-tech devices and powerful combat tactics, creates a stunning contrast against the dismal background of Gotham. Nolan designed Gotham in this way to remind the public that “[i]n America we take for granted a stability to our class and social structure that has never been sustained elsewhere in the world. In other words, this sort of thing has happened in countries all over the world, why not here? And why not now” (Foundas)? While he acknowledges that his movies are open to numerous political, religious, philosophical, and economical interpretations, on a deeper level, Nolan seems to have wanted to create these movies as a response to this eternal struggle of society against the forces of chaos and injustice, part of the inherent conflict of the human condition. Nolan also addresses the numerous factors that contribute to the incitement of such chaos, including government censorship, lying, and covert violence, which, paradoxically, are often used as justifications for preserving the social order. Several of the aspects of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises are applicable to modern society; others are influenced by monumental historical events. One of the crucial themes of Nolan’s trilogy is the search to understand what it truly means to fulfill the role of the Batman, that is, the role of a guardian of order and justice against the forces of chaos and injustice. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy Honors Program. / Discipline: Philosophy.

In 2008, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight became the most commercially successful comic book adaptation to date. His film, which highlights the humanity and fallibility of Batman, builds on a long character history while also functioning as an individual work. Nolan's depiction of Batman, which follows a long progression towards postmodernism in graphic novel versions of the character, is just one of multiple filmic superhero representations in recent years to depict a darker side of the "superhero" mythos. These films highlight the humanity and fallibility of these heroic figures and place their actions under scrutiny. In Nolan's two Batman films, this approach allows the central character to reflect the moral complexity of postmodern society. As a result of his humanity, Batman must sometimes choose between two negative outcomes; as he does so, he places various moral systems under pressure and tests them. When Batman makes decisions, he must discard some values in favor of others, and in the process, he reveals his personal priorities. Through the decisions he makes in critical moments in the films, Nolan's Batman acts against "traditional" Batman archetypes which suggest that the hero's actions consistently adhere to one of the following principles: a lust for revenge, a desire to prevent future harm, or a vow not to kill. What eventually emerges as Batman's guiding principle in these latest films is not an ethical system per se, but rather a simple desire to thwart the goals of his enemies. Through this oppositional morality, Batman has the moral flexibility to avoid the dangerous ethical extremes of his enemies. This approach to crime also places the superhero's morality in the hands of his enemies, leading Batman to make troubling decisions as he attempts to stop the villains. Because Batman follows no single moral code consistently, the only way he ultimately differentiates himself from the villains of Gotham is through his belief in the city's potential for good, a belief which all of his enemies have abandoned.

Submitted by Pós-Com Pós-Com (pos-com@ufba.br) on 2013-11-01T14:25:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas-Ravazzano-Batista.pdf: 655673 bytes, checksum: 7f161585f1fcc8a0b8c638e9f8b5a322 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Alda Lima da Silva (sivalda@ufba.br) on 2013-11-29T18:46:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas-Ravazzano-Batista.pdf: 655673 bytes, checksum: 7f161585f1fcc8a0b8c638e9f8b5a322 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-11-29T18:46:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas-Ravazzano-Batista.pdf: 655673 bytes, checksum: 7f161585f1fcc8a0b8c638e9f8b5a322 (MD5) / CNPQ / O presente trabalho visa discutir como um diretor inserido nas práticas produtivas hollywoodianas ainda é capaz de criar um universo fílmico próprio ao longo de sua filmografia, usando como objeto de análise os filmes do diretor Christopher Nolan. Para tal fim, recorre-se aos trabalhos de David Bordwell, entre outros autores, que aferem a prosperidade do cinema americano justamente pela tentativa de uma coexistência entre a conformidade do modelo hollywoodiano e a visão artística dos realizadores. Com o objetivo de confirmar a existência de uma unidade nos filmes realizados por Nolan, o trabalho irá analisar três filmes do diretor sob a perspectiva teórico-analítica denominada poética do filme de modo a demonstrar que os programas poéticos de estruturação das obras do cineasta se valem de elementos bastante similares.

