The Official Sir Christopher Nolan Church Thread - Oscar-winning Saviour of the Celluloid

[Sharkissimo 1,978]

Don't attack me! I was only quoting Don Siegel.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Direction is more important then script!

[Sharkissimo 1,978]

Nonsense.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

The script is like the recipe. The director is the person who cooks the meal.

 

You want your steak cooked by Uwe Boll or by James Cameron?

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Neither.  Nolan. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Blessed be the Nolanites, for they shall inherit the cinema's.

[A24 5,123]

Vision and direction are often overlooked. Look at TV movie of The Shining.  It's even more intact to the original foundation as Kubrick's film, yet without the masterful storytelling. Any story told poorly is in effect a bad story.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

The great directors use the script to tell their story, rather then just tell the story thats in the script.

[publicist 4,650]

And yet i've never heard from a director that he/she was keen on directing a lackluster script for style reasons only. Even a total stylist like Hitchcock was adamant on a good story.

[A24 5,123]

 Hitchcock is very plot driven. We have to look more at Charles Laughton's The Night Of The Hunter for style driven movies of that day. Strip Alien from its style and you have another banal Ten Little Indians story. Imagine that 2001: ASO looked like every other sc-fi movie of that time. Yes, you need a good foundation but style is pretty important too. A masterful storyteller can take a simple story and turn it into something magical. See the simple cat & mouse part of NCFOM. 

[publicist 4,650]

'Night of the Hunter' has a pretty solid story. 'Alien' as well.

[A24 5,123]

Sure, it's got well written down-to-earth dialogue and good performances but if you have never seen the film and I told you the story of Alien in a pub, publicist, you would probably question my sanity. If Ridley Scott was the director of Event Horizon and he made it the same way he made Alien, the 'top 10 best sci-fi movies' would look slightly different. Yes, EH had good decors but the storytelling was practically nonexistent.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

56 minutes ago, publicist said:

And yet i've never heard from a director that he/she was keen on directing a lackluster script for style reasons only. Even a total stylist like Hitchcock was adamant on a good story.

 

Of course a good story matters, but the way it's told is often more important.

 

Who would you rather hear tell an amusing anecdote, Bill Gates of Sir Peter Ustinov?

[publicist 4,650]

Both of you come up with pretty self-serving analogies that don't really address what a proper SHOOTING script is (not some half-assed first draft). Visual stylizing and all that i give you but both of you obviously never had any experience working on stuff like this. Years before i was story consultant in tandem with a friend for something as comparably simple as 10 to 20 minute grad student movies in our local film school. I can assure you that, i. e. 'Alien' is quite a well-thought out story when you consider all the offhand characterization and i'm certain that wasn't just some improv by the actors and Scott. There has to be a groundwork there.

 

The problems with bad scripts often start with much more dire problems - like what the core of the story is and so on. And even if that is clear, the geometry is still in the mist. How much dialogue a character gets (esp. in relation to others), how to break the movie up in 80 scenes that work, when to insert a longer purely visual sequence (film music fans would be much bigger experts there, directors often find out in the editing room). 

 

A good script takes care or at least lays a groundwork for all of that. So no, i don't think that Ridley Scott would have made a brilliant movie from the 'Event Horizon' script. Would it be better? Who knows for 1998 Scott, but it's really not that simple.

 

That's why i referred to Alfred Hitchcock: he was the first real sustained stylist who used a story to hang up his favourite psychological traits, like fears etc. He still sat there with his authors sweating it out in many months. Because he knew that technique can only get you so far. Look at 'Topaz': some brilliant Hitchcock visuals but the movie still is a colossal bore. 

 

 

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Even in The Church, we understand and accept the Savior's weaknesses. 

 

Who would be the dream writer for Nolan?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Damon Lindelof!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,904]

1 hour ago, TheWhiteRider said:

Even in The Church, we understand and accept the Savior's weaknesses. 

 

Who would be the dream writer for Nolan?

 

Weaknesses? He can't be much of a saviour, then.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

3 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Damon Lindelof!

 

 

Careful!  Your standing in The Faith is not beyond question. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Strong words from someone who questioned the infallibility of the Lord!

