It’s not often that one of the big talking points of a movie is the sound mix, but Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar has come under fire from a large portion of the audience who saw the film (which has now passed $321 million worldwide). Several complaints have been lobbied against difficult to hear dialogue and Hans Zimmer’s score being too overt, but for Christopher Nolan, the movie is exactly how he wants it.
Warning – some spoilers for Interstellar.
“I’ve always loved films that approach sound in an impressionistic way and that is an unusual approach for a mainstream blockbuster, but I feel it’s the right approach for this experiential film,” Nolan tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Many of the filmmakers I’ve admired over the years have used sound in bold and adventurous ways. I don’t agree with the idea that you can only achieve clarity through dialogue. Clarity of story, clarity of emotions — I try to achieve that in a very layered way using all the different things at my disposal — picture and sound.”
When discussing a scene with Matthew McConaughey driving his truck through a corn field, Nolan said, “It’s incredibly loud… exhilarating and slightly frightening. I was very keen to try and give the audience the experience and the chaotic feeling with the sound. The idea is to experience the journey the character is going on. [For instance] the experience of being in the cockpit is you hear the creaking [of the spacecraft]; it’s a very scary sound. We wanted to be true to the experience of space travel. We wanted to emphasize those intimate elements.”
One of the sticking points with some viewers is an important piece of some inaudible dialogue delivered by Michael Caine as his character lays on his death bed. “The creative intent there is to be truthful to the situation — an elderly man dying and saying something somewhat unexpected,” Nolan argues. “We are following the emotional state of Jessica [Chastain]’s character as she starts to understand what he’s been saying. Information is communicated in various different ways over the next few scenes. That’s the way I like to work; I don’t like to hang everything on one particular line. I like to follow the experience of the character.”
Interstellar is currently in cinemas. You can listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast review of the movie using the player below:
Originally published November 16, 2014. Updated July 3, 2023.
