Why there is so much hype about Christopher Nolan

Some paragraphs from an answer that I had written in Quora(About why there is so much hype about Christopher Nolan): Nolan has bridged the gap between the commercial and ART. I find the mainstream Hollywood to be formula driven,cliched and predictable. I find the Bergmans and Antonionis way too pretentious, intellectual, abstract and boring. My solution? Nolan!! He is a poor man’s version of Tarkovskys, Bergmans and Fellinis. He pursues arty themes and concepts like them. But he dresses them up like mainstream commercial stuff. Lots and lots of people crave for such a middle ground. ART films are abstract and boring for us, commercial films are cliched and dumb. Nolan gives us what we need – Commercial films that borrow good things from art films.

Another thing Nolan does is he makes his audience feel intelligent. We like solving puzzles. That is why we love detective fiction and mysteries. Nolan takes this to heights by designing movies as puzzles to be solved. And there is nothing like a reward that is earned. Let us say I decide to give 1 crore Rs to you. I have 2 options: a. I can give it as charity b. I can give it as an award for being the best quora/facebook user. Which option will you prefer? You will prefer b. You will feel that you have earned it. This psychological factor works.

Consider the screenwriting tips given by Billy Wilder( I will just quote the 7th, you may google for the rest):
7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
This is exactly what Nolan does. He gives 2+2 and lets the audience figure out that it is 4. Audience feels like they have earned it. It makes them feel intelligent.

There is one last reason for the fuss. He’s always original, always daring, and always interesting. His success means a lot to movie buffs because such successes will encourage more and more original ideas. Hollywood keeps churning out sequels, reboots, remakes, superhero films and stuff like Transformers part 20. So, if one daringly original idea wins studios will sponsor more and more original ideas.That is why there is lot of interest about Nolan. If films like his fail then studios will keep making Spider man part 6 and Transformers part 21, Star Wars 23 and so on.