An interview with Nolan, the director of Dunkirk

"Film is a form, not a technology. No matter how digital movies develop, you have to have a certain number of places to show film films, even museums or whatever, because it is part of the history of human civilization."

Nolan Douban interview, poke video to see it first!

Dunkirk, the film that countless people are most looking forward to, has finally met with Chinese fans. The biggest focus of the film is not good-looking young fresh meat, not "best at acting with the eyes" male god teacher Tang, is the director.

Christopher Nolan

Nolan, who has always maintained a distinct personal style in Hollywood, is one of the directors who combine art and commercial films perfectly. So he has countless followers and is praised by fans as divine. The fan base also forms "Nuo blow" and "Nuo Black", but no matter whether it is black or black, fans' comments are more or less subjective, and the data can never deceive the existence of people:

Nolan has so far made 10 feature films. These films have been marked about 3.77 million times on Douban, 3 films have been marked more than 9 points, and 4 films are between 8 and 9 points. Seven of the 10 films entered the "Douban Movie TOP250", with four parts in the top 60. What kind of concept is this? Just looking at these figures and list results, there are no directors who can compete with Nolan.

what is even more frightening is that the director with this achievement, the man who can be affectionately called "uncle" by many people, is the youngest of the top ten directors in Hollywood. Steven Spielberg is 71, James Cameron is 63, Quentin Tarantino is 54 and Nolan is only 47. This means that Nolan's film life is full of more and more long-term infinite possibilities.

in an exclusive interview with Nolan in Douban Movie, the normally arrogant and serious Anglo-American director smiled shyly when the editor told Nolan about his achievements in Douban movies. Let Nostradamus guess which film is at the top of the list, as a result.

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Nolan: my God! I guess it's either Inception or Batman: The Dark Knight. (it's a hit) Oh, my God, I don't know. To be honest, it's a very happy thing to see people watching a movie in the direction you want, and they extract a lot of new things from the movie according to your expectations, plus their own lives. and that goes beyond what you put into the movie as a director, and it's very satisfying. It is also a very exciting thing for me to get so much from a small movie.

in this exclusive interview, Nolan also talked about his obsession with film, the difficulties in filming war scenes, and his mental process of making music. In addition, in many media reports in North America, Nolan has also answered many behind-the-scenes questions about the original intention of the film, live shooting, actors, and so on. Here, sort out these contents together with the interview with Douban film x Nolan to entertain the fans:

* the following films mentioned by directors in North American reports are provided by Warner Brothers

Nolan likes to play with structure, the most "brain-burning" such as "memory fragments" Nolan likes to break with tradition, with unique dark realistic styles such as Batman: The Dark Knight; Nolan likes to play with subjective perspectives and non-linear narratives, all of which are based on fictional stories.

and Dunkirk is Nolan's first real historical event, and this time he continues to play with structure, turning a war film into a plot, suspense, and thriller. With no protagonist, no female characters, invincible perspective, and music all over the film, there seems to be a huge watershed between it and other war films, with "Hacksaw Ridge" and "Saving Private Ryan" on one side and "Dunkirk" on the other. The works on both peaks are great! But it's so different.

Prophase creation: it all started from a trip 25 years ago

Why did Nolan choose the history of "Dunkirk retreat"? It has something to do with his personal experience.

as a British director, Nolan grew up listening to almost mythical stories about Dunkirk. Dunkirk's story has long infiltrated Nolan's body. When Nolan was filming his debut film "follow" 25 years ago, he and his wife Emma Thomas, a lifelong producer, traveled across the English Channel in a friend's sailboat from England to Dunkirk, France. Unexpectedly, the weather was bad, the waves were everywhere, it was difficult to travel, and it took far longer than expected. Although the war was long over, he was still shocked by the battlefield ruins at that time and was awed by the successful evacuation of Dunkirk. So I had a strong idea to shoot a story about Dunkirk.

this is one of the greatest stories of mankind, and it is also the most suspenseful situation I have ever heard in my life. " "there are 400000 people-all British troops trapped on the beach in Dunkirk," Nolan said. Behind them is the sea, and their hometown is only 26 miles away, but they never seem to reach it. The enemy is approaching. You have only two choices: surrender or die. I think this is the most suspenseful situation, and it is also the part that I am most interested in in this movie.

what moves me most about a true story is that it contains many aspects and many different backgrounds. Your troops are trapped on the ground, at sea, facing the choice of death or surrender. At the same time, your companion is on the boat, bravely crossing the English Channel, and the navy on the destroyer-all these different people or things have to be visually shown to the audience. Frankly speaking, it takes a lot of enthusiasm and effort to accomplish it. And then try to design the action from the technical level. So that the audience can experience the tension and immersive feeling. This is an interesting challenge for me. "

Nolan's wife Emma Thomas and Nolan's original

but why did an idea of 25 years ago be put into action now?

