17. About Time Too: From Interstellar to Following, Christopher Nolan’s Continuing Preoccupation with Time-Travel

Creating Claustrophobia in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk

“…The pace of the stories is usually quicker, involves plenty of angles, and fast editing rhythm, and asks viewers to decipher the fast-changing images as one comprehensible sequence by filling in the gaps. In accordance with Furby's (2015) statement that most of the film narratives employ a certain time travel, since they "reshuffle and reorder time, stretch and shrink duration, and alter the frequency of events" (2015, p. 249), time in action cinema is also manipulated -scenes are sped up or slowed down with the aim to move the audience (for more, see Wucher, 2019). Thus, such and similar representations and manipulations of time (e.g., of a single sequence, or multiple timelines) can utilise action-time and screen-time for a disorienting effect.…”

“…Time is strikingly represented by the rapidly unspooling rolls of celluloid on a projector" (Olson, 2015, p. 47). Furby (2015), includes all of Nolan's films into the concept of time travel of narrative, and emphasises the films that have time travel in narrative, like Interstellar. Although the narratives of Following (1998, director Nolan), Memento (2000, director Nolan), Insomnia (2002, director Nolan) and The Prestige and the way their plot is revealed on screen are described differently, a puzzle, a two-way unwinding rope, a matryoshka doll, or a simple flashback and flashforward inclusion to maintain suspension, all of them, among other Nolan films, manipulate time and create a complex story that increases audience understanding of the character experiences.…”