What you need to know about ‘Oppenheimer’ before you go see it

The story of Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bombpremiered in Ecuador and was as explosive as the artifact created in the United States by the protagonist and his team of scientists in the so-called Manhattan Project (1942).

The filmmaker Javier Andrade reflected on Christopher Nolan’s new film In a discussion that took place in Riocentro Quito on the night of Wednesday, July 19.

“Everything Christopher Nolan does is fascinating, He is one of the filmmakers working in Hollywood in the industrial and commercial field He is undoubtedly one of the most interesting people of the last 15 years.said the director of Unseen. “I emphasize his intelligence, his refined visual language, his handling of sound and music and great performances, in addition to the fact that you must enjoy them in IMAX.because it was conceived for IMAX”.

Review: We’ve already seen ‘Barbie’ and we tell you what to expect (without ‘spoilers’) from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s film

These are some facts you should know about the production that officially premiered in our country on Thursday, July 20.

The book that inspired Oppenheimer’s script

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005) became a bible of sorts that informed and guided all aspects of the production of oppenheimer. During the scriptwriting phase, the publication of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin provided director Christopher Nolan with a wealth of information that helped him create what mattered most to him: a critical portrait of Oppenheimer that not only dramatizes the formative and revolutionary events, but also explore your psychology and question the consequences of your actions.

A film in color and black and white

That’s what the manager decided scenes told from Oppenheimer’s perspective would be in color (he also wrote them in the first person), with occasional haircuts to evocative and surreal images that symbolically expressed his inner world. The scenes focused on Lewis Strauss, Another key player in shaping US nuclear policy after World War II, They would be black and white.

A unique aesthetic

The mission to build Oppenheimer’s world was entrusted to the production designer Ruth de Jong. Nolan asked her not to be picky or short on period details. He liked the idea of ​​promoting modernism, making cars, phones or other pieces of technology the best of the times. It was an appropriate choice for a story about a man chasing the future, told from his perspective. “Chris always said to me, ‘Ruth, I’m not making a boring documentary.’

Cillian Murphy, the main character

To represent the father of the atomic bomb, Christopher Nolan selected an actor who has appeared in five of his films (the trilogy of The Dark Knight, Inception, Dunkirk), but who had never been the protagonist until now: Cillian Murphy, the Irish film and theater star, now 47 years old. “I was very new the first time I worked with him, but it was clear that he had extraordinary talent and we connected personally, professionally and creatively. It was great to be able to pick up the phone and say, ‘It’s arrived; This is it, this is the time for you to star, you are going to take on a character who is going to use every aspect of your talent and challenge you in ways that have never been challenged before.” And he was into it.”

construction by Oppenheimer

“We always went after Oppenheimer’s complexity, as he was not a simple man”explains Murphy. In preparation for the role, Murphy read American Prometheus and other books. In addition, he collaborated with Nolan and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick to perfect Oppenheimer’s signature look: his intense gaze, his posture, his pipe, his hat. “I’m not trying to imitate Robert Oppenheimer,” says Murphy. “It’s an Oppenheimer distilled from the Oppenheimer we see in the historical material and the Oppenheimer I encountered in Chris’s script. It was a long process to arrive at a synthesis of representation and interpretation”.

About Kitty Oppenheimer

Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer (her maiden name was Puening), played by Emily Blunt, she was a biologist, botanist and met Oppenheimer at a garden party in San Francisco. They married and had two children, Peter and Toni, but during the years they lived in Los Alamos, Kitty struggled with motherhood, loneliness and addiction. “Kitty is a character who doesn’t talk about trivia; talk about important things Blunt explains. “She found her intellectual match in Robert Oppenheimer. There was genuine respect in the relationship. She was his absolute confidant and his most important ally when it came to making big decisions. She was also a scientist, and she is the best example of a woman of that time with a brilliant brain that was wasted on the ironing board, and she suffered for it. Yet she believed in Robert, adored him, supported him and was his biggest supporter.”

Who was Lewis Strauss?

Played by Robert Downey Jr., he was a founding member of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1947, playing a key role in shaping post-war US nuclear policy. Strauss met Oppenheimer that same year in his capacity as trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. Thus began a tense relationship between two headstrong, highly ambitious and, in their own way, fervently patriotic men. “The funny thing about shaving my head is it reminded me of my dad, which is never a bad thing,” says Downey Jr. “But without a doubt, that characterization was the right one for the character. Chris (Nolan) wondered if I wanted to avoid it. But all that ended up happening was I wore baseball caps for a while.”

Costumes

This is the costume designer’s first time Ellen Mirojnick works with Nolan. His award-winning 40-year career includes such classics as Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, Basic Instinct And Speed. LThe key to Oppenheimer’s silhouette was his hat, and it took the A Mirojnick team a while to trace its origins. The costume designer contacted milliners in New York and Italy to recreate the famous shape, but it was Baron Hats, the legendary Hollywood hat brand, that recreated the hat to perfection. The character’s costumes reflect a man whose refined tastes are clearly defined by his textile embellishments. Cillian’s attractiveness was enhanced by the choice of shades of blue for his shirts, which lit up his piercing blue eyes.