Auditivt berättande är någonting som Christopher Nolan arbetar mycket med och Shepard-ton är en teknik som han har utnyttjat speciellt mycket i tre av sina största filmer, The Dark Knight (2008), Dunkirk (2008) och Interstellar(2014), Gemensamt använder alla filmerna Shepard-tonen, genom och jämsides med andra ljud för att kommunicera till tittaren om miljön, känslor som uttrycks i scenerna och själva berättelsen. Det grundläggande jag har undersökt är om Shepard-tonen är mer än en ljudteknik, utan också en effektiv berättarteknik. För att jag skulle kunna besvara frågan så gjorde jag en analys av nyckelscenerna från dessa tre filmer. I min analys så har jag sammanfattat att Shepard-tonen leder tittaren till en klimax och att den följer Branigans narrativa schema. Den tar inte bort fokuset från vad vi ser utan leder omedvetet tittarna genom det narrativa. Shepard-tonen är ett verktyg som kommunicerar känslor, information och narrativa symboler i berättelsen.

Nonlinear films display unconventional narratives that leave ambiguous endings that create rewatchability, making audiences want to rewatch and review the films. These films also create conversation on social media outlets and infiltrate discussion on popular culture. This rhetorical analysis examines narrative structure, narrative archetypes, and paratextuality of three nonlinear Christopher Nolan films: Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet. By examining how these different forms of narrative display the moral messaging and structure within each film, this analysis provides context in how nonlinear narratives promote rewatchability and create continuous paratexts. Through Nolan's films, nonlinear film styles create more than rewatchability as Nolan specifically uses narrative archetypes to create character archetypes. The character archetypes produce multiple narratives that allow different viewpoints for audiences. These three different films also explain that there is a thin line between ambiguous endings and rewatchability for these types of films.

Plusieurs films américains des années 2000 (Mulholland Drive et INLAND EMPIRE de David Lynch, The Virgin Suicides de Sofia Coppola, Memento de Christopher Nolan, The Pledge de Sean Penn, Broken Flowers de Jim Jarmusch et Zodiac de David Fincher) opèrent une remise en question de la fonction, du fonctionnement et de la représentation des indices sur lesquels s’appuient tant la littérature que le cinéma policiers. Ces films, qui reprennent certains codes du genre sans être tous à proprement parler des « films policiers », ont pour point commun de mettre en scène une enquête qui n’aboutit pas et qui se retourne contre l’enquêteur jusqu’à ébranler son identité. Ils font ainsi écho aux récits de détection dits métaphysiques (The Crying of Lot 49 de Thomas Pynchon, City of Glass de Paul Auster...) : l’indice, loin de permettre la clôture du récit, devient le moyen de son ouverture. À sa juste interprétation succède le foisonnement des lectures et des histoires possibles. Autrefois transparent, il se fait opaque ; de fluide, sa circulation devient accidentée – ce à quoi correspondent de nouvelles manières de le filmer. Les codes du genre policier visant à marquer l’indice tout en favorisant sa lisibilité et l’identification avec l’enquêteur (insert en gros plan, raccord-regard, faible profondeur de champ…) sont détournés selon diverses stratégies : inversion, exagération, etc. Celles-ci ont pour effet de déjouer les attentes des spectateurs et de les rendre inquiets en rétablissant l’incertitude fondamentale de la littérature policière, que le cinéma policier tend à minorer, tout en la mettant au service de projets esthétiques par ailleurs très différents les uns des autres. / A few American films released between 2000 and 2007 (David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE, Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Christopher Nolan’s Memento, Sean Penn’s The Pledge, Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers and David Fincher’s Zodiac) question the function, inner workings and representation of the clues on which detective fiction and film rely. These movies, which take up certain tropes of the genre without necessarily being detective films per se, all revolve around an investigation which is left incomplete and eventually turns against the investigator, to the point of shattering his or her sense of identity. They thus follow in the footsteps of metaphysical detective fiction (novels such as Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Paul Auster’s City of Glass), in that the clue, instead of bringing about the closure of the narrative, becomes the instrument of its open-endedness. Its one correct interpretation is replaced by a proliferation of possible readings and stories. Once transparent, it turns opaque; once fluid, its circulation becomes problematic – which leads to new ways of filming it. The codes that detective films use to point out the clue, increase its legibility and foster identification with the investigator (close-up insert, eyeline match, shallow focus…) are subverted through a number of strategies such as inversion and exaggeration. These aim to deceive the spectator’s expectations and to unsettle him or her by reinstating the fundamental uncertainty of detective fiction, which detective films normally tend to repress, and which is here incorporated into aesthetic projects that otherwise differ widely.