Nolan: "I was afraid that my lack of experience in blockbuster production would hurt my enthusiasm for this film, so after I finished the Batman prequel trilogy, Inception and Interstellar, I felt that my skills were getting better and better in these films, so I thought the time was right to start this film."

Nolan wrote and directed himself. How to draw materials before writing the screenplay?

to truly present the great retreat, Nolan set the storyline of the film to be based on the personal experience of the soldiers at that time. He spent a lot of time reading first-hand materials from first-hand experiences and hired Joshua Levin, a historian who wrote Dunkirk: the forgotten Voice, as the film's historical advisor, and the two visited the veterans together and put the true stories told by the veterans on the big screen. "I want to lead the audience to experience the whole event through specific characters," Nolan said.

what is the biggest challenge at the beginning of creation? What kind of effect do you want to show in the end?

faced with this problem, Nolan said frankly: "this tension between subjective storytelling and the overall scene is a challenge for any film, not to mention that I have never filmed a historical and realistic theme." I want to create an immersive feeling for the audience to be on that beach in Dunkirk. At the same time, I prefer to let them know how great the story is. I don't want to shoot the kind of footage of generals sitting in a conference room pointing at a map, so my entry point is sea, land, and air. I mainly adopt subjective narrative techniques and switch between different perspectives of characters.

finally, create a feeling:

you are the one who runs for your life on the beach with the soldiers,

you are the one who sits on a civilian ship and rushes to the rescue operation at sea.

you are also the one who sits in the cockpit of a Spitfire fighter and stumbles with the enemy in the air.

which films did he draw lessons from in Nolan's most experimental work?

Director Christopher Nolan draws inspiration for Dunkirk's group play from silent films such as greed (1924), Party differences (1916), and Sunrise (1927). Nolan said: "I spend a lot of time watching group performances in these silent films, including the actions and progress of extras, and how space is presented." And how to use photography to capture these images, as well as the use of shooting perspective. He also studied films such as death row escape (1956), pickpocket (1959), saving private Ryan (1998), and the price of fear (1953) to try to figure out how to create suspense through details. "

Musical principle: never-ending scale  

Douban Movie: this is your sixth collaboration with the Lonely Master (Hans Zimmer), and the soundtrack runs through the film. However, this method of spreading music all over the film is very rare. why is it treated like this?

Nolan: "the concept behind this film soundtrack is that this is a film with little dialogue, and the plot is not driven by language, but my vision." This is a film about suspense and the infinite texture brought by suspense. The film is very short, less than two hours, it is the shortest one I have made in a long time, and the script is only 76 pages (about half of the ordinary script). We have reached a consensus from the beginning that the rhythm of this film should be as tense as possible and full of endless suspense, then music will play a very important role at this time.

this arrangement is based on the ticking of the second hand of our previously recorded pocket watch, constantly creating a tense atmosphere. I sent this sound effect to Hans and asked him to create a repertoire on this basis, add tracks, and cover the whole movie. He created some music similar to engine sound to stimulate tension and cooperate with the picture and sound effects. The last film is a combination of pictures, sound effects, and music, and it is very closely integrated. Music is a very important "character" in the whole movie because the biggest "enemy" of this film is actually "time", and we have to keep reminding the audience of this point.

the script is written around the principles of music, and there is a concept in music called the never-ending scale (Shepard tone), which is used in the sound effects of Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. I have explored with David Julyan, the soundtrack of deadly Magic, that the soundtrack from Dunkirk revolves around this concept, creating an illusion of rising pitch, creating a "spiral" effect. The tone is always rising, but it will never be out of tune. "

realism: a film and a realist demon

everyone knows that Nolan likes live shooting, film, IMAX, and everything that is real; on the back of reality, it is his avoidance of special effects and post-processing. Nolan's persistence and compulsion to realism have reached the level of madness, and his madness attributes are embodied in:

in the era of omnipotent computer effects, he insists on doing everything possible to capture the real scene and be able to capture it. Never need special effects

infatuated with film. If the IMAX film machine cannot complete the lens, it will be replaced by a non-IMAX film machine.

all conversations are completed on the set, without the use of antique props that can not be used for shooting and need to be protected, and copying copies should also use young actors in a large area. The only big name is almost completely masked (causing facial blindness in watching movies)

it is all this that condenses into the unparalleled true texture of Dunkirk.

Why not use special effects? For the truth.

