"One of the historical problems of cinema is the representation of intelligence or genius. Very often it fails to engage people."
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| Image/Universal Pictures |
Christopher Nolan is certainly no stranger to the construction of complex cinematic structures and twisted narratives. Just take a quick look at his filmography to realize it (Tenet, Interstellar, Inception…), however, the director has revealed that he used a rather particular method to approach the writing of the screenplay of his latest film, Oppenheimer, which will arrive in theaters around the world this July.
In this case, while not going into complex space-time structures or seductive dream systems, Nolan's task will be to make us accomplices of the powerful intelligence of the creator of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and of the process that led to the development of the 'weapon of mass destruction. A task that the director set out to carry out as realistically as possible.
“One of the historical problems of cinema is the representation of intelligence or genius. Very often it fails to engage people,” Nolan explained to Empire. “The first person I showed the script to when it was finished was Emma [his wife and producer] and then Andrew Jackson, the special effects supervisor. I told him, 'We need to get inside this guy's head. We have to see the world as he sees it. We have to see the atoms moving, and see the way he imagines energy waves and the quantum world. Also, we need to see how this translates to the Trinity test. You have to feel the danger, the risk of it all, somehow. The challenge I gave him was: 'We will do all this, without using computer graphics'".
This desire to delve into the depths of the physicist's mind was what changed the way the director wrote the script for his film. “I actually wrote the script myself. I've never done it that way. I don't know if anyone has ever done this before. The fact is that, with the color sequences, which represent the core of the film, everything is told from the beginning. Oppenheimer's perspective. We literally look through his eyes."
“It's a weird thing to do,” Nolan admitted. “But it was a reminder of how to make the film for everyone involved in the project. The point of view of each scene”. The story angle isn't something Nolan wanted to take lightly. One of the fundamental pillars for him was that the audience was close to the protagonist. “I wanted to retrace this story from Oppenheimer's side. I didn't want to sit next to him and judge him. It seemed like a futile exercise to me. That is the work of science documentary, political theory, or history. This is a story that you live with him. All the ethical dilemmas are presented to you, along with him.”
The film will arrive in cinemas on July 20, 2023, distributed by Universal Pictures.