How does watching TDKR on a cinema screen affect spectatorship?
Can representation and narrative still be recognised or is it all lost to spectacle?
Does IMAX elevate the film as a whole?
One could say that the opinion, ‘There is no better way to watch a film than on the big screen in a cinema’ is valid when it comes to Nolan’s work. His perfected approach towards the high-quality medium of IMAX, while in turn somewhat rejecting digital film making, adds to the immersive aesthetics of the film itself. Yet, one could also say that IMAX infrastructure is incompatible when watching on the big screen, due to the constant distraction of changing frame ratios which draw drawing the attention away from the escapist intentions that the superhero genre constantly repeats.
Firstly, the opening scenes of the film in some way support the idea of watching the film on a big screen. Right from the start I feel Nolan’s intentions are to propel the audience into IMAX dominated scenes as a way of initially impressing the spectators. This is supported by how Nolan invited several prominent directors to Universal City Walk’s IMAX theatre in order to show the first 6 minutes of the film and to gain support for filming using IMAX. Marketing also went to the lengths of playing previews of “TDKR” before a screening of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol due to the substantial audiences that would attract. Furthermore, there are grander visuals and greater clarity in detail, employing the rhetoric of enhanced experience and sensory engagement associated with IMAX. In contrast, one could argue that the use of IMAX and a big screen creates an in-depth immersion experience resulting in the narrative being relegated for the spectacle, therefore resulting in the spectator losing the narrative altogether. This could once again be argued to say that big budget films like ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ have to be big scale and an aesthetic spectacle in order to make the money back due to the big budget ($250 – 300 million). One could further this argument to make the point that the ‘big screen’ doesn’t really matter as the film is a franchise movie and therefore has a tent-pole release no matter the circumstances.
A particular aspect that could be focused on is the representation of Bane (Tom Hardy). Nolan’s use of high and low angle frames towards Bane aid in highlighting the power aspects within the scene. Combined with the substantially bigger plane reflecting Bane’s visual characteristics and behavior, the cinematography demonstrates how Bane is the dominating factor/ source of disequilibrium (Todorov’s narrative theory) creating a fearful atmosphere for the spectator. One could say that Bane is being represented as a stereotypical villain e.g. muscly (bigger than the Batman), a muzzle mask (which has predatorial connotations) and destructive intentions; this could be seen as unfair as Nolan is feeding the audience unrealistic aspects of character. Furthermore, Nolan uses Bane to relate to a socio-political issue of terrorism; Bane and his mercenaries, with their communist ideology, reflect past events that audiences would be able to relate to. This could be developed to say that anyone who has a different point of view to the social order (created by Batman) is represented as an animal needing to be muzzled. Overall, by having the ‘big screen’, it exaggerates Bane’s intimidating representation as he is visually bigger/ more dominating on the screen. During the plane scene, Nolan focuses on increasing the immersion experience for the audience. By using Hans Zimmer’s intense score and rapidly edited scenes it adds to the increasingly dramatic atmosphere. In a cinema, all of these aspects would be amplified which Nolan considered in order to support the audience’s intention of escapism. Likewise, a particular aspect that will be elevated for a more active audience, is Nolan’s auteur characteristics coming through. For example, within the plane scene, Nolan uses an excessive number of wide frames. This relates to the idea of the film being a spectacle for the audience to gain excitement from therefore linking to Timothy Corrigan’s proposal that the auteur is in fact, ‘a commercial strategy for organizing audience reception’, by increasing excitement, Nolan increases the commercial success of the film.
Another set piece to focus on when concerning the ‘big screen’ is Bane’s attack on the stock exchange. The scene uses the mis-en-scene to portray the stock brokers in a negative light as we witness them disregarding the working men, this sympathetic mood is immediately diminished when we see their weapons, inducing fear. Nolan does this to enlighten the audience about the narrative and how Bane’s approaches appealed to the lower classes. Furthermore, this scene also offers competing and potentially reactionary narratives on the 2008 economic crisis, class warfare and the ‘Occupy’ movement, as we see the lower classes acting out and Banes plan of stealing money in order to cause a financial crisis for Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale). This is supported by the use of European accents, drawing the audiences support to a more American driven patriotism. The IMAX usage once again lends a positive approach towards cinema as Nolan opens the scene with a wide, aerial shot made more impressive by the greater detail in colour this increases the spectator’s immersion and enhances the impact of the mis-en-scene. However, in this scene (and throughout the film) Nolan had to switch to digital cameras when it was a scene of dialogue as the IMAX cameras made too much noise. This then meant that the ratios of frames changed when the cameras were changed. As this was shown on a bigger screen this switch would have become more noticeable and therefore a distraction when watching the film. One could develop this to say that the audience’s emotional response is therefore damaged as they are “taken out” of the moment due to the noticeable change. On the other hand, a more active audience would say Nolan uses the shifts in scale to achieve a ‘variety of expressive ends’ (Allison Whitney): to denote moments of character revelation or other cognitive shifts; to instill feelings of weightlessness by using IMAX in montage sequences with comparatively claustrophobic 35mm to facilitate moments of contemplation. This could be elevated to say that these frame variations encourage a form of cinephiliac spectatorship, pushing the viewer to question the use of IMAX or 35mm. Overall, I feel the IMAX doesn’t support the ‘big screen’ at this moment due to the changes in frames at the dialogue driven cuts. On the contrary, if the viewing conditions were to change and the spectator was watching the film on a smaller screen, this would make the varying frames less noticeable and the emotional response would be maintained.
