SinceMemento , Nolan ’s filmmaking has exchange a batch . He ’s gone from have humble - graduated table , low - budget thrillers to helming mega - scale , with child - budget blockbusters . He revitalise the Batman enfranchisement ( and the military action genre as a whole ) with the gritty Platonism of hisDark Knighttrilogy , and he ’s made beloved properties out of original sci - fi stories like the dreamscape heist movieInception , the space travel epicInterstellar , and the meter - traveling undercover agent actionerTenet . But he set the degree for the latter with one of the earliest directorial choices of his career .

Some of Christopher Nolan ’s twisty , clock time - bending movies , like Insomnia and Batman Begins , are easier to come than others , like Inception and Tenet .

Memento’s Backward Opening Shot Came Full Circle With Christopher Nolan’s Tenet

Nolan First Experimented With Showing Scenes Backward In Memento

The first time that Nolan try out with the idea of showing a setting rearwards was in the possibility shot of his sophomore movie , Memento . Mementoopens on a closeup of a Polaroid photoin Guy Pearce ’s hired man . Over the possibility credits , the photo un - developsand goes back inside the tv camera . Then , a fastball casing goes back inside his gun , Joe Pantoliano ’s corpse slump up from the ground , and Pearce un - frivol away him in the fountainhead . This was the first prison term Nolan play a scene in reverse , and it was a really unparalleled economic consumption of the filmmaking trade .

20 years later , Nolan expanded that opposite - filming experiment into his spy - fi epicTenet . InTenet , a gross ton of different conniption are meet in reverse . The plot of ground revolve around prison term - traveling spies take on a fly-by-night criminal organization that has figure out a way to send weapons back in time . The motion-picture show has gunfight and car crashes that playact out in reverse , with bullets flying back into the chamber and cars rolling back over onto their wheels . Tenetis a feature - duration extension of the observational redaction style that Nolan used to openMemento .

Christoper Nolan ’s Tenet was unbelievably divisive upon its release in 2020 , but even years later , there are many disappointing calibre to the motion-picture show .

Split image of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, John David Washington in Tenet, and Guy Pearce in Memento

Memento Teased How Important Time Would Be In Nolan’s Other Movies

Time Is A Key Plot Point In Almost All Of Nolan’s Work

The twisty narrative structure ofMementoestablished how pregnant clip would be in Nolan ’s filmography . Mementoplays out in two separate timelines : the pitch-black - and - white setting are shown in chronological order , while the colour succession are shown in reverse orderto replicate Leonard Shelby ’s nonlinear mental state . At the close of the film , these two timeline meet to bestow the story together . Nolan proceed to experiment with the passage of prison term in almost all of his subsequent movies . IfMementoseemed complicated , that was just the tip of the iceberg .

Time dilation createsthe most grievous scene inInterstellar : Matthew McConaughey returns to the ship after spending a twosome of hour on a foreign planet and finds that 23 years have passed on Earth , and his kids have grown up in the nictation of an eye . InInception , time moves slower and slow in each successive aspiration grade . While Cobb and his squad are spending hebdomad infiltrating a mountainside base , they ’re very slowly falling from a bridge in the waking world .

Christopher Nolan landed his first Academy Award for Best Director forOppenheimer .

An SR custom image showing Robert Pattinson and John David Washington in Tenet, with imagery of a clock behind them

Dunkirksimultaneously chronicles a week on the land , a day at ocean , and an hr in the melody . At the end of the motion-picture show , much like inMemento , the concurrent timelines meet as the civilian fleet arrives to pick up the last remaining soldier on the beach and Tom Hardy ’s hero pilot burner swoops in to hit down a dive - grinder just as he run out of fuel . And of course , inTenet , the nominal organization apply time travel and time volte-face to prevent the outbreak of World War III .

Memento And Tenet’s Differences Show How Far Christopher Nolan’s Career Has Come

One Is A Small-Scale Independent Thriller, The Other Is A Big-Budget Event Film

The differences betweenMementoandTenethighlight just how much Nolan ’s coming to filmmaking has evolve over 20 age . Mementois a modest - scale independent thriller shot on a shoestring budget , while the other was made on a monolithic blockbuster budget and promoted as an case moving picture . Nolan place the bar mellow for himself withMemento , which is why there ’s always so much discussion surrounding his pic . Christopher Nolancould only outdo himself so many times , which iswhyTenetwas judge so harshlyand became arguably his most factious film , or at least the least universally praised .

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Cast

Christopher Nolan ’s Memento is a psychological thriller that tell the floor of Leonard , a former insurance investigator who suffers from a disease that prevents his brain from store short - terminus memories . The one matter he can remember is execution of his wife , for which he wishes to exact revenge . star Guy Pearce and Carrie - Anne Moss , the movie was free in 2000 to widespread eclat , establish the director ’s successful Hollywood career .

Imagery from Rush Hour and The Matrix

Guy Pearce from Memento

Custom Image by Milica Djordjevic

The Protagonist wears an oxygen mask in Tenet

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Christopher Nolan’s Memento is a psychological thriller that tells the story of Leonard, a former insurance investigator who suffers from a disease that prevents his brain from storing short-term memories. The one thing he can remember is murder of his wife, for which he wishes to exact revenge. Starring Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss, the movie was released in 2000 to widespread acclaim, launching the director’s successful Hollywood career.

Headshot Of Joe Pantoliano In The Bad Boys For Life Los Angeles Premiere

Headshot Of Guy Pearce In The 77th annual Cannes

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Christopher Nolan