Nolan has been repeating the original intention in countless media interviews-he wants to create an immersive feeling for the audience on the beach in Dunkirk, in civilian ships, in the cockpit of airplanes.

to achieve this effect, Nolan believes that actors should first feel the same way. Only when actors are in a relatively real environment can they contribute real performance and sound, while the green screen will greatly reduce the performance of actors.

in addition, from the perspective of creating a historical theme, Nolan said: "Special effects or animation is a very artificial thing, and some stories are higher than reality and must be presented by special effects." but in such a historical story, I think we need a very simple way, a touchable way to present it, so we spend a lot of energy on real stories, real ships. Use special effects only on a few occasions. And not a single picture is done with pure special effects, even if they use of special effects is also a combination of real and special effects. "

so Nolan's set was like a real battlefield. Spitfire fighters roared past, thousands of people appeared on the same scene, and more than 60 ships and civilian ships were dispatched on the set.

Douban Movie: the film continues your usual live shooting style, but the live shooting of war movie scenes is particularly difficult, such as aircraft fighting, warship sinking, and military dispatch. What is the most difficult thing in live shooting this time?

Nolan: Dunkirk does have a lot of practical challenges. For example, it is difficult to shoot a huge IMAX picture of an airplane fighting in the air, and it is not easy to shoot thousands of extras (soldiers) on the beach. But I have had the experience of shooting these elements, and this film just pushes these experiences to a new height, and I still have the basis for those shooting. One of the things I've never dabbled in before is shooting on a large scale at sea. Shooting dozens of boats on the real sea is something I have never experienced before, and I have always been worried about it. But we have a great team to shoot these huge fleets and are said to have used the largest offshore shooting device in the history of the film. In this way, we can successfully get a lot of wonderful pictures. I am very proud of the work done by everyone on our team.

Why are you so obsessed with film? For the truth.

Nolan once said that when making a movie, it is necessary to show a real feeling, not a stylized feeling, and for him, using film is the best choice to show this effect. Its color, clarity, and so on are very real. The film has a very special quality, it can show the world he sees.

Douban movies: using film can guarantee excellent image quality, but it is also a reality that there are fewer and fewer film projectors. If one day the film projector is completely retired from the stage of history (cinema), will you still insist on using film? Will you try to make digital movies?

Nolan: frankly, I don't think this will happen. The film is only a medium, not a technology. Even though most people do watch digital movies, because the original film is a digital version, and the effect is very good, the picture is very impressive, I am very proud (we have achieved this technology), but I still like to make movies without "where to play" as the reason for "choosing the shooting medium". Film (celluloid film) is a form, not a technology. No matter how digital movies develop, you have to have a certain number of places to show film films, even museums or whatever, because it is part of the history of human civilization. Of course, digitization is a way of film distribution, and we fully accept and embrace this. After all, some of my recent works have been seen by most people in the form of digital movies. But as I said, when we find that film shooting can guarantee the picture quality of digital movies, it becomes extremely valuable to give people a chance to see the film work.

Why use an IMAX film machine to shoot? For the truth.

for the ultimate immersive experience, Nolan shot more than 70% of the shots using an IMAX film camera. "I call Dunkirk a close epic," Nolan said. "what I especially love about IMAX is that the resolution and color are unparalleled, there are countless details in the rich picture, and thousands of actors can appear in a huge frame. At the same time, those meticulous thoughts are also shown, such as the water seeping from the bottom of the boat, or the shape of the top of the plane, so that people can feel what we want to express.

while filming the scene of the fighter fighting in the air, we tied the IMAX film camera to the wing, and as the fighter flipped and dived over the English Channel, the audience could see the most realistic images of the war, even the crash scene. These are all computer special effects that cannot be accomplished at all. "

* IMAX, as one of the highest resolution cameras in the world, its resolution is almost 10 times that of traditional film.

imax camera filming the battleAirport View

Why not use post-recording? For the truth. The only limitation of

is that these IMAX cameras are too noisy to be completely soundproof and we can't record the conversation while the machine is running. For other directors, late dubbing may not be a thing, but I like to record the real conversation on the set rather than dubbing it again later because if I do it later, I will lose a lot of the essence of the performance. So in Dunkirk, whenever there is a scene of dialogue, I use another format. 5 perf-65mm film is used in this film, which is in the same smaller format as when Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was filmed. "

in the film, Collins was forced to land in the water. How was this scene filmed with an IMAX machine?

Nolan: this is a live show! We made a replica of the Spitfire fighter and forced it to land on the water. To shoot this scene, we tied the IMAX camera to the plane, but unexpectedly, during the crash, the device sank faster than we expected. After all, no one has ever done this before. When I fished the IMAX camera out of the water, I found that there was a hole in the plastic shell outside, and the whole camera was soaked in the water and completely soaked. We rushed the wet film back to Los Angeles from France, and the lab staff used an old-fashioned technique to process the film before it dried, and successfully developed and printed the perfect lens we wanted and used it in the film. Digital cameras can't do that! (Nolan here looks like a 200kg pride boy)

so there are no special effects in Dunkirk?

