The Frozen Manifestations: An Analysis of Christopher Nolan’s Women Characters in Interstellar

Films are sovereign endeavors constructed through the medium of artistic creation embossing its reflections on cultural, social and political aspects of the then society from which it is born. Films have carved their own niche in constructing a world and providing with a space for one’s endless imagination. Though manipulative in its own terms, Films have been acknowledged as one of the most powerful pillars in the firmament of visual media generating its conspicuous control over the emergence of a social perspective among the latest generation.


Abstract
Films are sovereign endeavors constructed through the medium of artistic creation embossing its reflections on cultural, social and political aspects of the then society from which it is born.
Films have carved their own niche in constructing a world and providing with a space for one's endless imagination. Though manipulative in its own terms, Films have been acknowledged as one of the most powerful pillars in the firmament of visual media generating its conspicuous control over the emergence of a social perspective among the latest generation.
Christopher Nolan is one of the noteworthy directors in the firmament of Hollywood Industry who has manifested himself from the margins of British cinema to the blockbusters of Hollywood classics in the span of a decade. Nolan's fully-developed explorations in the field of film-making has helped him reap gargantuan scales of success than any other contemporary of his time. Nolan's films have been stable and steady through a span of ten years which began from his incredibly low-budget feature-length movies into his high-grossing blockbusters. Not all directors possess the punch to design and bring forth what they really want in their movies.
However, Nolan had been with a razor-sharp focus in his directorial flexibility in creating his independent storyline in realistic backgrounds. The whack with which he materializes his meandering narrations, his all-pervasive backdrops, the mind-games that could nonplus the audience and the labyrinths of visuals push him to stand out from his contemporary directors.
Nolan got his foot in the door with his initial movie Following in the year 1998. On a visceral level, his movies are inclinations towards human psyche and fascinations as well as its complexities and maneuvers.
However, his inclination towards the refrigeration of women in all of his movies is evident. Beginning from Following, his approach towards female characterization remains unchanged. A re-reading of his female characterizations through the theoretical framework of   Murph, Cooper's daughter is the most prominent character of the movie. She is initially presented as a ten-year-old schoolgirl who pines for her father's affection. She is shown as an intelligent girl whose main interest lies in Science and Maths. Professor Brand says "Murph is a bright spark. Maybe I should fan the flame" and Donald replies "She is already making fool of her teachers. So may be she should come and make a fool out of you" (Interstellar). Murph is seen as a well disciplined and organized girl. Her keen observations make her believe that which held that women are so weak and incapable that they need men's protection to survive. In these films, it is the woman who is portrayed benefitting from her dependence on men. ( Place 49 ) Murph represents this dependable frame of a woman who lives upto the expectation of a family and becomes a redeemer throughout the movie. She fills the space of her lost mother and is the only one woman character remaining in her family. She is a nurturer not just for her father who is away, but even for her brother Tom who leans on her. During an interview with unswerving charm that rests with men and the visual appeal that withers in association with a woman has not been challenged at all even in today's Hollywood industry.
Though there is no sexual objectification in Interstellar, the second half of Mulvey's essay where she discusses the function of a hero on screen is directly applicable here with Cooper's character. The identification with the male image on screen is one major reason behind the success stories of male led star cast.
This is made possible through the processes set in motion by structuring the film around a main controlling figure with whom the spectator can identify.
As the spectator identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look on to that of his like, his screen surrogate, so that the power of the male protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the erotic look, both giving a satisfying sense of omnipotence. (7) Thus, Cooper, though not a superhero, is looked at with great awe and wonder from the perspective of the audience. He is seen as a savior of the dying world and re-echoes the iconic image of a man in the mind of the spectator.
Apart from Murph, Amelia Brand, the daughter of Professor Brand plays a significant role in the movie. Interstellar has been proclaimed by many critics as Nolan's pro-feminist work which has enormously bestowed the audience with inspiring women characters. But the truth is not in affirmative. Though there is no objectification that is accountable through female bodies, the true grit with which they have been constructed is far beneath the fiber of the male protagonists.
Amelia Brand, one of the most distinguished scientists in the NASA team is a strongwilled woman who is bold enough to join the team in the "Endurance" spaceship. She is dedicated in her nature and hardworking just like her father and is willing to sacrifice her own life to save the entire species of mankind. The first time she is presented in the movie, she comes from a dark shadowy chamber and appears before Cooper. As she introduces herself as 'Scientist Brand', Cooper mocks at her in a rather lighter tone.
Cooper : Who are you ?
Brand : Dr. Brand Cooper : And I knew a Dr. Brand once. He was a professor.

