Narrative complexity in contemporary cinema: Cinema of Christopher Nolan

The concept of narrative is immanent to human existence. It is very difficult to think of a human being apart from narratives because the ability to create stories and narratives is the most important feature that distinguishes people from other living things. This situation makes it difficult to distinguish relationship between narratives and life. Throughout history, narratives have served as a constitutive element of life. In addition, changes and transformations that have occurred over time have changed the narratives. Therefore, a period cannot be separated from the political, scientific, artistic and everyday narratives that form it. The common areas within the intersection of many different narratives that interact with each other create a new narrative that reflects the spirit of time. Cinema narrative is a technological narrative method which has been transformed from everyday life through narrative structures that tell stories in life and narrative structures formed in the narrative of cinema since the beginning of the 20th century. Three major narrative structures that are theorized in the narrative of cinema are Classical Narrative, Modern Narrative and Postmodernist Narrative. As we approach to the 2000s, the cinema narrative seems to have become a popular genre in complex, ambiguous and fragmented films. In this study, it has been investigated whether the complex narratives, which started to become a popular story telling method in the cinema narrative as a close to the 2000s, is a new narrative structure or a new interpretation of the existing narrative structures. In this framework, he theoretical structure of the study is based on the basic structures of narrative comprehension, different approaches to the concept of narrative, diegetic narrative, mimetic narrative, tragedy and narrative theory in cinema. After examining narrative theory and narrative structures in cinema, Complex Story Narration in cinema is handled both in stylistic and intellectual dimensions. In the last chapter, the ideas developed throughout the study have been discussed through the films Memento and Inception of Christopher Nolan, which are thought to be both formal and intellectual ideal examples of Complex Story Narration in Cinema.