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A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan

Edited by Claire Parkinson and Isabelle Labrouillère - Contributions by Will Brooker; Warren Buckland; Gregory Frame; Lara Herring; Stella Hockenhull; Stuart Joy; Miriam Kent; Peter Krämer; Isabelle Labrouillère; Ben Lamb; Todd McGowan; Gilles Menegaldo; Kimberly A. Owczarski; Bernadette Pace; Claire Parkinson and Fran Pheasant-Kelly

A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan provides a wide-ranging exploration of Christopher Nolan's films, practices, and collaborations. From a range of critical perspectives, this volume examines Nolan's body of work, explores its industrial and economic contexts, and interrogates the director's auteur status. This volume contributes to the scholarly debates on Nolan and includes original essays that examine all his films including his short films. It is structured into three sections that deal broadly with themes of narrative and time; collaborations and relationships; and ideology, politics, and genre. The authors of the sixteen chapters include established Nolan scholars as well as academics with expertise in approaches and perspectives germane to the study of Nolan's body of work. To these ends, the chapters employ intersectional, feminist, political, ideological, narrative, economic, aesthetic, genre, and auteur analysis in addition to perspectives from star theory, short film theory, performance studies, fan studies, adaptation studies, musicology, and media industry studies.

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Lexington Books
Pages: 298 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-7936-5251-5 • Hardback • January 2023 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
978-1-7936-5253-9 • Paperback • January 2025 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
978-1-7936-5252-2 • eBook • January 2023 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Series: Critical Companions to Contemporary Directors
Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Performing Arts / Film / General, Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism

Isabelle Labrouillère is lecturer inperforming arts and film aesthetics at the ENSAV (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’AudioVisuel), Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès.

Claire Parkinson is professor of culture, communication, and screen studies at Edge Hill University.

SECTION 1: NARRATIVE AND TIME

Chapter 1. Precursor to the Puzzle: Narrational Strategies in Following

Warren Buckland

Chapter 2. ‘We Need Mirrors to Remind Ourselves of Who We Are’: Anamorphosis and the Singularity of Mirror Motifs in Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000)

Isabelle Labrouillère

Chapter 3. The Prestige, From Text to Screen: Transformation, Manipulation, Reflexivity

Gilles Menegaldo

Chapter 4. The Trauma Chronotype in Nolan’s Dunkirk and Inception: Time, Space and Trauma

Fran Pheasant-Kelly

Chapter 5. Back From the Future: Tenet and the Politics of Nachträglichkeit

Todd McGowan

SECTION 2: COLLABORATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Chapter 6. “There’s a Point Where We Just Let the Music Take Over Everything”: The Collaboration of Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer”

Bernadette Pace

Chapter 7. A “Virtual Carte Blanche”: Christopher Nolan, Warner. Bros., and Authorial Power in Contemporary Hollywood

Kimberly A. Owczarski

Chapter 8. Transnational Filmmaker, Fanboy-Auteur: Screening Nolan’s Inception in China

Lara Herring

Chapter 9. Fractured Men and Cockney Boy: Michael Caine as Star Persona in the films of Christopher Nolan

Stella Hockenhull

Chapter 10. Christopher Nolan and the Quays: Curation, Fandom and the Filmmaker

Claire Parkinson

SECTION 3: POLITICS, IDEOLOGY AND GENRE

Chapter 11. Situating Christopher Nolan’s Ideological Use of Technology: Between Romanticism and Posthumanism

Ben Lamb

Chapter 12. Dark Vision, Global Impact: Christopher Nolan, Box Office Hit Patterns, and Interstellar

Peter Krämer

Chapter 13. Mementos of the Afternoon: Christopher Nolan’s Ambiguous Debt to Maya Deren

Will Brooker

Chapter 14. “Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn”: The Politics of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy

Gregory Frame

Chapter 15. The Experimental Short Films of Christopher Nolan

Stuart Joy

Chapter 16. Catwoman in All But Name: Gender and Adaptation in Christopher Nolan’s Selina Kyle

Miriam Kent

Claire Parkinson and Isabelle Labrouillère’s collection successfully brings incisive analyses of Christopher Nolan’s auteur status and trademarks into dialogue with productive examinations of his collaborations, influences, politics, and shifting industry positions. With chapters ranging in focus from documentary and experimental shorts to landmark indies and Hollywood blockbusters, A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan is a welcome addition to contemporary film scholarship.


