Oppenheimer director responds after BBC host walked out halfway through film

06 August 2023 , 17:56

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Oppenheimer director responds after BBC host walked out halfway through film

Director Christopher Nolan has admitted his “artistic choice” is to blame for audiences struggling to hear the dialogue in his latest big-screen blockbuster, Oppenheimer.

It comes after BBC newsreader Jane Hill, 54, said she left halfway through a screening and complained to cinema staff she had trouble hearing it. The film, starring Cillian Murphy, tells the story of atomic bomb creator J Robert Oppenheimer – who after the first blast in 1945 quoted Hindu sacred texts, declaring: “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Following her walkout, Jane said she was “disappointed that music and effects often drowned out the actors, I missed chunks of dialogue”. And she said staff told her: “We have this issue with all Christopher Nolan films.” As fellow fans told her they had also struggled with the sound, she added: “I’m relieved it’s not just me...Yet what madness! How can you follow a film if you can’t hear the actors!”

Christopher Nolan says he's to blame for the sound issues (Hogan Media/REX/Shutterstock)

Now, Nolan has admitted it is his stylistic choice not to follow the standard industry procedure of actors re-recording dialogue in a soundproof booth to be dubbed in the editing stages, preferring to use dialogue recorded during the performance.

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Nolan – who had Oscar nominations for 2017’s Dunkirk, 2010’s Inception and 2000 hit Memento – told website Insider: “I like to use the performance given in the moment rather than the actor re-voice it later, which is an artistic choice that some people disagree with.”

Oppenheimer, starring Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy, has been a big hit at the box office (Universal Pictures)

Nolan, 53, also uses IMAX cameras, which he has noted are not fully soundproof, though he credits their “mechanical improvements” to address this. Meanwhile, things are certainly sound at the box office. Oppenheimer made £33.7million in the UK last month and is one of the highest grossers of the year.

Ashleigh Rainbird