Christopher Nolan Explains DUNKIRK's "Complicated Structure"
In most of Christopher Nolan's movies, the director approaches his stories from an unconventional angle in regards to structure. It's built into the very fabric of Memento, there are layered cross-cuts galore in Inception, and The Prestige is full of flashbacks that force you to pay close attention to exactly when what you're seeing is taking place. So it's no surprise that he's bringing a similar approach to Dunkirk, his first war film, which comes out later this year.
Nolan spoke with a French magazine called Premiere (via The Playlist) about the "complicated structure" of his new movie. Here's the English translation:
“The film is told from three points of view. The air (planes), the land (on the beach) and the sea (the evacuation by the navy). For the soldiers embarked in the conflict, the events took place on different temporalities. On land, some stayed one week stuck on the beach. On the water, the events lasted a maximum day; And if you were flying to Dunkirk, the British spitfires would carry an hour of fuel. To mingle these different versions of history, one had to mix the temporal strata. Hence the complicated structure; Even if the story, once again, is very simple.”
Additionally, we now know which actors will be the anchors of those three separate perspectives. Harry Styles will be on the beach, Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy will be on the sea, and Tom Hardy will be in the air.
Dunkirk blasts into theaters on July 21, 2017.