Christopher Nolan likes to look like his film's protagonists

That Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker who is fanatical about his work is pretty clear by now, not only thanks to the success of his burgeoning career but also to the average length of his projects and the style they all have in common, curiously similar to Nolan's own attire. Oppenheimer, which was released in Italian cinemas last week, personifies Nolan's main obsessions in an obvious way: a three-hour film in which male protagonists try to change the fate of the world, Cillian Murphy, and a dark and gloomy aesthetic - this time taken to the extreme, so much so that it resulted in the successful marketing called Barbie vs. Oppenheimer. The obvious resemblance between Nolan and his characters, a theme that emerged mainly after the release of Tenet(2020), in Oppenheimer, is re-proposed to viewers through the protagonist's clothes. The film recounts the invention and dropping of the atomic bomb during the Second World War. Yet, the physicist's well-groomed and fashionable look - considering the times in which it was set - is a supporting element in the development of the plot.

«I think of Oppenheimer as a rock star,» costume designer Ellen Mirojnick told The Guardian. «He was very careful about his look. He was memorable. He embodied the power of communication like no other.» According to Mirojnick's account, it took three different attempts before finding a hatter who could exactly reproduce Oppenheimer's fedora, a statement that leads us to think that Nolan often chooses to tell the story of well-dressed men partly because, underneath, he would like to have their wardrobe. Let's look at which directors, besides The Dark Knight Rises director, like to dress like their characters.

Wes Anderson 

The similarity between Wes Anderson's style and the aesthetics of his films is no secret to his fans, a detail that makes the director's universe even more fascinating. From the distinctive ochre color that pervades his scenes to the 70s suits we loved on Adrien Brody in The Darjeeling Limited, to the teal and pastel pink of Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson's passion for warm color palettes is undeniable, and we are sure to find it again in Asteroid City, his next release.

Tim Burton 

It is impossible to talk about directors who happen to be a caricature of their own work without mentioning Tim Burton, creator of cult goths such as Wednesday Addams, now a reference icon for all lovers of gothic chic. As he himself has explained several times, his unconventional style came well before that of Edward Scissorhands, a peculiarity that made him feel isolated from others as a child. «You feel a bit different,» he recalls. «It was weird. Just because you like monster movies, people thought you were weird, which I always thought was weird.»

Pedro Almódovar 

Almódovar's red is not only elegant and poignant on Penelope Cruz and Rossy de Palma, but also ultra-present in the wardrobe of the Spanish director of All About My Mother and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Recently, his looks on the red carpet and during filming have lost some of their vibrancy, but as a young man, he fully embodied all the chromatic intensity that has always permeated his designs.

Spike Lee

Spike Lee's dapper and colorful style follows his choice of narrating Black History in his films. Although his photography is mutable, his characters' costumes largely influence the US director's wardrobe, from Do The Right Thing to Malcolm X, to the most recent BlacKkKlansman, set in the 1970s, a decisive decade for African-American rights.