Christopher Nolan Helped Save Cinema. But He May Also Be Killing It.

Hello to all my Wonderful World Outside Our Window Subscribers,

Today, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey releases in theaters worldwide. The first film to be shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, Nolan’s newest outing continues his now world-famous fetish for formats. While Tarantino has feet, Hitchcock has blondes, and Del Toro has strange bug things, Nolan’s obsession with large-format IMAX projection is so crucial to his work that he has managed to turn it into a feature in and of itself. This presents an interesting contradiction in his filmography: despite making broadly populist, mass-consumer blockbusters, Nolan’s particular proclivity — and the fact that only 41 theaters in the world are equipped to play his latest in its purist form — means that 99% of people who see his movies are watching them “wrong.”

This contradiction represents a wrinkle in the century-plus status quo of film viewing. Dating back to its original invention, film was thought of as a form of mass communication. Its inherently reproducible nature meant that there was no “original copy” to be seen; contrary to plays or paintings, film was capable of meeting the viewer where they were. In 1936, German theorist Walter Benjamin first identified this shift, arguing in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” that the very nature of film’s production fundamentally changes its value to an audience.

As Benjamin explains, prior to the technological developments which allowed for reproduction, art was instilled with a “cult value.” A painting could be copied, sure, but it would have been considered a fraud, a forgery, lacking in a certain “aura” that gives the original piece its meaning. “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be,” he wrote, going on to describe the distance that art maintained from the masses as crucial to its value. Tucked away in a Church or behind a rope in a gallery, experiencing art was treated as an almost sacred ritual. Film freed us from this oppressive structure, for the first time democratizing art as something to be experienced by all. A teenager sitting on a sticky seat in a run-down one-room movie house gets the exact same film as a critic viewing a private screening in L.A. It is an art for the masses, defined not by a cult status but rather its “exhibition value.”

Film’s enduring standing as modern society’s dominant form of art can be credited in no small part to this liberating structure. Benjamin’s essay was written at a crucial point in history, and he identified the crisis that many old artforms found themselves in when confronted with the revolutionary power of film. It now made less and less sense for an average person — in Benjamin’s perspective, the proletariat — to subscribe to “cult value.” Art was now everywhere, and seeing it was a social experience that allowed us to organize around shared ideals and narratives.

That structure went largely unchallenged until the COVID-19 pandemic brought it to a screeching halt. With the public locked indoors and unable to go to the theater, new movies began releasing straight to streaming, eliminating the need to leave your house. As you may remember, Warner Brothers made the unprecedented decision to release their entire 2021 feature film slate in theaters and on HBO Max on the exact same day. Filmmakers — especially those dedicated to the theatrical experience — now had to confront a culture whose values were changing. Christopher Nolan, who very publicly cut ties with Warner as a direct result of their anti-theater posture, was in a unique position to help redefine what cinema meant. After years spent building up cultural prestige and influence, Nolan released Oppenheimer in theaters during the summer of 2023 and embarked on an impressive campaign to convince the world to see it in theaters.

Not unlike a priest, Nolan inspired a devout following, and going to theaters became a renewed sign of social prestige, a signifier that you were cool, serious, thoughtful. It was a surprising turnaround for a theatrical industry that was seeing cracks before the pandemic even started and seemed like a good sign for film in general: people were coming out in droves to see a three-hour period piece, and by all accounts, enjoying themselves. This was motivated in no small part by a huge marketing push to educate audiences about the difference between IMAX and standard projection. When Nolan’s Odyssey film was first announced, the only detail we had was that the entire film would be shot with 70mm IMAX cameras. In many ways, Oppenheimer can be seen as a initial test for Nolan’s theory of cinema. Last summer, when tickets for the first public screening of The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm theaters were released a full year in advance and sold out within minutes, he was proven right. Clearly, there was a sustained appetite for this premium format.

But in attempting to prove the worth of a theatrical cinema, has Nolan turned back the clock on film’s most progressive innovations? In the lead-up to the film’s release Variety reported on the absurd lengths that fans are going to in order to see film in IMAX 70mm theaters. Among the many fans interviewed, one claimed that they delayed their pregnancy to see the film in its proper format, a decision they made last summer, before any footage had even been seen. Others (including me, obviously) will be watching the film at ridiculous times, like 3 A.M., while some are driving cross-country for a specific theater. A cursory scroll through any ticketing site will show showtimes sold out four weeks in advance, proof of a fervor surrounding this film bordering on the religious. The “cult value” that film destroyed so many years ago seems to be making a comeback.

Just this week, Disney announced that tickets for Avengers: Doomsday, a film that releases in December, will go on sale starting July 20th. Not all of the seats will be up for grabs, though, only those in “Infinity Vision” certified theaters. If you have never heard of “Infinity Vision” before, don’t fret, because Disney made it up just a few months ago. After being boxed out of IMAX screens by Warner Brothers’ Dune 3 (which releases on the same day as Avengers), Disney simply created a new format out of whole cloth. If you read between the lines of their purposely vague announcements, it becomes clear that “Infinity Vision” will just be a certification given to existing auditoriums that meet certain standards. Tickets for showings in these theaters will be more expensive, but according to Marvel, the experience will be more authentic. While the “aura” of pre-film art may have been restrictive, at least it was real.

In Oppenheimer, Nolan uses the real-life scientist as an avatar to explore the lengths man will go to in order to satisfy ambition. Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer ends the film on a realization: despite his own intentions, building a nuclear bomb set off a chain reaction that he could never control, pushing the world into an arms race that can only end with death and destruction. The stakes for Nolan may be lower, but he too has unleashed a monster that cannot be contained. The crisis that film faced after COVID was real, and what he is now doing may very well have saved cinema — but what happens when someone builds a bigger camera?

Signing off,
Max Bolen
Thinks The Prestige is Nolan’s best, if anyone was wondering.