Christopher Nolan reveals his favourite Radiohead song
British filmmaker Christopher Nolan is frequently regarded as one of the greatest directors of the 21st century – and for good reason. With acclaimed movies from The Dark Knight to Inception and Interstellar under his belt, Nolan has attracted large audiences through his mix of enjoyable action with emotionally complex themes and unconventional narrative structures.
As a child, Nolan became enamoured with cinema after watching movies like Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey, deciding that becoming a filmmaker was his true calling. After spending much of the 1990s working on corporate films to gain experience, he made his first short film, Larceny, in 1996.
Nolan then made his first feature, Following, in true independent style, taking up most of the significant production tasks himself, including filming and editing. Shot on just £3,000, most of which covered the cost of film stock, the movie’s cast and crew primarily consisted of Nolan’s friends. The success of his debut allowed him to pursue a much larger project, Memento, in 2000, which was met with critical acclaim.
Discussing the transition from Following to Memento, Nolan told The Seattle Times: “The difference between shooting Following with a group of friends wearing our own clothes and my mum making sandwiches to spending $4million of somebody else’s money on Memento and having a crew of a hundred people is, to this day, by far the biggest leap I’ve ever made.”
Since then, Nolan has become one of Hollywood’s most prominent directors, with his newest title, Oppenheimer, debuting in July 2023. While Nolan’s movies are known for their unusual style, they’re also noted for their use of music.
The director has collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer seven times, with their partnership resulting in some of the most iconic movie soundtrack moments of the past few decades. His work on Nolan’s films Inception, Interstellar and Dunkirk earned him three respective Academy Award nominations, and his work on The Dark Knight won him a BAFTA.
Although Nolan mainly features scores by the likes of Zimmer in his movies, he sometimes includes popular music, such as Thom Yorke’s ‘Analyse’, which can be heard in The Prestige. That’s not the first time Nolan has used Yorke’s music – the Radiohead song ‘Treefingers’ was included on the soundtrack of Memento.
However, while appearing on Desert Island Discs, Nolan explained that he originally wanted another Radiohead song included on the soundtrack – ‘Paranoid Android’ from OK Computer.
Referring to the song as “one of my favourites of Radiohead,” he explained, “It came out in 1997, just as I moved to Los Angeles. It was an important time in my life. When I was first looking for music to put on the end of Memento, I did the first couple of screenings using this track on the end. In the end, we couldn’t secure the rights.”
Nolan added, “I think, it was originally three songs that the band put together and it’s an extraordinary use of very positive seeming melodies to address something a lot darker underneath.”
Listen to the song below.
