From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear the show at KCRW.com.

In the 10 years since he's been making features, writer-director Chris Nolan, has been making

films in which the protagonist's emotional chaos is mirrored in the physical world around

him, starting with, well, following to his newest film, the second Batman film, the

Dark Night Chris, first of all, thanks so much for coming back to do the show again.

Thank you.

But it really is interesting that that kind of emotional and psychological chaos

that the protagonists they're all experiencing

ends up being a really big part of the physical world around them.

Well, I think particularly when you're dealing with an iconic character,

superhero character like Batman,

there's a very direct relationship between the physicality an iconic character, superhero character like Batman.

There's a very direct relationship between the physicality of the character, the iconography

of the character and the internal state, you know, the emotional state of the character.

And that's, I think that's one of the reasons I've enjoyed doing these films.

You know, you get to create something on a very operatic scale.

The audience has associations with the character coming into the movie.

You know, they know who this character is and what he represents.

So you get to tell a story on a very grand scale.

But there's also, in this film, more than any other film you've done, there's definitely a causal effect between the character's psychological distress and that world around him.

The interesting thing about Batman as a figure is that he's driven by very, very dark things.

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