Why Oppenheimer has black-and-white scenes and what they mean: Here are five interesting facts you didn’t know about the film with the most Oscar nominations

Movie Oppenheimerwritten and directed by Christopher Nolan, topped the list of favorites as it received 13 nominations for the 2024 Academy Awards.

The narrative revolves around the life of physicist Robert Oppenheimer and his participation in the development of the first nuclear weapon, which is why he is considered the father of the atomic bomb.

Cillian Murphy plays the main role, and he is joined by other personalities such as Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh and Casey Affleck.

Since its premiere in 2023, which it shared with the film Barbie, the Universal Pictures production has captured the public’s attention.

For Christipher Nolan, it was not a good idea to release them simultaneously, because given the publicity of the last one, he thought that Oppenheimer would be overshadowed, according to the Argentine media Telam.

Despite this, the effect was so great that it later went viral on social media as “Barbenheimer” and is considered the highest-grossing film related to World War II. For this reason, it is necessary to know five facts that few people know about Oppenheimer.

1. Oppenheimer’s scenes in black and white

According to the words Christopher Nolan The explanation for seeing some scenes in black and white is to allow for different perspectives and timelines, as described on the Tomatazos website.

That is, the scenes in color correspond to Oppenheimer’s “subjective” view, while the scenes without color refer to the “objectivity” of the other characters. However, in order for both scenes to have the same quality in terms of resolution, it was necessary for Kodak and Fotokem to make the first black and white IMAX film.

2. It’s Christopher Nolan’s longest-running film

According to data collected by a specialized film site, Christopher Nolan has confirmed that Oppenheimer is the longest-running film in his entire filmography.

It has a total of three hours and nine seconds of projection. This surpasses the film Principle which was released by Nolan in 2020 and lasts two hours and 30 minutes.

3. All production moved to New Mexico

The production team, including the cast, moved to the area and lived in a hotel in the New Mexico desert for several months while filming, which was like “summer camp” for actors like Emily Blunt, sharing a room with Matt Damon.

This was done to recreate the scenery as close to that period as possible without having to use green screens in the background.

4. A real bomb explosion

As it is a film about the creation of an atomic bomb, many will wonder how the scene of the explosion was recreated, which has already been explained by Nolan himself, the media reports. Body. The director confirmed that he did not use CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery).

The visual effect was achieved by positioning the cameras in a certain way to capture “medium-sized controlled explosions,” as special effects director Scott Fischer explained.

5. Film labeled IMAX

As Nolan already explained, the film was shot in IMAX. It is a projection strip format that displays larger images, with outstanding sharpness and image quality.

As reported by Telam, the final print of the film is almost 18 kilometers long and weighs 272 kilograms.

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