Classical Hollywood Cinema and Christopher Nolan’s "Memento" PDF Download

Author: Jonas Lucas
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640908295
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 10

View

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,0, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, language: English, abstract: This paper shows that Memento does mostly not fit in with Classical Hollywood Cinema (CHC). It will give a definition of the characteristics and aims of CHC to provide background information. Then, CHC is compared to Memento in the second part of the paper. It is going to show to which degree the film Memento can be seen as CHC, where the similarities and differences are and therefore give a solution of the film’s category.

Author: Jacqueline Furby
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023185076X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 561

View

Book Description
Over the past fifteen years, writer, producer and director Christopher Nolan has emerged from the margins of independent British cinema to become one of the most commercially successful directors in Hollywood. From Following (1998) to Interstellar (2014), Christopher Nolan's films explore philosophical concerns by experimenting with nonlinear storytelling while also working within classical Hollywood narrative and genre frameworks. Contextualizing and closely reading each of his films, this collection examines the director's play with memory, time, trauma, masculinity, and identity, and considers the function of music and video games and the effect of IMAX on his work.

Author: Tom Shone
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0525655336
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 401

View

Book Description
An in-depth look at Christopher Nolan, considered to be the most profound, commercially successful director at work today, written with his full cooperation. A rare, revelatory portrait, "as close as you're ever going to get to the Escher drawing that is Christopher Nolan's remarkable brain" (Sam Mendes). In chapters structured by themes and motifs ("Time"; "Chaos"; "Dreams"), Shone offers an unprecedented intimate view of the director. Shone explores Nolan's thoughts on his influences, his vision, his enigmatic childhood past--and his movies, from plots and emotion to identity and perception, including his latest blockbuster, the action-thriller/spy-fi Tenet ("Big, brashly beautiful, grandiosely enjoyable"--Variety). Filled with the director's never-before-seen photographs, storyboards, and scene sketches, here is Nolan on the evolution of his pictures, and the writers, artists, directors, and thinkers who have inspired and informed his films. "Fabulous: intelligent, illuminating, rigorous, and highly readable. The very model of what a filmmaking study should be. Essential reading for anyone who cares about Nolan or about film for that matter."--Neal Gabler, author of An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood and Walt Disney, The Biography

Author: James Mottram
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571279511
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 236

View

Book Description
The brilliance of Christopher Nolan's ingenious thriller Memento has had moviegoers coming back for more. James Mottram now offers the fullest imaginable guide to the film's many complexities. Memento's protagonist Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is on a mission to find the man who murdered his wife. But Leonard suffers from a rare form of amnesia, and in order to keep track of his life he must surround himself with written reminders, some etched on his own flesh . . . This invaluable guidebook steers the reader through the mysteries of the movie's making and its many possible meanings, with expert guidance from Nolan himself and his key creative collaborators.

Author: Genevieve Jolliffe
Publisher: Continuum
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 566

View

Book Description
Documentary films have enjoyed a huge resurgence over the last few years, and there's a new generation of filmmakers wanting to get involved. In addition, the digital revolution has made documentaries even more accessible to the general filmmaker. Documentary films can now be shot professionally using cheaper equipment, and smaller cameras enable the documentarian to be less intrusive and therefore more intimate in the subjects' lives. With an increasing number of documentaries making it to the big screen (and enjoying ongoing sales on DVD), the time is right for an information-packed handbook that will guide new filmmakers towards potential artistic and commercial success. The Documentary Film Makers Handbook features incisive and helpful interviews with dozens of industry professionals, on subjects as diverse as interview techniques, the NBC News Archive, music rights, setting up your own company, the Film Arts Foundation, pitching your proposal, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Documentary Channel, the British Film Council, camera hire, filmmaking ethics, working with kids, editing your documentary, and DVD distribution. The book also includes in-depth case studies of some of the most successful and acclaimed documentary films of recent years, including Mad Hot Ballroom, Born Into Brothels, Touching the Void, Beneath the Veil,and Amandla! The Documentary Film Makers Handbook will be an essential resource for anyone who wants to know more about breaking into this exciting field.

Author: Claire Molloy
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748637737
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 145

View

Book Description
The book introduces Memento as an important independent film and uses it to explore relationships between "e;indie,"e; arthouse and commercial mainstream cinema, independent film marketing practices and online fan communities. The book also locates Memento within debates around key film studies concepts such as genre, narrative and reception.

