Christopher Nolan Biggest Influence Is A Science Fiction Legend
When Christopher Nolan announced that his film Interstellar would return to the science fiction genre, many of his fans were happy to see Nolan tackle something that wasn’t comic-book related.
At the time, there wasn’t a ton known about Interstellar or where it would go except that it would “depict a heroic interstellar voyage to the farthest borders of our scientific understanding.”
In a 2013 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the mind-bending director — also joined by director Edgar Wright — reflected on the work of Stanley Kubrick and how it has influenced his movies.
Christopher Nolan commented on his admiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey and other science fiction classics saying, “I think anytime you look at science fiction in movies, there are key touchstones. Metropolis. Blade Runner. 2001. Whenever you’re talking about getting off the planet, 2001 is somewhat unavoidable. But there is only one 2001. So you don’t want to get too near to that.”
Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar would be “getting off the planet,” so there was speculation that 2001: A Space Odyssey would be a direct influence on Nolan’s newest film. Leading up tot his, Nolan’s work had been historically ambitious, so perhaps the “Kubrickian” label could have been apt for Interstellar.
Christopher Nolan continued on the subject of Kubrick and 2001 saying, “From a storytelling point of view, from a directing point of view, there is one thing I associate with what he does, which is calm. There is such an inherent calm and inherent trust of the one powerful image, that he makes me embarrassed with my own work, in terms of how many different shots, how many different sound effects, how many different things we’ll throw at an audience to make an impression.”
And finally, Christopher Nolan finished by saying, “But with Kubrick, there is such a great trust of the one correct image to calmly explain something to audience. There can be some slowness to the editing. There’s nothing frenetic about it. It’s very simple. There’s a trust in simple storytelling and simple image making that actually takes massive confidence to try and emulate.”
Upon its release, many critics and movie pundits compared Christopher Nolan’s Inception to the works of Stanley Kubrick. Interstellar was the first Christopher Nolan first film to take place in outer space.
Of course, there were a number of ways Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 influence could be seen in Interstellar. Some of the ship designs appear similar or at least mildly derivative. The sweeping shots and the vastness of space definitely overlap. Plus, there’s the question of humanity’s place in the universe. And TARS is at least somewhat reminiscent of HAL 9000 (though funnier).
Additionally, there’s a “slowness” to Interstellar that appears directly related to Christopher Nolan’s above comment. We will take it.
