Louder for the people in the back.
Whenever Christopher Nolan releases a new movie, he faces criticism that the dialogue is hard to hear clearly.
The director’s latest installment, “Oppenhiemer,” with its shaking score by Ludwig Göransson and periodically percussive sound design, is no exception to the complaints.
In a recent interview with Insider, Nolan divulged the artistic preference that translates into difficult-to-understand dialogue: he never asks actors back to redub their lines after filming wraps.
Automated dialogue replacement is a commonplace in the film and television industry.
“I like to use the performance that was given in the moment rather than the actor re-voice it later,” he said. “Which is an artistic choice that some people disagree with, and that’s their right.”
Nolan often shoots with Imax’s specialized cameras, which are larger and louder than normal gear, although he says the company’s tech is getting better.
“There are certain mechanical improvements,” he said. “And actually, Imax is building new cameras right now which are going to be even quieter. But the real breakthrough is in software technology that allows you to filter out the camera noise. That has improved massively in the 15 or so years that I’ve been using these cameras. Which opens up for you to do more intimate scenes that you would not have been able to do in the past.”
Even so, Nolan admitted at times the 70mm camera he loves to shoot on just isn’t practical. He elected not to use one for the dialogue-heavy scene in the Oval Office between J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and President Truman (Gary Oldman).
Despite some viewers posing issues with Nolan’s sound choices, moviegoers have poured into theaters to watch the director’s latest blockbuster.
It’s already made more than $400 million worldwide at the box office.
Nolan is already known for being particular about how he makes his movies.
He told the New York Times he arranged the shooting of “Oppenheimer” around his star’s hair.
“I did insist on scheduling it around Cillian’s haircut. Because I’m very allergic to wigs in movies. I really wanted the film to not have any obvious artifice when it came to the way characters presented themselves,” he said.
Murphy, who has worked with the director on a whopping six movies, told Vulture in 2019 he doesn’t “generally do wigs” as an actor.
He continued, “I think they look phony. If I see that a character has to wear a wig, I generally won’t do the part.”
In the “Actors on Actors” 2020 issue of “Variety,” actress Anne Hathaway told her “Les Misérables” co-star Hugh Jackman that Nolan doesn’t allow chairs on set.
“His reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working.”
Hathaway, who played Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises,” said the strange tactic does seem to work.
“[The movie] always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he’s onto something with the chair thing,” she admitted.
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