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Christopher Nolan

Kirsty Young interviews director Christopher Nolan.

Christopher Nolan is best known for reviving the Batman film franchise and for directing the blockbusters Inception and Dunkirk. His films have taken nearly $5 billion at the box office. Born in London in 1970 to an English father and an American mother, he discovered film-making at the age of seven. In what he describes as "a leap of faith", his father lent him his Super 8 camera - and he's not stopped making films since. From youthful experiments, manipulating his action figures and shooting stop motion animations, he progressed to making short films at university where he read English - although he spent more time at University College London's Bloomsbury Theatre, home to the film society, than the lecture theatre.

His first feature film, Following, had enough festival exposure and critical success to secure him his first official budget of $4.5 million to make his next film, Memento. In 2005 he was hailed for reinventing the Caped Crusader in the dark and gritty Batman Begins. He regularly works with the same actors and production team including his long-time producer, his wife, Emma Thomas. The couple's latest film, Dunkirk, is nominated in the best picture category of the Oscars this year and Christopher has a nomination for Best Director.

Presenter: Kirsty Young
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Available now

36 minutes

Last on

Fri 23 Feb 2018 09:00

Music Played

  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Hans Zimmer

      Journey to the Line

      • The Thin Red Line: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
      • RCA Victor.
      • 3.
  • Radiohead

    Paranoid Android

    • OK Computer.
    • EMI.
    • 2.
  • Franz Schubert

    Fantasia for Four Hands in F minor, D. 940 (Op. 103)

    Performer: Murray Perahia. Performer: Radu Lupu.
    • Mozart/Schubert Piano Works.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 4.
  • Vangelis

    Five Circles

    • Chariots of Fire.
    • Polydor.
    • 2.
  • David Bowie

    Loving The Alien

    • Tonight.
    • EMI.
    • 1.
  • David Dundas

    Marwood Walks

    Composer: Rick Wentworth.
    • Original Motion Picture Scores: Withnail and I.
    • Silva Screen Records.
    • 17.
  • John Barry

    Ski Chase

    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
    • Mixed Repertoire.
    • 4.
  • Philip Glass

    Prophecies

    • Koyaanisqatsi: Original Soundtrack.
    • Island Masters.
    • 6.
  • BOOK CHOICE

    The Selected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges

  • LUXURY ITEM

    Projector and collection of old films

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Christopher Nolan
Producer Cathy Drysdale

Broadcasts

  • Sun 18 Feb 2018 11:15
  • Fri 23 Feb 2018 09:00

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