• A new Christopher Nolan film is more than just a cinematic release.
• Cillian plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man responsible for atomic bomb.
• The film takes place over a long period of time, thought to be at least a decade.

A new Christopher Nolan film, like a new Avengers film, is more than just a cinematic release. Having established himself as a filmmaker of precision and craft, he knows what audiences like, much to the delight of accountants, and as a result, his films are events.

Oppenheimer, his most recent film, is no exception. Cillian Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man responsible for the development of the atomic bomb.

Over the last decade, there has been much debate about the importance of ‘intellectual properties’ or franchises, superhero movies, and’soulless’ big-budget popcorn movies with no substance, which, according to some, have supplanted true ‘auteur’ filmmaking.

One thing is undeniable: you can be an auteur and put butts in seats, which you can associate with Christopher Nolan (unless you’re in the middle of a pandemic).

The film takes place over a long period of time, thought to be at least a decade. As a result, Nolan decided to revisit some of his early work to influence the way his latest epic would be shot, including his preferred method of filming: IMAX.

This meant teaming up with Hoyte van Hoytema, his trusted cinematographer with whom he has collaborated since Interstellar, to solve a new problem.

“I very much loved the structural assistance and the aesthetic charge of shifting between color and black and white that I had on Memento. I’d always been looking for a reason to go back to that. And in the case of Oppenheimer and the way in which we tell this story, it’s very subjectively told, but also with a more objective story strand that intertwines with that. It was really the perfect time to go back to that device that I loved so much.”

Memento was shot on 35mm anamorphic film, but after shooting first-of-their-kind action scenes on The Dark Knight with IMAX cameras, the director has made the large-format film a go-to, with all of his major releases being shot on the ultimate cinematic format.

The challenge for Nolan, at least on Oppenheimer, was that no one had ever shot in large-format monochrome before, so some imagination was required.

“So we challenged the people at Kodak photochem to make this work for us,” said Nolan to Total Film. “And they stepped up. For the first time ever, we were able to shoot IMAX film in black-and-white. And the results were thrilling and extraordinary. As soon as Hoyte and I saw the first tests come in, we just knew that this was a format that we were immediately in love with.”

The results, at least according to the initial trailers, are stunning, and the film looks to be another visual masterpiece from Nolan. Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, Michael Angarano, and Kenneth Branagh star in the ensemble.

Oppenheimer will be released in theatres on July 21, 2023.

Oppenheimer trailer below:

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