50th birthday of one of the most successful, creative & imaginative directors in the world - Christopher Nolan. The man who has given us films like The Batman Trilogy, Interstellar, Inception, Memento and others.

Here's a small thread dedicated to this legendary filmmaker.

The name of his production company, Syncopy Inc. derives from "syncope", the medical term for fainting or loss of consciousness. It is a reference to a dream state where the audience is asked to be creative and to formulate their own opinions as to the meaning of his films.

Before direction, Nolan made three short films out of which Doodlebug is the only available one. This psychological thriller film was written, directed, shot and edited by Nolan himself. Watch the black & white film here.

Nolan made three films before Batman Begins in 2005. His first feature Following made on a shoestring budget of $6,000 is a crime thriller set in London. One of the leads in Following is named Cobb, the same name character is played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception.

His second feature Memento is a psychological thriller based on his brother Jonathan's pitch about a man finding his wife's killer while suffering from short-term memory loss.

It has a unique structure with black & white scenes in chronological & colour scenes in reverse order.

The film's idea was copied by A. R. Murugadoss and simplified into a Tamil film Ghajini, which he later remade in Hindi starring Aamir Khan.

After watching the Nolan film & the Murugadoss film, one will realise that both the films are as different as Inception & Interstellar.

Nolan's next is about two Los Angeles homicide detectives - Al Pacino and Hillary Swank - investigating a murder in Nightmute, Alaska. Watch the film to know why it was called Insomnia.

Spoiler Alert: Robin Williams played the murderer in the film, contrary to his comedic roles.

Nolan gave a new life to the DC Universe with Batman Begins, his next film.

"Aiming for a darker and more realistic tone, a primary goal for Nolan's vision was to engage the audience's emotional investment in both the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities of the lead character."

Nolan's next, The Prestige is about two rival stage magicians Robert Angier & Alfred Borden who are obsessed with performing the greatest trick ever.

With two shocking twists within last two minutes, The Prestige is often regarded as his best film. https://twitter.com/funda_filmy/status/1280792995789303808

Nolan came back to the Batman world in 2008 with The Dark Knight, the greatest superhero movie ever made.

Heath Ledger, for his insane performance of Joker, was awarded the Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards posthumously.

It took Nolan ten years to write his next dream-heist film, Inception.

He first pitched it to Warner Bros. in 2001, but decided that he needed more experience making large-scale films since "he wanted its scale to be infinite as the potential of the human mind is infinite."

About Inception's ambiguous ending, Christopher Nolan has famously said "I choose to believe that Cobb gets back to his kids, because I have young kids. The most important emotional thing about the top spinning at the end is that Cobb is not looking at it. He doesn't care."

Nolan gave the perfect closure to his Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. Batman aka Bruce Wayne saves Gotham from Bane and passes on the mantle to John Blake aka Robin.

Nolan even sneaked in his tribute to The Joker in the last film of the trilogy.

Nolan literally went out of the world in his next, Interstellar in 2014.

He beautifully integrated the scientific concepts of black holes & space-time continuum with the emotional themes - a father-daughter relationship & the human instinct to explore new worlds for survival.

Dunkirk, his 2017 project is based on the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II that Nolan portrayed from three different perspectives: land, sea, and air.

Dunkirk earned Nolan his first Best Director nomination at the Oscars. It is the highest-grossing World War II film.

Nolan's next Tenet is said to be a time-heist espionage epic revolving around World War III.

After several delays, the film is set to release in 24 countries from August 26. Its Indian release date is yet to be finalised. Cannot wait for TENET!

Nolan is married to Emma Thomas who has produced all his films.

His films have been shot under fake titles named for his children: The Dark Knight - "Rory's First Kiss", Inception - "Oliver's Arrow", The Dark Knight Rises - "Magnus Rex" & Interstellar - "Flora's Letter".

Christopher Nolan has given us memorable characters and mind-bending movies till date and will surely continue to entertain us with his genre-defying cinema.

In Nolan, We Trust.