Inception: Nolan Film Noir

nolan film noir

 

I’m starting to realize that Nolan Film Noir is just another way of saying “Nolan film.” Walk with me: in almost every scene of Inception, someone changes their mind or tries to change someone else’s mind. In koine Greek, metanoia “change mind” is often translated “repent.” That’s the film: face your inner demons to face your outer demons. Twelve levels compose Cob’s subconscious – twelve memories of regret. That makes twelve things to change, histories to rewrite, regrets to repent from in the deepest parts of his mind.

nolan film noir

Architects of dreams in Inception world create and perceive simultaneously. Let’s go with one of the other interpretations: Inception symbolizes all film. “Inception” injects the theme of the movie into the mind of the audience. That’s what stories do. Plato once called for the immediate ejection of all storytellers in Athens out of fear and not boredom. He knew stories threatened his philosophy with alternative ideas. Every storyteller hold an idea they believe and hope to prove unequivocally to you, the audience member. For the sake of argument, call it inception. This question might follow: what’s Inception’s theme? If all storytellers practice inception, then what’s Nolan saying?

Life conquers death when we change our mind about our own regret, even in our old age.

Repentance over our regret takes work, hard work, even dying to ourselves. Most often in the film when people wake up to reality, they’re dying or doing something that could also function as dying. Cob’s first kick immerses him in a bathtub. The whole group could have drowned in the communal baptism via van bridge jump. A building explodes. A knife buries deep into a sternum. A bullet sears through a subconscious. Everytime someone wakes up, there’s death involved, even with Cob. In fact, my original thoughts about Ariadne came close – she leads Cob out of the labyrinth of his own regret. Moll takes on Satanic quality in those moments, especially the “throw yourself down and you will be rescued” scene. Part Judas, part Lucifer, Mal terrified me. Here’s the irony: Cob needed to die to himself to wake up to reality. So did Mal, but she let regret win out and actually died to embody  Cob’s own regret – all twelve floors of it.

I could get into the symbolism of “twelve,” of the freight train, of “the foolish man build his house on sand” scene – towers on the beach and all – but there’s a more important question: if Inferno influences the film in some secondary or subconscious way, why the layers?

Let’s take a look at Nolan’s first work, Doodlebug:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WhKt_CkXD0]

Notice anything? Here’s my checklist:

  • Black and white
  • 1940’s phone
  • 1940’s clock
  • time ticking away
  • someone calling, we never find out who
  • drowning the outside world
  • stomp out a “roach”
  • layers upon layers of Russian-doll men
  • bizarre twilight-zone feel

Why are these important?

nolan film noirBecause every single film the Nolans have made feels similar. This short film borrows from classic film noir tropes. We can place all of his work either the neo-noir or the noir category. Film noir typically involves a convoluted plot, some morally ambiguous character (detective or self-made detective), often an amnesiac, caught between corrupt law enforcement and criminals who got into crime as a product of environment. This detectivish character often walks the line between cops and criminals under the influence of some femme-fatale, a dangerous seductress dating back to the fae who made men insane via pleasure and sirens who sang to sailors until their ships dashed against the rocks. The femme-fatale may or may not end up good, but she gets the “detective” into trouble. White and black show up in alternating patterns, most often in that venetian blinds cliché that blocks incoming light to look like prison bars. The worlds of noir paint pessimistic portraits of life or at least show the desperation involved in attaining idealism. Layers show up often, as in the Doodlebug short, since there’s always another deeper, darker layer of paint on the old underbelly of society. Odds stack against the protagonist, beating the living snot out of him or her.

READ NEXT:  Panasonic portable VHS 1979 TV commercial

Common characters: hardboiled/morally questionable detective, jealous husbands, claim adjusters, down-and-out writers, anyone smoking

Common settings: urban, labyrinth, bars, lounges, nightclubs, gambling dens, opium dens, visually complex/industrial sets for the climax

Common plots: crime investigation by concerned amateur, murder, greed, jealousy, false accusations, betrayal, double-crosses, conspiracy, amnesia (last three lists via Wikipedia)

Now drag his career through some of those filters:

All of them appear dark with stark shades of white.

