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The Fictional Christopher Nolan / Todd McGowan.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (232 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292737839
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 791.430233092
LOC classification:
  • PN1998.3.N65 M35 2012
  • PN1998.3.N65 M35 2012
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION The Ethics of the Lie -- CHAPTER 1 The Snare of Truth: Following and the Perfect Patsy -- CHAPTER 2 Memento and the Desire Not to Know -- CHAPTER 3 The Dirty Cop: Insomnia and the Art of Detection -- CHAPTER 4 The Banal Superhero: The Politicized Realism of Batman Begins -- CHAPTER 5 The Violence of Creation in The Prestige -- CHAPTER 6 The Hero’s Form of Appearance: The Necessary Darkness of The Dark Knight -- CHAPTER 7 A Plea for the Abandonment of Reality in Inception -- CONCLUSION Lying without Consequence -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
Summary: From Memento and Insomnia to the Batman films, The Prestige, and Inception, lies play a central role in every Christopher Nolan film. Characters in the films constantly find themselves deceived by others and are often caught up in a vast web of deceit that transcends any individual lies. The formal structure of a typical Nolan film deceives spectators about the events that occur and the motivations of the characters. While Nolan’s films do not abandon the idea of truth altogether, they show us how truth must emerge out of the lie if it is not to lead us entirely astray. The Fictional Christopher Nolan discovers in Nolan’s films an exploration of the role that fiction plays in leading to truth. Through close readings of all the films through Inception, Todd McGowan demonstrates that the fiction or the lie comes before the truth, and this priority forces us to reassess our ways of thinking about the nature of truth. Indeed, McGowan argues that Nolan’s films reveal the ethical and political importance of creating fictions and even of lying. While other filmmakers have tried to discover truth through the cinema, Nolan is the first filmmaker to devote himself entirely to the fictionality of the medium, and McGowan discloses how Nolan uses its tendency to deceive as the basis for a new kind of philosophical filmmaking. He shows how Nolan’s insistence on the priority of the fiction aligns his films with Hegel’s philosophy and understands Nolan as a thoroughly Hegelian filmmaker.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780292737839

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION The Ethics of the Lie -- CHAPTER 1 The Snare of Truth: Following and the Perfect Patsy -- CHAPTER 2 Memento and the Desire Not to Know -- CHAPTER 3 The Dirty Cop: Insomnia and the Art of Detection -- CHAPTER 4 The Banal Superhero: The Politicized Realism of Batman Begins -- CHAPTER 5 The Violence of Creation in The Prestige -- CHAPTER 6 The Hero’s Form of Appearance: The Necessary Darkness of The Dark Knight -- CHAPTER 7 A Plea for the Abandonment of Reality in Inception -- CONCLUSION Lying without Consequence -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

From Memento and Insomnia to the Batman films, The Prestige, and Inception, lies play a central role in every Christopher Nolan film. Characters in the films constantly find themselves deceived by others and are often caught up in a vast web of deceit that transcends any individual lies. The formal structure of a typical Nolan film deceives spectators about the events that occur and the motivations of the characters. While Nolan’s films do not abandon the idea of truth altogether, they show us how truth must emerge out of the lie if it is not to lead us entirely astray. The Fictional Christopher Nolan discovers in Nolan’s films an exploration of the role that fiction plays in leading to truth. Through close readings of all the films through Inception, Todd McGowan demonstrates that the fiction or the lie comes before the truth, and this priority forces us to reassess our ways of thinking about the nature of truth. Indeed, McGowan argues that Nolan’s films reveal the ethical and political importance of creating fictions and even of lying. While other filmmakers have tried to discover truth through the cinema, Nolan is the first filmmaker to devote himself entirely to the fictionality of the medium, and McGowan discloses how Nolan uses its tendency to deceive as the basis for a new kind of philosophical filmmaking. He shows how Nolan’s insistence on the priority of the fiction aligns his films with Hegel’s philosophy and understands Nolan as a thoroughly Hegelian filmmaker.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)