"This wasn't an organized visit. He calmly arrived without fanfare," the museum's developmental director Inge Laurik-Teder, told ERR Tuesday afternoon.

The museum's communications director, Helene Tedre, added that he came with his family, first eating at the restaurant before moving on to look at the exhibits.

"A smart person always eats first, then goes to the exhibition," joked Tedre.

Nolan's wife is U.K. film producer Emma Thomas (not to be confused with actor Emma Thompson) and the couple have four children.

"He arrived just like a regular museum visitor, bought a Maarjamäe Center ticket, went and dined, then checked out the exhibitions and monuments. Just like that. We realized that it was simply a famous person, but no one was bugging him," Tedre added.

The center, at Maarjamäe Palace, hosts a permanent exhibition entitled "My free state" (Minu vaba riik), marking last year's Estonia at 100 celebrations.

The film museum component also has a permanent exhibition "Double one" (Duubel Üks), which touches on the basics of Nolan's chosen profession of film-making. Teder perhaps unsurprisingly expressed her hopes that the material might form inspiration for a future Christopher Nolan project.

Christopher Nolan also took the opportunity to sign the museum's guestbook.

The downtime the director is taking follows several weeks of on-off discussions between Warner Bros. and its representative in Estonia, Allfilm, and Tallinn City Government, principally on the issue of street closures to allow filming scenes on the upcoming movie.

The use of the main arterial Laagna Road, east of the city center, was a particular sticking point, but an agreement was struck for 10 days-worth of part-closure of the route, in addition to a 24-hour slot filmed on Pärnu Highway at the end of June. Other reported locations include the Linnahall.

Nolan has been in Tallinn for some weeks already, having first arrived on June 11 on a chartered flight from Los Angeles, together with the movie's lead, John David Washington ("BlacKkKlansman", "Malcolm X"). Another star to have arrived more recently was Robert Pattinson (the "Twilight" series of movies), who dined at least once in a well-appointed Old Town restaurant, according to some media reports.

A noted auteur-style director, Nolan's previous movies include "Memento", "Insomnia", "Inception", "Interstellar", and "Dunkirk". "Tenet", due for release in 2020, naturally continues the one-word movie title motif, and is presumably set in the present day.

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