The Dark Knight Trilogy fame director Christopher Nolan is of the view that each of the Batman franchise movies namely Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight are of different film genres defined by the villains in each particular movie.
While Nolan will not likely make a return into the superhero genre anytime soon, he indulged into a long discussion about the Dark Knight Trilogy at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend. He was present at the film festival for the premiere of a 70 mm print of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
“To me, each film is a different genre,” Nolan told Variety about the movies starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. “They tend to be defined by the villain.”
He also revealed that while starting with Batman Begins there were no plans of going for more than one movie. But, gradually they felt that it was important to base each installment after a different genre to showcase each and every character’s journey.
Describing the villain’s characteristics in his movies, Nolan said that Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul in 2005’s Batman Begins, “is an appropriate adversary. He’s a mentor-turned-enemy.” He described Heath Ledger’s Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight as “a terrorist, an agent of chaos set loose.” The director also addressed Tom Hardy’s Bane in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises as a “militarist foe” and the film a “historical epic.”
Nolan admitted that a big comic book movie never appealed to him. It was the character of Bruce Wayne that attracted him in the first place.
“Yes, it’s a superhero, but it’s based on ideas of guilt, fear, these strong impulses that the character has,” The Dark Knight Trilogy director said. “Bruce Wayne doesn’t have any superpowers other than extraordinary wealth. But really, he’s just someone who does a lot of push-ups. In that sense, he’s very relatable and human. I think that’s why I gravitated towards it.”
Talking about his directing style, Nolan said he never employed the second unit ever as he preferred to shoot every scene himself.
Source: Variety
