Posted in: Movies, Universal | Tagged: christopher nolan, oppenheimer, univeral, Universal Pictures

Christopher Nolan: Biopic's Concept "Fails You Completely as a Genre"

Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan believes that "the concept of a biopic fails you completely as a genre" and "it's not a useful genre."

It's the fall season, so that means you're going to hear the word "biopic" get thrown around a lot. That's mostly because the most common way for someone to try and appeal to the awards season voters is to do some biopic on a famous person that has taken place. One of those big biopic films that everyone is going to have their eyes on is Oppenheimer, which not only did absolutely amazing this summer but continued to have significant momentum, unlike anything we've seen from a film in this genre or with an R-rating in a long time. Both Oppenheimer and Barbie were seen as positive steps forward in an industry that has taken quite a beating since the pandemic hit.

However, when it comes to describing the film, one person isn't too fond of the term biopic, and that is Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan. Nolan was recently at a City University of New York event (via Variety) with wife and producer Emma Thomas and Kai Bird, whose book American Prometheus Nolan used as the basis for the film and when asked about why he doesn't show any part of the title character's childhood, Nolan explained why he believes the term "biopic" is so limiting.

"There is a tendency in biography post-Freud to attribute characteristics of the person you're dealing with to their genetics from their parents. It's a very reductive view of a human being," Nolan answered. "If you're writing a book that's 500 pages or 1,000 pages, there's a way to balance that with their individuality and experiences. When you compress and strip down to the necessary simplicity of a screenplay, it's incredibly reductive."

"This is where the concept of a biopic fails you completely as a genre," Nolan continued. "It's not a useful genre. I love working in useful genres. In this film… it's the heist film as it applies to the Manhattan Project and the courtroom drama as it applies to the security hearings. It's very useful to look at the conventions of those genres and how they can pull the audience and how they can give me communication with the audience."

Nolan added, "Biopic is something that applies to a film that is not quite registering in a dramatic fashion. You don't talk about 'Laurence of Arabia' as a biopic. You don't talk about 'Citizen Kane' as a biopic. It's an adventure film. It's a film about somebody's life. It's not a useful genre, the same way drama is not a useful genre. It doesn't give you anything to hold onto."

It's an interesting take, considering how prevalent biopics are. Nolan seems to believe that saying you are a biopic is limiting, and while you might be one technically, you should be something else. You need drama, you need thrills, you need romance, you need all the things that make a movie interesting, and all of the things that make extraordinary lives worth making biopics about in there as well. A life you are making a biopic about will be one with all of the elements of a good story; it's just a matter of leaning into those aspects instead of simply being a biopic and going home. If that means we stop getting mediocre biopics about extraordinary people–I'm in.

Oppenheimer: Release Date, Summary, Cast List

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. It was released in theaters on July 21, 2023. It will be released on 4K Blu-Ray on November 21, 2023.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist, and botanist Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer. Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Academy Award® nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber, and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Oppenheimer also stars Oscar® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer, and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh. The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!