Femme Fatale:

Detective-like Protag:

  • Lenny, a claim-adjuster “detective” with anterograde memory loss (Memento)
  • Batman, hardboiled “detective” (Batman Begins)
  • Robert Angier, a morally flawed & hardboiled magician-detective (Prestige)
  • Batman again (Dark Knight)
  • Cobb, an alienated & down-and-out “extractor” aka “detective” (Inception)

Sets:

  • Urban, drug-deal sites, bars, nightclubs, crappy hotels (Memento)
  • Urban, nightclubs, gambling/drug dens, industrial, factories (Batman Begins)
  • Urban, bars, lounges, visually complex climax/industrial (Prestige)
  • Urban, gambling dens, lounges, etc. (Dark Knight)
  • Urban, LABYRINTH, lounges, visually COMPLEX (Inception)

Plots:

  • Investigation by amateur, “amnesia,” murder, false accusation (Memento)
  • Crime investigation by “amateur,” greed, betrayal, conspiracy (Batman Begins)
  • Investigation by amateur, murder, greed, jealousy, double-crosses like the plague (Prestige)
  • Conspiracy, jealousy, murder, false accusation, con game (Dark Knight)
  • Murder, greed, jealousy, false accusation, betrayal, conspiracy, amnesia (Inception)

I excluded Insomnia and The Following to cut down on word count and because I haven’t seen either yet. Two quick thoughts:

  1. I’ll follow up next week on how this helps us interpret his films
  2. This works well with Batman, but unless you rewrite Superman mythology, it clashes with his character. Burrows and Wallace from Gotham:

A later Batman editor perspicaciously noted, Gotham is New York’s nourish side—‘Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at 3 a.m., November 28 in a cold year’—whereas Superman’s Metropolis presents New York’s cheerier face, ‘Manhattan between Fourteenth and One Hundred and Tenth Streets on the brightest, sunniest July day of the year.’

No wonder they filmed the Batmans in Chicago. I wish luck to them for Superman and to the creators of the new Spiderman. At best, those films will be difficult.

Thoughts? Questions? Libelous allegations?


Be sure to share and comment. And subscribe.

Comment early, comment often, keep it civil:

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. mark neuenschwander

    I like it when you talk movies.

    1. lanceschaubert

      I love it when you talk dirty about me talking about movies.

      See that? See what I did there? It’s noirish…

    2. lanceschaubert

      Actually, Mark, if you have like seven of your favorite noir shots, I can wrap this series up with a head nod to 9artphoto!

Quick note from Lance about this post: when you choose to comment (or share this post with your friends) you help other readers just like you.

How?

Well, see, your comments & sharing whisper a few things to those who come after you:

The first is that this site is a safe place to speak up & stay curious. That it's civil. That discussion is encouraged. That there's no such thing as a stupid question (being a student of Socrates, I really and truly believe this). That talking to one another and growing together is more important than anything we could possibly publish. That the point is growing in virtue and growing together and growing wise. That discovery is invention, deference is originality, that we all can rise together. The only folks I'm going to take comments down from are obvious jerks who argue in bad faith, don't stay curious, or actively make personal attacks. And, frankly, I'd rather we talk here than on some social media farm — I will never show ads and the only thing I'm selling anywhere on the site or my mailing list is just the stuff I make.

You're also helping folks realize that anything you & they build together is far more important than anything you come to me to read. I take the things I write about seriously, but I don't take myself seriously: I play the fool, I hate cults of personality, and I also don't really like being the center of attention (believe it or not). I would much rather folks connect because of an introduction I've made or because they commented with one another back and forth and then build something beautiful together. My favorite contributions have been lifelong business and love partnerships from two people who have forgotten I introduced them. Some of my closest friends NOW I literally met on another blog's comment section fifteen years ago. I would love for that to happen here — let two of you meet and let me fade into the background.

Last, you help me revise. I'm wrong. Often. I'm not embarrassed to admit it or worried about being cancelled or publicly shamed. I make a fool out of myself (that's sort of the point). So as I get feedback, I can say, "I was wrong about that" and set a model for curious, consistent learning, and growing in wisdom. I'm blind to what I don't know and as grows the island of my knowledge so grows the shoreline of my ignorance. It's the recovery of innocence on the far end of experience: a child is in a permanent state of wonder. So are the wise: they aren't afraid of saying, "I don't know. That's new: please teach me." That's my goal, comments help. And I read all reviews: my skin's tough, but that's not license to be needlessly cruel. We teach one another our habits and there's a way to civilly demolish an idea without demolishing another person: just because I personally can take the world's meanest 1-star review doesn't mean we should teach one another how to be crueler on the internet.

For three magical reasons — your brave curiosity, your community, & my ignorance:

Please comment & share with friends how you prefer to share:

Follow The Showbear Family Circus on WordPress.com

Thanks for reading the Showbear Family Circus.
  1. "I think you can write about yourself without the vain, self-focused naval gazing. Good storytelling is a gift from writers…

  2. "His fans didn’t just write fiction about it. One calculated the tensile strength of the material it was made of.…

  3. My mother was the volatile Italian and my dad was the calming influence when things went awry. Dad was our…

  4. Lancelot, thank you, for that congrats, but I fear that continues my jinxed lament - that the late Andy Warhol…

Copyright © 2010— 2023 Lancelot Schaubert.
All Rights Reserved.
If we catch you using any of the substance of this site to train any form of artificial intelligence, we will prosecute
to the fullest extent permitted by any law.

Human children and adults always welcome
to learn bountifully and in joy.