[Sharkissimo 1,978]

5 hours ago, TheWhiteRider said:

Who would be the dream writer for Nolan?

 

Tom Stoppard.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,904]

Howzabout Alain de Botton?

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Let us give thanks for this quiet sanctuary, and pray that it remain thus, undisturbed.

 

NolanFans has been overrun by Harry Styles fans.  It's actually quite hilarious.  I realized I hadn't checked that site in years, thinking there might be some good tidbits about Dunkirk... there may be, but it's not worth enduring what else is there.  Spare yourself.

[A24 5,123]

1 hour ago, TheWhiteRider said:

I realized I hadn't checked that site in years, thinking there might be some good tidbits about Dunkirk... there may be, but it's not worth enduring what else is there.  Spare yourself.

 

Apostate!

[Naïve Old Fart 12,904]

Exactly. I've got seven daggers, upstairs (used once). Shall I go and get them?

[Wojo 2,458]

On 8/19/2016 at 2:00 PM, Richard said:

Weaknesses? He can't be much of a saviour, then.

 

Of course he can. Jesus' strength was his need to die, a weakness for anyone else. 

[mrbellamy 8,078]

7-minute Dunkirk prologue to play before Rogue One in select IMAX theaters

 

Also:
 

Quote

Nolan’s Dunkirk will feature over 100 minutes of IMAX material, according to sources close to the production.

 

 

[A24 5,123]

Maybe Nolan will give us 100 minutes of quadraphonic, chaotic battle scenes that put the audience right in the middle of the action? 

 

 

[Jay 45,826]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Another back to the camera poster. LOL

[Romão 2,469]

That's a Nolan poster alright

[A24 5,123]

On 12/6/2016 at 8:44 AM, Alexcremers said:

Maybe Nolan will give us 100 minutes of quadraphonic, chaotic battle scenes that put the audience right in the middle of the action? 

 

 

 

Based on the poster, I was right!

[Naïve Old Fart 12,904]

 

On 17/09/2016 at 0:15 PM, petaQ said:

 

Of course he can. Jesus' strength was his need to die, a weakness for anyone else. 

 

I...am a worm!

 

 

On 05/12/2016 at 11:21 PM, mrbellamy said:

7-minute Dunkirk prologue to play before Rogue One in select IMAX theaters

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll get there 7 minutes later. 

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Not his best poster.

[KK 3,310]

Lame poster.

 

I was just rewatching the teaser the other day, and I can't help but feel this could be a real winner. Possibly Nolan's finest, or at least his most handsome looking film. It seems this is just the canvas his sensibilities needed right now.

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Yes. But after that he's going back to Batman...right?

[A24 5,123]

No, he's getting to old for for Fantasy and action. Like Spielberg after a while, he wants to be taken seriously as a moviemaker. He'll be doing that for a while. Then, if he's old, he will direct Tintin in Africa.

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Let's hope!

[A24 5,123]

Why? Do you really look forward to Nolan's Anna Frank: Her True Story?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,205]

Still waiting for Verhoeven to tackle that one!

[toothless 1,047]

 

Looks cool.

Well I do have one concern about the first shot. To me, this street does not look like a WW2 street.

[Jay 45,826]

Wow, some excellent shot composition and cinematography on display there.

 

The dull color palette Nolan likes to use is perfectly suited for this kind of movie, methinks.

[Romão 2,469]

I'm not fond of the music in the second half of the trailer

[Jay 45,826]

Oh, I watched it with sound off

[A24 5,123]

Image quality of this trailer is very sharp.

[Jay 45,826]

That Hoyte van Hoytema knows his stuff!

[A24 5,123]

It's 70mm!

[KK 3,310]

Film looks beautiful, visually that is. Thought we might get a snippet of Zimmer's score as well though. The trailer music was awful.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

With this and Murder on the Orient Express, it's nice to Kenneth Branagh doing work that actually seems interesting. His career has been (artistically, not commercially) in the doldrums for so long now.

[leeallen01 2,345]

That trailer was awful. Wasn't impressed by anything I saw. Whoever put that trailer together needs shooting.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Looks like fantastic cinema. Let's all be thankful that a guy like this has access to massive budgets.