Christopher Nolan's new film "The Odyssey" is a nearly three-hour interpretation of the ancient story of how Odysseus, after the ten-year Trojan War, spends another ten years trying to get home to the island of Ithaca, where his wife Penelope is waiting.
108 suitors
During his wanderings, he encounters seductive sirens and a gigantic cyclops. And on Ithaca, 108 suitors are also waiting, wanting to see Odysseus killed and Penelope free to marry again.
Christopher Nolan's own interest in the myth of Odysseus and all the theories surrounding the possible author Homer began as a child. He says it felt like a good adventure story that stuck with him.
It's a universal story, but one that hasn't existed as a modern film. And that appeals to me as a filmmaker. I'm looking for something I haven't done before, which also gives me an opportunity to show the audience something they haven't seen before.
The film is a huge undertaking that comes after Nolan's Oscar-winning smash hit "Oppenheimer" three years ago. The star-studded cast includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Zendaya.
Like science fiction
The cinematography is by Hoyte van Hoytema and the music by Ludwig Göransson. The two Swedes are Nolan's regular collaborators, and he is unsurprisingly full of praise for them.
Nolan says he drew inspiration from films like Kurosawa's "Ran," Tarkovsky's "The Last Judgement," and Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ."
The film was not supposed to look like the historical epics of the 1960s, he explains.
At the same time, it's pretty cool to go to another time, it's a bit like science fiction to me. It's natural as a filmmaker to be inspired by popular culture but to later take it further, with a higher budget.
Nolan's film contains brutal action, but is very deliberately not particularly bloody.
Sometimes violence in films can be so disturbing that you can't watch, and I really didn't want the audience to look away.
"The Odyssey" has its Swedish cinema premiere on July 17.
55 years old. Works with his wife Emma Thomas who produces his films. Had his big break with “Memento” (2000) and “Insomnia” (2002).
Other films, in selection: "Batman begins" (2005), "The prestige" (2006), "The dark knight" (2008), "Inception" (2010), "The dark knight rises" (2012), "Interstellar" (2014), "Dunkirk" (2017), "Tenet" (2020), "Oppenheimer" (2023).