This study aims to analyse the mediation of cultural memory in Christopher Nolan’s newest production Dunkirk. Furthermore, the audiences are supposed to identify and create meaning from cultural memories they have not inherited. This problem will therefore be analysed in relation to the mediation of cultural memory. A critical discourse analysis will mark the cornerstone of a methodical analysis model, followed by a semiotic textual analysis. Both the discourse and semiotic analysis will be preceded by a socio historical theory of contemporary ideology.    Dunkirk assumes the form of a popular-cultural text itself, and will therefore be analysed as such. With the help of cultural-historical concepts such as identity creation and collective, cultural and prosthetic memory the study in question will supply a relevant contribution through analysis and result. The result itself concluded that Nolan dedicated his depiction of the events at Dunkerque to the people and civilians.  Through heavily romanticised depictions of civilian efforts, small boats in focus, and the intimate narratives of the soldiers’ struggles, the identification easily cements itself in the audience through sheer emotional investment with the characters and the intricate social hierarchies they produce through isolation and exclusion. In relation to mediating a cultural memory through popular-culture film, these possibilities of identification also create possibilities of prosthetic memories to develop, through which audiences undertake cultural memories they are not entitled to by heritage.

I denna uppsats undersöks den visuella gestaltningen av Gotham City i regissören Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Trilogy med hjälp av en komparativ analysmetod. De berättelser som utspelat sig i Gotham och Batmans relation till staden har genom åren givit den en viss karaktär. Gotham har framförallt varit platsen där brott begås och Batman bekämpar dem. Dessa karaktärsdrag har i ett antal filmer gestaltats av en mängd olika personer inom i stort sätt alla visuella medier som existerar, alla med sin egen vision av hur staden ser ut. I tidiga filmtolkningar så var gestaltningen av staden återhållsam medan den i senare gestaltats som en dystopisk mardröm. När Nolan tog sig an Batmans värld valde han istället att förankra sin vision i realismen. Men när trilogin ses i sin helhet blir det tydligt att gestaltningen av staden skiljer sig åt mellan filmerna och att varje film visar upp en ny sida av den. Med en syn på Nolans konstnärskap som grundar sig i auteurteorin men med urban studies som huvudsakliga teoretiska perspektiv undersöks i denna uppsats hur gestaltningarna av staden skiljer sig åt mellan filmerna, hur dessa skillnader påverkar vår uppfattning av staden och filmernas narrativ samt i vilket utsträckning gestaltningarna är ett resultat av Nolans vision.

Hard Science-fiction shares a close relationship with the element of spectacle. This is especially apparent in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), a film based in realistic science and emotional appeal. Nolan makes use of creating a team comprised of creative minds with different backgrounds. This includes theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, and composer Hans Zimmer. Together, the four develop a film that focuses on three main facets of science: time dilation, black holes, and dimensions. Incorporating these elements based in the historical world gives Interstellar its classification as hard science-fiction, a genre based more solidly in realistic science than classical science-fiction. Thorne serves as an executive producer and advisor to all matters scientific, Zimmer composes the score to accompany and intensify the moments of spectacle, and the Nolan brothers serve to create the plot behind Interstellar. The film’s spectacle can be seen throughout, notably in the “Miller’s Planet” and “Gargantua” scenes. Nolan also incorporates Welsh Poet Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” to exemplify the film’s theme of perseverance against increasing odds. It is through these elements that Interstellar serves itself as an exemplary film for showcasing the relationship between the nature of hard science-fiction and spectacle.