Brand
: What makes you think I'm not ?
Cooper : Oh, he wasn't near as cute, either (Interstellar) The jovial method through which Cooper diminishes her importance is the chain that sustains even after filtering the keys of patriarchy through a mesh. The andro-centered world has often identified women through the adjectives like 'sweet', 'cute' and 'beautiful'. The indiscrepancy between what a woman can be and what a woman has to be can only widen within the prevailing gender disparity.
Professor Brand, Amelia's father keeps open two options to save the human race. The first one is to decode a gravitational propulsion theory which can propel a mass exodus to another planet to save the entire humanity. If this option cannot triumph, he settles for a second option, Plan B which involves transporting 5000 frozen human embryos which can make a colony of humankind in any inhabitable planet other than earth so that mankind never becomes extinct. To corroborate the efficiency of Plan B, he entrusts the sole responsibility of these embryos to Amelia Brand. In short, Amelia's role of nurturing and raising up the embryos into a colony is to be reflected here for a second reading. A metaphorical reading will put her back to a symbolic profusion of maternal plenitude. The question remains as to why the other three men in the mission, namely, Cooper, Romily and Doyle were exempted from this role and why Brand was placed in charge of this. The dichotomy between being a bold scientist and being in charge of 5000 embryos nourishing her own maternal instinct has to be assessed with a grave concern. The burden of reproduction and motherhood had always been the most intimidating reasons behind the exploitation of women.
Moreover, Brand's dialogues throw light to universal signification where she stands as a representative to the entire women around the world. She agrees with her mistake and realizes that reality is far away from the theories whereas Cooper who is not an expert in the field of relativity anticipates the situation and warns her beforehand. This is a testimony of a woman's intelligence being belittled as compared to a man. Cooper's proficiency in deterring things is contrasted with Brand's lack of insight.
To further magnify her less sagacious approach, she talks immensely about relationships, love and affection with tears in her eyes. "The tiniest possibility of seeing Wolf again excites me. That doesn't mean I'm wrong" (Interstellar). She adds, "Love is the one thing we are capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space" (Interstellar).
Cooper reminds her occasionally that she is a scientist and reminds her of her mission and responsibilities. She does not appear prudent in many circumstances and her disposition is sketched in such a way as she tends to forget her higher mission of saving the mankind.
To supplement Cooper's stance in a better way, he is made to be the savior of Brand in the final scene where he goes in search of her to Edmund's planet. As a standard cliche in any literary piece, the role of a man as the savior and the woman as the victim is saddled to the plot of the movie. tends to hold on, female suppression becomes a necessity rather than an imperative component.
The realistic scope of looking at women in the most pleasurable visual form through a film is what a film ultimately offers to its spectators. The three angles as mentioned by Mulvey is true to the core as and when we assess the female characters. The camera angle, the angle through which the male heroes look at her and finally the angle through which she is seen by the spectators. Thus the female is instrumental to the development of the plot and aids the audience with visual pleasure which is inevitable for a cinema.
This complex interaction of looks is specific to film. The first blow against the monolithic accumulation of traditional film conventions (already undertaken by radical film-makers) is to free the look of the camera into its materiality in time and space and the look of the audience into dialectics, passionate detachment. There is no doubt that this destroys the satisfaction, pleasure and privilege of the "invisible guest", ad highlights how film has depended on vouyeristic active/passive mechanisms. Women, whose image has continually been stolen and used for this end, cannot view the decline of the traditional film form with anything much more than sentimental regret. ( Mulvey 12 ) Unless the reformers of the society put an end to this -this anomalous phenomena of one sex being misrepresented continuously, the dream of a shared co-existence with both the sexes in one society will never touch reality. For the society to indulge itself in a sweeping change, the change initially must evolve psychologically through the existing mankind.
Cinema, being one of the most powerful tools with a lot of impact, can definitely bring solid reformations in the prevailing social order. The movie, which is manufactured within the master brain of a director relentlessly displays the tendencies of his inner conscience. Thus, the explicit change has to be born in the conscience of the contemporary directors so that the seeds of change are planted visually through their movies, creating a gradual change in the hegemonic order of the society.