Christopher Nolan reveals the nine movies which have greatly influenced his work

Christopher Nolan is widely considered one of the most impressive and captivating movie directors of the modern age.

The director has been so far sweeping the awards ceremonies with his latest film Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer won a whole host of awards, including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture at the Golden Globes and also napped Best Director at the Critic's Choice Awards.

Like any film lover, Nolan has his particular favorites - and if you were expecting any of them to be superhero blockbusters, then I'm afraid you will be disappointed.

However, some of the films mentioned might be ones you enjoy just as much as the famed director.

That being said, some are so old that I hadn't even heard of them or their reputation - so we are all in for shockers:

20th Century Fox

Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)

Speaking about how he tackled the mammoth task of bringing Batman back from oblivion with his Dark Knight trilogy, the director praised Michael Mann’s Heat for its scope, saying it'd influenced him to make ‘Batman Begins as big as we could make it’.

“One of the biggest epic films I have ever seen is Michael Mann’s Heat. That is a true Los Angeles story, just wall-to-wall within the city. Okay, we’ll make it a city story,” he added.

Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1984)

Same with bringing Batman back to the big screen, Nolan also found a similar issue with re-creating the city of Gotham.

So he took inspiration from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner in order to make the city feel as real as possible.

“Blade Runner is actually one of the most successful films of all time in terms of constructing that reality using sets,” Nolan explained.

“With Batman Begins, I immediately gravitated toward the visual treatment that Ridley Scott had come up with, in terms of how you shoot these massive sets to make them feel real and not like impressive sets.”

Warner Bros

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1933)

While Batman Begins was successful, it would pale in comparison to critical acclaim the follow up, The Dark Knight, would receive - which gave us Heath Ledger's mesmerising performance of The Joker.

Part of the ideas that went into the character was inspired by the German expressionist film Metropolis by Fritz Lang and his The Testament of Dr. Mabuse film.

Nolan gave both films significant praise as he stated Metropolis is a ‘key touchstone’ and said The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is ‘essential research for anyone attempting to write a supervillain.’

Warner Bros

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

As Nolan often delves into sci-fi there is no surprise he has taken inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey - most notably for his 2014 film Interstellar.

While I love Nolan’s sci-fi thriller I will have to admit, I still haven’t got around to watching A Space Odyssey.

It’s on my to-watch list though I promise.

“You can’t pretend 2001 doesn’t exist when you’re making Interstellar,” Nolan has said.

He also added that he ‘didn’t doubt [Kubrick’s] world for an instant”.

The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, 1983)

While the space sci-fi genre may not be as big as it once was, there are still plenty of films to draw inspiration from.

The Right Stuff was so good that Nolan claims that he insisted all the crew watch it ahead of filming as he deemed it almost ‘perfect’.

“The other film I’d have to point to is The Right Stuff,” Nolan said.

“I screened a print of it for the crew before we started because that’s a film that not enough people have seen on the big screen. It’s an almost perfectly made film.”

20th Century Fox

Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994)

Now this entry surprised even me - but it seems even Nolan can appreciate a dumb 90s adrenaline-filled action thriller.

Speed has a simple concept - Keanu Reeves must defeat a terrorist who has concocted a plan that means if a public bus doesn’t maintain a certain speed it will blow up.

Nolan has called it a ‘ticking-clock nail-biter' and was able to employ this same dread, anticipation and tension for his World War II film in Dunkirk.

Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981)

For Dunkirk, Nolan also took inspiration from British classic Chariots of Fire to create the perfectly tense atmosphere using sound and visual splendor.

“The visual splendour, intertwined narratives, and aggressively anachronistic music of Chariots of Fire combined to create a masterpiece of British understatement,” Nolan has said.

20th Century Fox

Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

Nolan also praised David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia for giving a slightly different experience at the movies compared to at home and said 'the very subtle shadow detail and the particular tonality of skies' emerge much sooner on a 70mm screening than a digital version.

For his own work, Nolan has long said that his films are shot for the movie screen and for the best experience, fans should see them in the cinema.

And it's hard to disagree with him because seeing some Nolan’s flicks on the big screen certainly is something.