One of the most common gripes about Christopher Nolan’s films is that the dialogue can sometimes be unintelligible due to the volume of the sound, but the director says there is a reason for that.
During an interview with Insider, Nolan partly chalked up the dialogue sound issues in his movies as a stylistic choice. He said he refuses to use additional dialogue recordings (ADR) in post-production because he prefers to capture the dialogue in the moment rather than ask actors to re-record lines in a soundproof booth later.
“I like to use the performance that was given in the moment rather than the actor revoice it later,” he explained. “Which is an artistic choice that some people disagree with, and that’s their right.”
ADR is a well-established tool in the industry that filmmakers utilize to improve audio quality by recording dialogue in a quieter and more controlled environment after shooting the initial scenes. Nolan, however, chooses not to incorporate this into this process despite using IMAX cameras, which are not fully soundproof.
IMAX technology has improved over the years, but the director admitted he is selective about using the cameras since they are noisier. For instance, he opted against them in the scene where Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer meets Gary Oldman’s President Truman in the Oval Office because the dialogue took precedence.
“IMAX is building new cameras right now, which are going to be even quieter,” Nolan remarked. “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.”
Throughout his illustrious career, Nolan has received several complaints regarding the sound mix of his movies. In fact, some of his filmmaking peers called out the inaudible dialogue in 2014’s Interstellar, but he defended its “adventurous and creative” soundscape, saying it was an intentional part of the experience.
The director also garnered criticism over Tom Hardy’s muffled dialogue as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and the over-bearing sound mix of his 2020 blockbuster Tenet, which featured a musical composition by Ludwig Göransson, who used Nolan’s breath to create an “uncomfortable, raspy sound” on the track.
Despite these grievances, Nolan’s movies have historically drawn crowds. Oppenheimer is part of the ‘Barbenheimer’ cinematic experience – a phenomenon that has left box office analysts reeling. The film has received rave reviews, with IGN describing it as a “jolting thriller” that is “big, bold, and surprisingly intimate”.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.