Nolan: there are a few special effects. I am very proud of the seamless connection between computer special effects and live shooting in the film. My special effects supervisor is always on the set with me. His work is getting less and less because although many shots can use special effects, we do not use real scenes when we have to use special effects. So not a single scene in the film is made entirely of special effects, and no shot is completely CG. I can also be very proud to say that for the first time in my long career, I can't remember which scenes in the film are made with special effects and which are not. I have never done this before.

where do a large number of World War II aircraft props come from?

Nolan: the film leases a lot of real props from World War II, including Spitfire fighters, German Heinkel bombers, bombs, a large number of civilian ships, and gigantic Navy destroyers. So the set of Dunkirk is like a small museum.

when the real props could not meet the shooting needs, Nolan asked the crew to buy a yak fighter that is similar in size and appearance to a Spitfire fighter. "it has two cockpits. So we can make sure that a real pilot is piloting, and a camera installed on the wing can capture close-ups of actors in the air. We want to tell this aerial story in a way we've never had before.

clip: I wish all the shots were used

Nolan: I've been working with the editor Lee Smith for many years (Star Trek, Inception, deadly Magic, Batman trilogy, etc.), and we cut him while filming. I traditionally watch sample films every day, and I'm surprised that few directors do this now, which used to be a must in the profession of directing. We will watch the sample film every day, grasp the direction, wait for the end of the shooting, enter the editing room, browse all the data, and start from scratch.

aerial shots are very challenging because they are so beautiful that I want to use all the shots when I look at the material every day. But you need to stay awake during the editing process because for the audience, the story is the most important thing. So from a narrative point of view, if this shot doesn't bring new story points, sometimes it has to be abandoned. We cut out some of the most amazing aerial shots I have ever seen because this is a decision I have to make as a director (hopefully it can be put in the tidbits of Blu-ray disc! ).

you have to make sure that when the film is finished, it can convey the heartfelt excitement you feel when you watch the sample film every day. In the process of cutting a long shot shorter, it is always challenging and time-consuming.

Actor Choice: not going the usual way is just to get close to the real

although Dunkirk is blessed with senior actors such as Tom Hardy, it is more likely that the big boys in their twenties take the lead, such as Harry Styles, the idol singer from one Direction.

Why did you cast such a popular idol singer "Ha Scroll" in the film?

"I interviewed thousands of young people and different youth groups, and Harry won in the end." Nolan didn't even know he was so popular until Harry Stiles decided to perform.

Why do you choose so many unknown young actors?

Nolan admitted that he would choose nearly 30 actors to be "young" if he followed Hollywood practice. Nolan's only criterion for casting is to approach reality: "the core characters in the movie are young boys, so we especially look for actors of the right age to experience historical events like rookie recruits." I have a responsibility to explore people who have potential but lack experience. Because we want to give the audience something different. "

Fion Whitehead, JackWhy are there no female characters in Louden, Tom Green, Harry Stiles

movies?

Nolan: because the Dunkirk incident mainly involves men, when I make up characters, I mainly focus on showing the real situation at that time. These created characters represent the reality of history. Everyone who makes a movie has to do this. What I want to do is to be able to create these representative characters, the people who were trapped on the beach at the time. It may be fake if you add a love play, so there are no major female characters in the movie.

how to evaluate Mr. Tang?

speaking of Nolan's teacher Tang, Nolan asked Tom Hardy to act with only his eyes. Nolan proudly praised, "even with one eye, his performance is better than that of others with their whole body." This is the unique talent of that man. He is extraordinary! " Of course, in terms of the results of watching the movie, the audience was convinced of teacher Tang's "eye skills" and was rated by netizens as "the man who can act with his eyes best".

the man who is best at acting with his eyes

Nolan who is with teacher Tang will act cute

and finally send it to the cute Nolan's small class. Please think about this question seriously. this is a proposition!

Why did both RAF pilots make forced landings instead of parachuting? If Collins had chosen to parachute, he would not have failed to open the hatch, and Farrell might have been able to retreat with civilian ships.

have you thought about this question after watching the movie? Please think for five seconds, and finally, see if you and Nolan want to go together.

Nolan: When I was reading the historical report on the crisis facing the air force, I found that (forced landing) is the logical way to keep them alive. If the landing conditions are right and you are flying below a certain altitude-for example, if you are parachuting below 1000 feet, there is a good chance that your parachute will not open. There are also reports that in many cases the enemy will target soldiers who are landing (carrying parachutes). But there has been a lot of debate about whether this is true and the probability of it happening. In any case, each soldier has to make his own decisions for his survival in the end. As for the air force who made a forced landing in the movie, it was more likely that he could not parachute because he was not high enough.