Christopher Nolan: The Master of Balancing Entertainment and Seriousness

　　The film review website Rotten Tomatoes held a series of activities to celebrate its 25th anniversary, including voting for the best director in the past 25 years. Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve entered the finals, and Nolan finally won the championship.
　　Nolan is undoubtedly one of the most important directors at the moment, with a voice in Hollywood and a large number of fans among the audience. On the day he came to Beijing to promote his new movie “Oppenheimer,” he bought a ticket for 1,200 yuan on Xianyu. As for the special movie theater I attended in Shanghai, there were already fans standing under the scorching sun an hour before the show started, holding posters of “Oppenheimer” and waiting.
　　The poster, dominated by black and orange-red, shows a large rising mushroom cloud and the silhouette of Oppenheimer. Under the title of the film is a line of small words: The world will never return.
　　I’m really looking forward to seeing “Oppenheimer.” Nolan’s early short films left a deep impression on me, especially “The Following” in 1999 and “Memento” in 2000. The former was Nolan’s first feature film. He convened the workshop team while working, and every Saturday I packed the equipment and crew into a taxi and ran to the filming location. I filmed for several months with freedom, precision, and energy, which is enviable. The latter was a turning point in his career. He pursued the ultimate purity in script structure and told an uncomplicated crime story in a dazzling way.
　　Although I don’t like every film Nolan has made since he entered the Hollywood studios, I still admire his stable output and his unwavering old-school energy in production methods. Finding a balance between entertainment and seriousness has also given him many privileges in Hollywood.
　　I once wondered whether Nolan might abandon that all-encompassing balance and move towards pure entertainment or more permanent serious questions. But the answer naturally emerged while reading “Nolan Concerto”. When Nolan talked about the connection between his high school education and how he found a political path in Hollywood: “What relationship do you have to maintain with the system? What is the relationship between you and the system?” Resist it, but don’t want to push it too far. Many film creators try to fight against Hollywood, or don’t fight against Hollywood enough. You always have to test the bottom line of this structure. You want to play this game, but you can’t play this game. Right For me, this is what I learned from my boarding school experience.”
　　Just like his obsession with the physical world, on the one hand he is obedient and his creation is always within its boundaries. The suffocating silence of the few seconds after the atomic bomb explosion is not a movie The technique is that light travels faster than sound. On the other hand, I want to show my initiative, use time as a toy, and let my imagination become concrete. He had fun doing it.
　　This fun is ultimately conveyed to the audience through the screen. The three-hour “Oppenheimer” is compact and intriguing. The two hearings are intertwined and both lead to the decline of personal destiny. Strauss failed to enter the cabinet and Oppenheimer lost his security clearance. “This is a world of energy and paradox, and not everyone can accept it.” Katie, played by Emily Blunt, as the wife, constantly persuades Oppenheimer to resist those unfounded accusations, and then, One morning, she stood quietly by the fence and looked into the distance. Oppenheimer called her. She turned around and found tears on her face, mixed with grievance, anger, and despair. That was the most touching moment for the character in the whole movie.