The Dark Knight

Director: Christopher Nolan, Christopher Nolan, Christopher Nolan, Christopher Nolan

2008 / 152min / 35mm

The city of Chicago plays an oppressively glum Gotham in Nolan, Christian Bale, and Crowley’s second Batman outing, a film of Langian architectural oppression that pits Bruce Wayne’s alter ego against Heath Ledger’s anarchic Clown Prince of Crime. With its brawny set pieces, including a showstopping car chase that took three weeks of filming on the multi-level Wacker Drive, and Ledger’s ferociously committed performance, The Dark Knight has widely been recognized as the pinnacle of superhero cinema.

“The destruction of Wayne Manor and the Batcave in Batman Begins presented a unique opportunity for The Dark Knight: a chance to fundamentally rethink Gotham’s design and aesthetic. This liberation allowed me to explore the concept of a modern city rooted in the vision of 1960s and ’70s modernist architecture. Influenced by the distinct modernist portrayal of government buildings in the political thriller The Parallax View, I aimed to imbue Gotham with a similar sense of detached authority and underlying corruption. By embracing modernism, we were able to present a Gotham that felt both familiar and radically new, a city where the shadows of the past were juxtaposed against the stark reality of the present. This visual transformation served as a powerful metaphor for the film’s central themes, creating a visually compelling backdrop for the epic struggle between order and chaos.”—Nathan Crowley

Introduction and Q&A featuring Production Designer Nathan Crowley, moderated by Production Designer Mark Friedberg, on Saturday, January 20th