The fictional Christopher Nolan / by Todd McGowan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGowan, Todd.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nolan, Christopher, 1970---Criticism and interpretation.

Nolan, Christopher.

Nolan, Christopher, 1970-.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

x, 220 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2012.

Summary:

From Memento and Insomnia to the Batman films, The Prestige, and Inception, lies play a central role in every Christopher Nolan film. Characters in the films constantly find themselves deceived by others and are often caught up in a vast web of deceit that transcends any individual lies. The formal structure of a typical Nolan film deceives spectators about the events that occur and the motivations of the characters. While Nolan's films do not abandon the idea of truth altogether, they show us how truth must emerge out of the lie if it is not to lead us entirely astray.

The Fictional Christopher Nolan discovers in Nolan's films an exploration of the role that fiction plays in leading to truth. Through close readings of all the films through Inception, Todd McGowan demonstrates that the fiction or the lie comes before the truth, and this priority forces us to reassess our ways of thinking about the nature of truth. Indeed, McGowan argues that Nolan's films reveal the ethical and political importance of creating fictions and even of lying. While other filmmakers have tried to discover truth through the cinema, Nolan is the first filmmaker to devote himself entirely to the fictionality of the medium, and McGowan discloses how Nolan uses its tendency to deceive as the basis for a new kind of philosophical filmmaking. He shows how Nolan's insistence on the priority of the fiction aligns his films with Hegel's philosophy and understands Nolan as a thoroughly Hegelian filmmaker. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: the ethics of the lie

The snare of truth: Following and the perfect patsy

Memento and the desire not to know

The dirty cop: Insomnia and the art of detection

The banal superhero: the politicized realism of Batman begins

The violence of creation in The prestige

The hero's form of appearance: the necessary darkness of The dark knight

A plea for the abandonment of reality in Inception

Conclusion: lying without consequence.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780292737822

0292737823

9780292737839

0292737831

OCLC:

764591490