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Oppenheimer’s Quiet Dialogue Defended By Christopher Nolan-TGN

Summary

  • Christopher Nolan defends the quiet dialogue in his films, attributing it to technical and stylistic reasons.

  • IMAX cameras are notoriously loud, but a new, quieter version is in the works. Software that removes the sound of the camera in post-production has also improved.

  • Nolan doubles down on his aversion to ADR (automated dialogue replacement), explaining that he prefers to preserve actors’ dialogue as it is captured on set, which sometimes means lines are difficult to understand.

Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan defends the film’s quiet dialogue, explaining his approach to the sound mixing process. Starring Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan’s latest film chronicles the life and career of the American theoretical physicist largely responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb. While Oppenheimer features easier to understand dialogue than some of his past films, the historical drama does have several instances in which actors’ lines get a little bit lost in the mix.

In a recent interview with Insider, Nolan addresses Oppenheimer‘s sound mix, explaining that there are both technical and stylistic reasons why some of the dialogue in his movies is difficult to understand. It turns out that the noise from IMAX cameras, a format that Nolan is particularly fond of, is at least partially to blame, but the director also explains that he also has an aversion to ADR (automated dialogue replacement), a process in which actors re-record their lines in a sound booth, typically during post-production. Check out Nolan’s full comment below:

“There are certain mechanical improvements. 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.

“I like to use the performance that was given in the moment rather than the actor revoice it later. Which is an artistic choice that some people disagree with, and that’s their right.”

Complaints About Christopher Nolan’s Sound Mixing Are Nothing New

While Oppenheimer does feature several instances of dialogue being difficult to understand, it’s a very minor issue in the film and only affects a few lines at most. Some of Nolan’s earlier movies, however, were more heavily criticized for this issue.

The first time dialogue became a major talking point in Nolan’s career is with 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. Tom Hardy’s performance as the masked villain Bane was widely praised, but much of his dialogue was criticized for being almost unintelligible, particularly during the film’s loud opening plane sequence. Interstellar also got sound mix complaints, but the issue became a major talking point once again with 2020’s Tenet, which featured numerous scenes with characters wearing masks that made them difficult to understand.

Nolan’s reasoning behind the decision, while perhaps controversial, makes sense. He’s committed to preserving actors’ performances as they are captured on set, with an ADR dialogue booth just not the same as acting out a scene in a real location. Although heightening immersion and adding to the chaos of a scene, the difficult to understand dialogue is understandably frustrating for some given that many of Nolan’s films are fairly complex in nature. Oppenheimer may feature mostly intelligible dialogue, but it doesn’t seem like Nolan will be making changes to his process to appease frustrated moviegoers anytime soon.

Source: Insider