— Kim Wilkins, University of Oslo


A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan provides a wide-ranging exploration of Christopher Nolan's films, practices, and collaborations. From a range of critical perspectives, this volume examines Nolan's body of work, explores its industrial and economic contexts, and interrogates the director's auteur status. This volume contributes to the scholarly debates on Nolan and includes original essays that examine all his films including his short films. It is structured into three sections that deal broadly with themes of narrative and time; collaborations and relationships; and ideology, politics, and genre. The authors of the sixteen chapters include established Nolan scholars as well as academics with expertise in approaches and perspectives germane to the study of Nolan's body of work. To these ends, the chapters employ intersectional, feminist, political, ideological, narrative, economic, aesthetic, genre, and auteur analysis in addition to perspectives from star theory, short film theory, performance studies, fan studies, adaptation studies, musicology, and media industry studies.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 298 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
    978-1-7936-5251-5 • Hardback • January 2023 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
    978-1-7936-5253-9 • Paperback • January 2025 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
    978-1-7936-5252-2 • eBook • January 2023 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
    Series: Critical Companions to Contemporary Directors
    Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Performing Arts / Film / General, Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism
Author
Author
  • Isabelle Labrouillère is lecturer inperforming arts and film aesthetics at the ENSAV (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’AudioVisuel), Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès.

    Claire Parkinson is professor of culture, communication, and screen studies at Edge Hill University.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • SECTION 1: NARRATIVE AND TIME

    Chapter 1. Precursor to the Puzzle: Narrational Strategies in Following

    Warren Buckland

    Chapter 2. ‘We Need Mirrors to Remind Ourselves of Who We Are’: Anamorphosis and the Singularity of Mirror Motifs in Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000)

    Isabelle Labrouillère

    Chapter 3. The Prestige, From Text to Screen: Transformation, Manipulation, Reflexivity

    Gilles Menegaldo

    Chapter 4. The Trauma Chronotype in Nolan’s Dunkirk and Inception: Time, Space and Trauma

    Fran Pheasant-Kelly

    Chapter 5. Back From the Future: Tenet and the Politics of Nachträglichkeit

    Todd McGowan

    SECTION 2: COLLABORATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

    Chapter 6. “There’s a Point Where We Just Let the Music Take Over Everything”: The Collaboration of Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer”

    Bernadette Pace

    Chapter 7. A “Virtual Carte Blanche”: Christopher Nolan, Warner. Bros., and Authorial Power in Contemporary Hollywood

    Kimberly A. Owczarski

    Chapter 8. Transnational Filmmaker, Fanboy-Auteur: Screening Nolan’s Inception in China

    Lara Herring

    Chapter 9. Fractured Men and Cockney Boy: Michael Caine as Star Persona in the films of Christopher Nolan

    Stella Hockenhull

    Chapter 10. Christopher Nolan and the Quays: Curation, Fandom and the Filmmaker

    Claire Parkinson

    SECTION 3: POLITICS, IDEOLOGY AND GENRE

    Chapter 11. Situating Christopher Nolan’s Ideological Use of Technology: Between Romanticism and Posthumanism

    Ben Lamb

    Chapter 12. Dark Vision, Global Impact: Christopher Nolan, Box Office Hit Patterns, and Interstellar

    Peter Krämer

    Chapter 13. Mementos of the Afternoon: Christopher Nolan’s Ambiguous Debt to Maya Deren

    Will Brooker

    Chapter 14. “Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn”: The Politics of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy

    Gregory Frame

    Chapter 15. The Experimental Short Films of Christopher Nolan

    Stuart Joy

    Chapter 16. Catwoman in All But Name: Gender and Adaptation in Christopher Nolan’s Selina Kyle

    Miriam Kent

Reviews
Reviews
  • Claire Parkinson and Isabelle Labrouillère’s collection successfully brings incisive analyses of Christopher Nolan’s auteur status and trademarks into dialogue with productive examinations of his collaborations, influences, politics, and shifting industry positions. With chapters ranging in focus from documentary and experimental shorts to landmark indies and Hollywood blockbusters, A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan is a welcome addition to contemporary film scholarship.


    — Kim Wilkins, University of Oslo


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