Author: John Seamon
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262029715
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

View

Book Description
How popular films from Memento to Slumdog Millionaire can help us understand how memory works. In the movie Slumdog Millionaire, the childhood memories of a young game show contestant trigger his correct answers. In Memento, the amnesiac hero uses tattoos as memory aids. In Away from Her, an older woman suffering from dementia no longer remembers who her husband is. These are compelling films that tell affecting stories about the human condition. But what can these movies teach us about memory? In this book, John Seamon shows how examining the treatment of memory in popular movies can shed new light on how human memory works. After explaining that memory is actually a diverse collection of independent systems, Seamon uses examples from movies to offer an accessible, nontechnical description of what science knows about memory function and dysfunction. In a series of lively encounters with numerous popular films, he draws on Life of Pi and Avatar, for example, to explain working memory, used for short-term retention. He describes the process of long-term memory with examples from such films as Cast Away and Groundhog Day; The Return of Martin Guerre, among other movies, informs his account of how we recognize people; the effect of emotion on autobiographical memory is illustrated by The Kite Runner, Titanic, and other films; movies including Born on the Fourth of July and Rachel Getting Married illustrate the complex pain of traumatic memories. Seamon shows us that movies rarely get amnesia right, often using strategically timed blows to the protagonist's head as a way to turn memory off and then on again (as in Desperately Seeking Susan). Finally, he uses movies including On Golden Pond and Amour to describe the memory loss that often accompanies aging, while highlighting effective ways to maintain memory function.

Author: Torben Schmidt
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638183882
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 31

View

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1 (A), University of Frankfurt (Main) (Institute for England and American Studies), course: Decadenca and Modernism in Late 20th Century Cinema, language: English, abstract: Christopher Nolan’s low budget film Memento (2000), which is based on the concept of a short story named Memento Mori written by Nolan’s brother Jonathan, was certainly one of the most successful films in the United States in 2000. In most cinemas it was shown for more than 15 weeks in the summer season – the most competitive season of the year. While the success of many modern Hollywood films is a result of “money, hype and more money”, Memento “represents a triumph of writing, directing, and performance” (Klein 2001). This film belongs to the so called neo-noir and revenge-film genre. In this paper these two genres will first of all be described in detail. Afterwards, the plot and the narrative structure of Memento – which is extremely complex, clever and demands intelligence and constant attention from its spectators – will be discussed.

Author: David Bordwell
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520932323
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 309

View

Book Description
Hollywood moviemaking is one of the constants of American life, but how much has it changed since the glory days of the big studios? David Bordwell argues that the principles of visual storytelling created in the studio era are alive and well, even in today’s bloated blockbusters. American filmmakers have created a durable tradition—one that we should not be ashamed to call artistic, and one that survives in both mainstream entertainment and niche-marketed indie cinema. Bordwell traces the continuity of this tradition in a wide array of films made since 1960, from romantic comedies like Jerry Maguire and Love Actually to more imposing efforts like A Beautiful Mind. He also draws upon testimony from writers, directors, and editors who are acutely conscious of employing proven principles of plot and visual style. Within the limits of the "classical" approach, innovation can flourish. Bordwell examines how imaginative filmmakers have pushed the premises of the system in films such as JFK, Memento, and Magnolia. He discusses generational, technological, and economic factors leading to stability and change in Hollywood cinema and includes close analyses of selected shots and sequences. As it ranges across four decades, examining classics like American Graffiti and The Godfather as well as recent success like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, this book provides a vivid and engaging interpretation of how Hollywood moviemakers have created a vigorous, resourceful tradition of cinematic storytelling that continues to engage audiences around the world.

Author: David Bordwell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134988087
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1338

View

Book Description
'A dense, challenging and important book.' Philip French Observer 'At the very least, this blockbuster is probably the best single volume history of Hollywood we're likely to get for a very long time.' Paul Kerr City Limits 'Persuasively argued, the book is also packed with facts, figures and photographs.' Nigel Andrews Financial Times Acclaimed for their breakthrough approach, Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson analyze the basic conditions of American film-making as a historical institution and consider to what extent Hollywood film production constitutes a systematic enterprise, in both its style and its business operations. Despite differences of director, genre or studio, most Hollywood films operate within a set of shared assumptions about how a film should look and sound. Such assumptions are neither natural nor inevitable; but because classical-style films have been the type most widely seen, they have come to be accepted as the 'norm' of film-making and viewing. The authors show how these classical conventions were formulated and standardized, and how they responded to the arrival of sound, colour, widescreen ratios and stereophonic sound. They argue that each new technological development has served a function within an existing narrational system. The authors also examine how the Hollywood cinema standardized the film-making process itself. They describe how, over the course of its history, Hollywood developed distinct modes of production in a constant search for maximum efficiency, predictability and novelty. Set apart by its combination of theoretical analysis and empirical evidence, this book is the standard work on the classical Hollywood cinema style of film-making from the silent era to the 1960s. Now available in paperback, it is a 'must' for film students, lecturers and all those seriously interested in the development of the film industry.