‘What would it be like to be on the beach?’: Christopher Nolan on adrenaline rush of war epic Dunkirk
Director known for epic fantasy films turns his focus to reality – the evacuation of Allied troops from a beach in northern France in 1940
Director Christopher Nolan has spent his career bending minds (and cities) with his films. He works on a scale that is stubbornly and obsessively cinematic and it seems that no concept, be it Batman or the multiverse or dreams, is too big for the visionary filmmaker.
His latest movie, Dunkirk, out July 21, takes him out of the fantasy world and into reality and the evacuation of Allied soldiers from a beach in northern France in May and June of 1940.
Nolan spoke about Dunkirk at the recent CinemaCon in Las Vegas, where he was promoting his epic to theatre owners.
Why Dunkirk?
As a filmmaker you’re always looking for a gap in cultural movies and Dunkirk is a story British people are raised on. It’s in our DNA practically. But it has not been addressed in the movies. So for me, it was a very exciting gap.
I’ve spent a number of years trying to figure out what’s the angle of approach, what’s the angle of attack for getting the story across? So we came upon the notion of creating a very experiential film, one that, rather than trying to address the politics of the situation, the geopolitical situation, would really put you on the beach where 400,000 people are trapped, surrounded by the enemy closing in and faced with annihilation or surrender. The fact the story ended with neither annihilation nor surrender makes it one of the greatest stories in human history.
How did you approach it?