Christopher Nolan: ‘Oppenheimer’ Captures “Most Dramatic Moment In History”
“Like it or not,” declared Christopher Nolan at CinemaCon in April, “J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived. He made the world we live in, for better or for worse.”
Nolan expands on those ideas in a cover interview for the new issue of Wired, saying that the importance of Oppenheimer and his story is one reasons people should see his film, which releases on July 21.
The director calls the film a “wild ride,” a reasonable assessment for a life story intertwined with what he sees as “literally the most dramatic moment in history.” He then repeats for emphasis, “In history.”
Asked about AI and newer visions of Armageddon, Nolan tells Wired that he is less worried than most — optimistic, even — calling it a tool that even he, an “old analog fusty filmmaker” would use.
“The whole machine learning as applied to deepfake technology, that’s an extraordinary step forward in visual effects and in what you could do with audio,” he said. “There will be wonderful things that will come out, longer term, in terms of environments, in terms of building a doorway or a window, in terms of pooling the massive data of what things look like, and how light reacts to materials. Those things are going to be enormously powerful tools.”
He stresses that, in his view, AI imagery is not a unique creation in and of itself, but rather an amazing amalgam.
“It’s not starting from nothing. It’s starting from a much more detailed and data-driven idea. It might finally break the barrier between animation and photography. Because it’s a hybrid. If you tell an artist to, say, draw a picture of an astronaut, they’re inventing from memory or looking at references. With AI, it’s a different approach, where you’re actually using the entire history of imagery.”
Asked about early reactions from those who’ve seen the picture, Nolan says, “Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated. They can’t speak. I mean, there’s an element of fear that’s there in the history and there in the underpinnings. But the love of the characters, the love of the relationships, is as strong as I’ve ever done.
“I showed it to a filmmaker recently who said it’s kind of a horror movie. I don’t disagree…As I started to finish the film, I started to feel this color that’s not in my other films, just darkness. It’s there. The film fights against that.”
Nolan explains further, “It’s a complicated set of feelings to be entertained by awful things, you know? Which is where the horror dimension comes in.”
Source: Deadline
