Over the summer, it was virtually impossible to avoid reading anything about Christopher Nolan‘s Dunkirk without some mention of its immersive theatrical experience. And for good reason! Once the end credits rolled after seeing the film in 70MM IMAX, I realized that I had neglected to take a breath for at least an hour.

But apart from the lucky few with home entertainment facilities resembling an auditorium, the majority of future encounters with Dunkirk will take place on television sets and tablets, using small-scale speakers or headphones. Although Nolan probably cringes at the thought, this more – shall we say, intimate – viewing experience sheds light on moments that might not land with such massive sensory force. With a reduced visceral thrill, the intellectual dimensions of Dunkirk reveal themselves more plainly. As it turns out, more connects Nolan’s latest work to his filmography than just a knack for big-screen framing.

The film’s most important and ambiguous emotional beat comes sandwiched in the middle of Dunkirk‘s climactic sequence where all three timelines converge around a sinking British ship. It’s a moment of raw human drama so fragile and delicate that Nolan even cranks down the volume on Hans Zimmer’s pulse-pounding score to let the scene breathe.

Christopher Nolan Was ‘Driven to Push Boundaries’ in ‘Dunkirk,’ Says Producer

natalie wrote: ↑

February 15th, 2018, 11:49 am

Christopher Nolan Was ‘Driven to Push Boundaries’ in ‘Dunkirk,’ Says Producer

http://variety.com/2018/film/awards/chr ... 202699031/

And...
http://variety.com/2018/film/podcasts/p ... 202698342/

Hans Zimmer Set Out After Complete Fusion Of Sound And Image With ‘Dunkirk’

Lee Smith had edited six films for Christopher Nolan by the time he arrived on an intemperate beach in northern France.

The director handed him headphones and said their new collaboration had sparse dialogue but would pulse with incessant sound, like the ticking of a clock, to capture the quickening fear of more than 300,000 Allied soldiers trapped in the sand by an advancing German army.

"The movie was a visceral experience rather than a spoken narrative," said Smith, nominated for a film editing Academy Award for "Dunkirk." "The challenge of having a lack of dialogue means the conventions of that style of editing disappear and you've got to tell the story as if it's a silent movie. That was a very new dynamic for Chris and for me. It was challenging and terrifying all at once."

"Dunkirk" is a war movie without much blood or computer-generated mayhem; it is an unrelenting twist of the soul, a psychological thriller of intersecting timelines and a pincer score by Hans Zimmer that captures the excruciating tick-tock of British and French soldiers waiting to escape a beach in the early days of World War II. What happened in the coastal town of Dunkirk in 1940 became synonymous with British resolve as hundreds of civilians in trawlers and leisure boats raced to the rescue.

A film editor's creed is to distill a director's vision and propel an imagined world without showing its seams or artistic calculus. Smith, who was born in Australia, has worked on a range of films including the surreal fable "The Truman Show," Nolan's mind-bending "Inception" and the upcoming comic-book caper "X-Men: Dark Phoenix." He has been previously nominated for Academy Awards for "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and for Nolan's "The Dark Knight."

Over the course of 10 films, Emma Thomas, 46, and husband Christopher Nolan, 47, have established themselves as one of the most successful producing-directing duos in Hollywood. The pair, who met at Cambridge University, where they made short films together as students, earned their second best picture nomination (following 2010’s Inception) for Dunkirk, which follows the British forces’ efforts to rescue stranded Allied soldiers during World War II. Thomas talked to THR about the film’s appeal, how the awards experience has changed for her and whether she’ll be more nervous for the best picture announcement or the one in the best director category, where Nolan is nominated.

Dunkirk has become the highest-grossing World War II movie ever. Why do you think it’s resonated so much with audiences?

It’s a very elemental story, and it’s a global story, even though it’s a peculiarly British story and very much in its period. Ultimately, what it comes down to is it’s a survival story, and that’s something that anyone can watch and understand. In many ways, all the things that Chris decided to do early on that at the time felt very unconventional and different — not having characters whose backstories we know, not having a great deal of dialogue — in many ways that sort of helped people relate to the story of these characters and really empathize with their plights.

For Christopher Nolan’s Producer And Partner Emma Thomas, Maintaining A Winning Streak Is Essential