English Literature
Something many fans may not know is that Christopher Nolan is actually an English literature graduate of University College London. Nolan has said his studies have largely influenced his film-making.
“One thing I did get from it, while I was making films at the same time with the college film society, was that I started thinking about the narrative freedoms that authors had enjoyed for centuries and it seemed to me that filmmakers should enjoy those freedoms as well,” said Nolan.
The director has shown the willingness to take narrative freedoms before, most notably in the aforementioned Memento, but more important to me than the influence his studies had on his past movies is the fact he was studying literature of the English speaking world while in London. That bodes very well to him have picked up a Fleming novel or two at some point.
Ian Fleming is a phenomenal writer. Any fan of the Bond films who hasn’t read Fleming is desperately missing out. His novels are almost impossible to put down once started. The man once spread 18 holes of golf over 50 pages and made it absolutely thrilling (Goldfinger).
All directors are in the business of storytelling, just as authors are, but some definitely have more of an appreciation for the written word than others. Nolan seems to be in the camp that greatly values novels, as we saw with The Dark Knight Rises and the heavy influence Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities had throughout the film. Using that love and appreciation of literature, Nolan would surely be able to translate his background into a masterful 007 tale.
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