Christopher Nolan’s farewell letter to Batman

In July 2012, The Dark Knight Rises completed the successful trilogy of Chris Nolan. Flashback.

Christopher Nolan said goodbye to Batman -And To superhero movies in general- with The Dark Knight Rises,, To be reviewed this evening on TMC. A blockbuster less loved than its predecessor, but which does not lack interest and which marked the end of a dark trilogy and rich in twists and turns started in 2005 with Batman Beginswhose summit was reached in 2008 with The Dark Knight (a posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger In Joker, and a billion dollars in revenue on the planet). In parallel with this third film, Nolan then released the book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight TrilogY, and published in preface a moving declaration to say goodbye to the black knight. Here is its translation.

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“Alfred. Gordon. Lucius. Bruce… Wayne. These names have ended up signifying a lot for me. Today, my farewell to these characters and their universe will take place in three weeks. It is the ninth anniversary of my son. He was born when I gave birth to the tumbler in my garage, from pieces of various models. Work where everyday life calls for crowds of extras, explosions of buildings or robberies at thousands of feet of altitude.

I am often asked if I had always had the idea of ​​a trilogy. It was as if I was asked if I had planned to grow, get married or have children. It’s complicated to answer. When David (Goyer, Co-Scenarist) And I started working on the story of Bruce, we touched the ideas of what was going to happen afterwards, but we deflated, because we did not want to look too far in the future. I didn’t want to know more than Bruce, I wanted to experience this with him. I told David and Johah (Jonathan Nolan, his brother and co-series) to put everything in each film. The cast and the team gave everything in the first film. Nothing was lost. Nothing “kept for later”. They built an entire city. Afterwards, Christian (Bale)Michael (Caine) and Gary (Oldman) and Morgan (Freeman) and Liam (Neeson) and Cillian (Murphy) started to live there. Christian took hold of the life of the Bruce Wayne and made him exciting. He brought us into the minds of a pop icon and never discredited us the methods of Bruce.

I would never have thought that we would make a second film-do there are good suites? Why take the risk? But as soon as I knew where Bruce was going to have to go, and as soon as I started to see his opponent, the idea of ​​a series became necessary. The team was reunited again, and we were back in Gotham. The city had changed in three years. She was enlarged. She had become more true, more modern. And a new strength of chaos threatened her. A scary clown, ultimate version, made terribly alive by Heath (Ledger). We hadn’t lost anything on the first film, but there were things that we had not done -a Batman costume with a flexible neck, scenes shot in Imax. And things we were afraid of doing -Batmobile, burn the dirty money from the underworld to show that the villain had an extraordinary goal. We used the apparent safety of a suite to get rid of conventions and we got started for the darkest corners of Gotham.

… “

“… I would never have thought that we would make a third episode-are there a good second suites? But I did not stop wondering about the end of Bruce’s quest, And once David and I discovered it, I had to see it by myself. I have called everyone to go to Gotham. , wiser … but it hid something. Gotham rotted by the foundations. A new evil grew in the depths. Bruce thought there was no need for Batman. He was mistaken, like myself I was wrong. The Batman was to come back. I guess he will always come back.

Michael, Morgan, Gary, Cillian, Liam, Heath, Christian… Bale. These names have ended up signifying a lot for me. The time I spent in Gotham to take care of one of the most resistant and appreciated figures of pop culture was the most difficult and gratifying experience that a filmmaker can hope. I like to think that I will miss him, but he was never particularly sentimental. “

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