EXCLUDED – Christopher Nolan: “Oppenheimer is the most conceptual film I have ever made”

The director speaks at length in the new issue of Première about Oppenheimer’s success, his method and his style.

Before his Honorary César and his announced triumph at the Oscars, Christopher Nolan gave us a long interview to be found on newsstands this Wednesday in issue 549 of First. Ten pages of fascinating interviews with a filmmaker familiar with his art and his career, capable of drawing crowds into theaters even with a project like Oppenheimerhis film about the father of the atomic bomb.

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“I’ve been doing this job for a few decades now and I’ve had more than my fair share of success… But it’s particularly exciting to see the way the spectators have received Oppenheimera very demanding film, three hours, a drama that still blabs a lot – in the United States, we call it a talkie. And despite everything, it worked as a blockbuster, including among young people“, Christopher Nolan tells us.

“It’s true that it’s a special moment for me. As a filmmaker, you always hope that people will respond positively to your work – and from that point of view, box office remains the yardstick. But when the critics are also on your side, it’s beautiful. (…) Some of my films made more money than Oppenheimer but there was never such a perfect alignment between what I was trying to do as a storyteller and the type of story audiences expected.”

During the interview, the British director also tells us about his relationship with Hollywood, the end ofOppenheimer and its release in Japan, and dissects his working method, from writing to filming and editing. Nolan also gives us the key to the immense success of his film:

“All the marketing elements revolved around an idea that I had already referred to in a dialogue of Tenet : the fact that the Manhattan Project to develop the bomb was launched when experts could not eliminate the hypothesis of total destruction of the world. Despite everything, politicians and scientists (including Oppenheimer) decided to move forward, taking this crazy risk in the name of all humanity. From there, it became, in my opinion, the most conceptual film I have ever made. We called him Oppenheimer, but it was clearly established that this was not a biopic about a man, as interesting as it was. We were going to tell a story that concerned all of humanity.“