Similarly, at the attack on the stock exchange we witness Batman for the first time in 40 minutes. I feel that Nolan harnesses the aesthetic impact of the bigger screen in order to elevate the symbolic character of Batman and how he is a figure of hope for the city of Gotham. Although Wayne brings across good morals (using his money to benefit others) some would argue that he is a stereotypical business man as he is white, rich and fairly good looking, this in turn brings across the idea of an unfair world which induces a more depressed mood on the audience. Along with this, one could say that Nolan’s presented Batman as an unrealistic representation of masculinity due to his cape, mask, gadgets and superhero mannerisms. He is more a product of spectacle than realistic representation. On the other hand, in ‘Society of the Spectacle’, Debord mentions that to talk about real representations is pointless as all film is spectacle, demonstrating to the audience that Batman should be taken seriously as that is what masculinity is associated with in the present day. Determining Nolan’s auteur, the wide frame of the cinema screen enables the spectator to witness the contrasts in colour on many of Nolan’s sequences. For example, when Batman enters the scene, the colours go very much darker so that a lot of the shot is black. This could also draw to one of Batman’s unique selling points about his fractured childhood and isolated adult life. One could even take this to say that it’s a familiar theme running through, not only Batman films, but all DC universe movies as they take a much more stark, realistic approach than that of the Marvel universe.
Another Narrative set piece that could be used as a comment on the ‘big screen’ is Bane’s attack on the stadium. In this scene, the immersive surroundings of the cinema help even a passive audience notice the wider real-life context parallels and the socio-political ideology. For example, Nolan uses Bane’s attack on a widely publicised event to draw connections to terrorism and more specifically 9/11. This is supported by a following scene of jets flying past in an aerial camera shot along with the military ‘notifying the president’. Nolan goes on to purposefully show Bane coming out of the shadows in a tracking shot as this elevates the fact that Bane had been operating “under the governments nose” this whole time. This climatic set piece is elevated through Nolan’s cross-cutting between characters and Hans Zimmer’s score continuously building to a crescendo. In addition, one could say that Bane’s sudden appearance to the world could fall as a genre trope for the superhero genre. The majority of films in the superhero genre follow the same formulaic guide-lines therefore many of them have been deemed ‘predictable’. The DC Universe also has a web of intertextuality that it uses to invest the audience in the characters. Another way that they do this is by making four-quadrat films which are therefore universally intelligible, appealing to everyone. This goes against the idea that the ‘big screen’ is the main enticement towards the film as all Warner Bros. has to do is appeal to the mass audience through the superhero genre and they will make back the money spent. Consequently, this could be linked to the ‘death of the author’ (Barthes) and how the spectator brings as much to the text as the author, as the film needs to contain certain aspects that appeal to the audience, limiting the auteur. Nolan disagrees with this and instead pushes the use of IMAX (‘I wanted to give them a chance to see potential’) but does so in a way which associates the film medium with notions of quality, artistic integrity, work ethic and nostalgic connection. For example, he prefers to use film as he believes digital ‘looks inferior against an original negative anamorphic print or an IMAX one’.
Once again, I could make the point that the cinema screen aids in emphasizing Nolan’s auteur touch in the film as the stadium being destroyed reflects his reluctance to use CGI. To create the destruction in the scene Nolan actually blew up a football field as he felt that would have a greater impact, and create a greater emotional response, on the spectator. This is also shown through his literal cast of thousands and him tearing apart a plane in the opening sequence. It could also be said the cinema screen can diminish Nolan’s auteur touch on female representation. In the following scenes Nolan represents Catwoman (Anne Hathaway)as a femme fatale (an auteur characteristic for a lot of his other female characters) along with emphasisng her use of her sexuality to manipulate others. When in her company the audience repeatedly witness the ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey) as she is continuously underestimated by men and in some cases literally surrounded. One could say that by presenting her amongst the spectacle of a grander scale, it diminishes these representations and that if the viewing conditions were different for the spectator (sat in front of a smaller screen at home) her use of femininity etc. would be more apparent.
In conclusion, considering all the arguments, I think that the opinion is justified. One reason for this is because of Nolan’s use of IMAX. Accompanied with his auteur, long, wide angle shots, IMAX overall aids the immersion experience due to the increased quality of film and detail. Although one could argue that the representations are lost in the spectacle, I think that particularly Bane’s representation is improved as he is visually emphasized as being a villain to be feared. I feel that in the cinema, viewing conditions are better as you don’t have to worry about distractions like your phone. If this was the case it would disrupt the emotional response of the spectator. For a more active audience, I think that the ‘big screen’ aids in highlighting the social-political issues of terrorism and communist ideologies and Nolan’s auteur style. Overall, the big screen allows for Nolan’s auteur imprint and intentions to be emphasised, raising the film from being just a mass market/commercially driven response.
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