The Nolan variations

A rare, intimate portrait of Hollywood’s reigning ‘blockbuster auteur’ whose deeply personal billion-dollar movies have established him as the most successful director to come out of the British Isles since Alfred Hitchcock.

Updated, with a chapter on Oppenheimer

‘A masterclass . . . brilliant. Immersive, detailed, meticulous, privileged inside-dope.’ – Craig Raine

More than just the tinkerings of a glass watchmaker, Christopher Nolan’s films have an unerring grasp of the way time makes us feel. Time steals people away in his films, and he takes careful note of the theft. Time is Nolan’s great antagonist, his lifelong nemesis. He seems almost to take it personally.

Written with the full cooperation of Nolan himself, who granted Tom Shone access to never-before-seen photographs, storyboards and sketches, the book is a deep-dive into the director’s films, influences, methods and obsessions. Here for the first time is Nolan on his dislocated, transatlantic childhood, how he dreamed up the plot of Inception lying awake one night in his dorm at school, his colour-blindness and its effect on Memento, his obsession with puzzles and optical illusions – and much, much more. Written by one of our most penetrating critics, The Nolan Variations is a landmark study of one of the twenty-first century’s most dazzling cinematic artists.

‘Christopher Nolan is a wonderfully unlikely contemporary filmmaker. We’re fortunate indeed to have him, and fortunate now to have this book.’ – William Gibson