Christopher Nolan Blasts Studios for Misunderstanding the Theatrical Experience

From his Batman films to Inception to Interstellar to Dunkirk to Tenet, Christopher Nolan has a reputation for delivering audiences impressive and immersive theatrical experiences, a trend which he continues with Oppenheimer. Despite often having the opportunities to explore any type of cinema he so wishes, the filmmaker recently noted how he takes issue with studios who misunderstand the theatrical experience and avoid admitting how many elements combine to craft these adventures. Given that Nolan had a bit of a falling out with Warner Bros. due to their decision to debut their entire 2021 slate in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day, it likely won’t surprise audiences to learn about his thoughts on a studio’s lack of priority for the cinematic experience.

“Whether for budgetary reasons or reasons of control, studios now look at a screenplay as a series of events and say, ‘This is the essence of what the film is’. And that’s completely at odds with how cinema developed, right from the Lumière brothers’ train pulling into the station, as a pure audiovisual experience,” Nolan detailed to The Telegraph. “But it’s a very popular fallacy — sometimes with critics as well, quite frankly — that all that matters is the scale of the story being told.”

Nolan went on to praise the accomplishments of George Lucas and his Star Wars, noting that it wasn’t only the story that elevated it above its peers, but also its ambitious effects.

“People will tell you that the success of Star Wars had nothing to do with its visual effects, and it was all down to its great story,” the filmmaker expressed. “But, I mean, clearly that’s not the case. It is indeed a great story, but it’s also an incredible visual and aural experience. So this willful denial of what movies actually are has set in. People will say, ‘Why would you have to see something like Aftersun‘ — the acclaimed 2022 coming-of-age film from young British director Charlotte Wells — ‘on the big screen?’ But of course you have to. It also plays wonderfully on TV, but that’s not the point.”

Nolan’s latest film, Oppenheimer, marked his first collaboration with Universal Pictures, which once again embraces the IMAX and 70mm formats to deliver as immersive an experience as possible. Reports claim that Warner Bros. hopes to get back into Nolan’s good graces, though he has not yet revealed what his next project would be or what studio he would be collaborating with.

Oppenheimer lands in theaters on July 21st.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s remarks? Let us know in the comments!