Christopher Nolan: “It would be crazy to compare me to Kubrick!”

Interstellar returns to theaters to celebrate its tenth anniversary. So at Première too, we’re bringing out our archives!

Interstellar of Christopher Nolan, has often been compared to 2001, A Space Odysseyof Stanley Kubrick. When it was released in November 2014, First met the director and discussed the common points, but also the differences between this space fresco and that dating from 1968. On the occasion of its release in the cinema, in a restored 70mm IMAX version, we are sharing this interview again.

Stanley Kubrick Reveals the Meaning of 2001's A Space Odyssey Ending in Lost Interview

Premiere: After such a conceptual and ambitious blockbuster, what remains of the filmmaker Memento ?
Christopher Nolan: On a physical level not much (laughs). Seriously, as we age, all the atoms that make us up change, our body changes as we age… The person we remember as a child or a teenager is totally different. Sorry, but this is the kind of thing that has been obsessing me for some time. All these concrete physics notions intrigue me.

Obviously the question was at an artistic level…
I understood well… I don't know. Realizing remains the same process. Nothing has changed from this point of view.

So can you tell us what it was like working on this film? And especially at the script level.
My brother worked on this project for several years; he was writing with a physicist, Kip Thorne. At the heart of his project, there was this idea of ​​a SF film where science would be realistic. When I came in, when I took over the script, I merged it with another subject I was working on, a screenplay idea that explored the same genre. I kept ideas that I held dear. Two axes in particular: the relationship between a father and his child. And this desire to make a sci-fi film that tackles an existential problem; an anticipation film that tackles a crucial moment in humanity, this moment when the earth becomes like a nest from which we must leave.

When did you refuse to make the film in 3D?
It was never posed in these terms. In my opinion, 3D allows you to have a very intimate form of emotion. But Interstellar is a film with cosmic dimensions… So, to feel this epic sensation, to give scale, I needed the largest scale possible, and 3D, which shrinks things a little, didn't allow that.

To what extent does technique determine your staging? Did you choose IMAX because of the vertical staging ideas you had or is it this format that led you to modify your aesthetic choices?
When I make a film, I try to find the appropriate technique for my story. Bringing art and technology into dialogue. Let one respond to the other. The format, the technique is for me a tool at the service of art. And the choice of format informs, influences and participates in the narration. The IMAX – this is the third time I have used it – necessarily imposes aesthetic choices. I don't say it in a pejorative way… On the contrary, we look for our own technique, our own format to tell our story.

You sound like an explorer basically… Considering the subject of the film, it's funny.
I don't know if I'm a cinema adventurer like Cooper is a space adventurer, but the idea of ​​travel and exploration are, for me, constitutive of making a film. In my mind, the hero's journey reminds me of the filmmaker's journey. Space travel is one of the last places where practice and technology meet the world of ideas. Filming is a micro version of the challenges of an astronaut, it's a field where everything depends on the technology we use, we take risks to take people to unknown places.

By the way, do you really think humanity should be exported?
Yes ! I am an optimist. What has always appealed to me about the conquest of space is that it is an adventure that shows the best aspect of the human condition. The fact of coming together to find solutions to technical problems, pure scientific research, collective momentum… it is the man at his peak who emerges at these moments.

This is the first time that you have approached the genre of melodrama. Ultimately, wasn't that the biggest challenge ofInterstellar ?
Viewers will – I hope – have a stronger emotional response to Interstellar than in my previous films. This is the film where the emotions of the characters are the most important. This is a key driver of the story. And if it was important to explore the emotions of the characters, these feelings had to be simple and accessible. Clear and understandable. And that was the most complicated.

For what ?
Because these emotions underline the concepts and the scientific discourse that unfolds in the films. These speeches are sometimes difficult, very complicated, and I did not want to lose the spectators. I wanted obvious emotions so that those who don't understand the scientific part could follow and buy into the film.

But even emotions are sometimes treated conceptually… Love for example.
It's not that complicated. In my opinion, the film celebrates the mysteries of love. By suggesting that there is perhaps a scientific basis for this phenomenon, a geometric basis for our relationship with people, I am not complicating anything, I am offering a new dimension to feelings. The film presents time as a dimension in itself, a concrete artifact, a space that can be touched. Perhaps humans are all connected in a physical, sensory way. I can't talk too much about this theme without detracting from the film. But whatever it is, love must remain mysterious, even if I like the idea that by seeing human life from another point of view, by taking a step back, we can quantify the love, we can understand it differently, scientifically.

Interstellar is a melodrama hidden beneath a great space odyssey [critique]

There is not only love, there is also, as in all your films, mourning and death.
I make blockbusters, mainstream genre films. And melodrama is an essential component of these films, it is even their driving force. And death is a major source of melodrama… But in Interstellar I wanted to treat it a little differently. Not just as a motivation for the characters, but in a slightly more… philosophical way. This is the plan A/plan B theme found in the film. In space, distances are impossible to comprehend and the history ofInterstellar runs for generations. Suddenly, it is a question of the gulf of generations, of the relationship with children and of time too! Death, children… all these themes ultimately speak of immortality which is one of the most exciting themes available to human reflection.

Who are the filmmakers who have influenced you?
For Interstellar ? Ridley Scott, Malick, Kubrick, Nicholas RoegTarkovsky, and above all Mirror that my ops director introduced me to in pre-production and which was a huge influence on Interstellar.

You mention Kubrick. You don't have to be a little crazy to compete with him like you do?
It would be crazy to compare myself to Kubrick, I grant you that. But you can't make a sci-fi film pretending that 2001 does not exist. We can do our best to offer something new, something different, but it is better to recognize this influence, honor it and be faithful to it rather than hiding the reference and pretending not to see it.

Why do you quote the verses of Dylan Thomas (“Don't go gentle in that good night”) ?
Certainly not to be smart. Just for the two lines I use, which eloquently sum up humanity's fight against time.
Interview Pierre Lunn

Interstellar: a very different first project developed by Steven Spielberg