At the end of last month, I received a book. Very elegant with its front cover in gray and blue characters on a white background. I will learn later that this cover produced by Spagnol Mansiaux is a patchwork of nods to the director's works. The 4th is equally neat with white on dark gray characters. Looks great… Under my hand the hardcover is soft to the touch.
And the interior is of the same ilk: immaculate paper, classic font, airy, making it easier to read, a silver ribbon as a bookmark... Almost 280 very dense, well-filled pages. And all in tribute to Christopher Nolan.
You are going to tell me that we are not in the world of video games. Certainly, since everyone knows that Christopher Nolan is a brilliant director, best known for his Batman trilogy, but also for Inception or Interstellar. Incidentally, what you may not know is that Nolan, in 2010, wanted to develop a video game based on Inception. Too bad that this project is currently at a standstill because the idea could have generated a very interesting work.
In any case, the book describes the many facets of this director by following his biography and the order in which his films were released. But it's not just that. The author (who is not at his master stroke since he had already released a book on Quentin Tarantino with the same publisher) takes the opportunity to "explain in a didactic way the phenomena used in the works of Nolan". I use the terms of the introduction page which explains the project in a few words:
The author sets out to trace a section of Christopher Nolan's filmography in this unique collection, which deciphers the inspirations, context and content of the various works through original reflections and analyses.
And it's quite stunning! A great performance by Guillaume Labrude, a graduate of the European Cinema and Audiovisual Institute in Nancy and professor of visual culture at the Condé School of Arts after defending his thesis on … Batman at the University of Lorraine… Yes, well, don't be mad at me, but I enjoy dwelling a bit on a personality from the same region as me!
We will also highlight, at the same time, the work carried out for years by Third Editions, established in Toulouse, whose "Pop culture" collection presents works on the films of Miyazaki, Quentin Tarantino, Carpenter, Wachowski, among others, or on the cinematic universes of Star Wars, Godzilla, Kaamelott etc…
Essential book therefore for any fan of Nolan - especially since a solid bibliography supports the words of the author, in addition to very erudite notes in the body of the book) which has only one defect - or a quality, depending on one's point of view): its density. No illustration, nothing to rest the eye, no breathing. It's solid, concrete. And even if the author knows how to give an alert turn to his writing, the fact remains that you have to be a good reader, even a bit intellectual, to really appreciate this high-flying work.
The classic edition, available on the publisher's website but also in bookstores, is €29,90. Otherwise, you can find an exclusive edition, "First Print", at €34,90.
