The Odyssey might be an age-old tale, but director Christopher Nolan has nonetheless incorporated truly cutting-edge techniques in his film adaptation. One trick in particular feels almost like something straight out of a Greek myth.
Many a Nolan-phile will know he is well-versed in IMAX cameras, having used them for a large portion of footage in movies like Oppenheimer, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, and more. These devices are massive compared to regular cameras, and provide an exponentially great resolution and super tall aspect ratio. These effects lead to a theater experience that feels all encompassing and crystal clear.
A technical challenge unlike any before
For The Odyssey, Nolan did the unprecedented: shooting the entire thing with one of these monster cameras. To drown out the jackhammer-like sounds these machines notoriously produce, his team enclosed it in a soundproof box, referred to on set as a “blimp.”
However, there was still one major battle left: the contraption was now so large that actors couldn’t see each other. Granted, it’s not unheard of for actors to have to pour their heart out to inanimate objects (usually tennis balls) instead of their scene partner. But it’s not exactly the ideal working conditions for emotional or intimate scenes.
A clever solution for emotional performances
So, just as Perseus utilized a mirror to detect and defeat the dreaded Medusa, so too did Nolan use mirrors to overcome this technical obstacle. Two, in this case. The actor on camera would look into Mirror 1, which reflected to Mirror 2, which the offscreen actor would interact with.
Both Matt Damon (Odysseus) and Anne Hathaway (Penelope) have praised—and geeked out a bit—about this unconventional process.
Speaking with Collider’s Steven Weintraub, Damon said the mirrors worked so “seamlessly” that he often forgot he was only interacting with a reflection.
“I don’t remember it being a mirror. I remember I was so dialed into Annie’s eyes that I just remember Annie being right there, and she was, she was right there, but I was doing it to the mirror…it worked. It worked really well,” he recalled.
Similarly, Hathaway shared, “It was so beautifully designed that none of us actors felt like we were compromising ourselves to engage with a system that made us feel like our performances were outside of ourselves.”
She concluded that, for the community of “film nerds” on set, it felt unbelievably surreal to witness such ingenuity in real time.
Imaginative yet practical camera innovations are practically synonymous with Nolan’s name at this stage of his career. Notably, he achieved the mind-bending visuals of Inception primarily by building full-scale, 100-foot sets inside a massive cylindrical rig that rotated 360 degrees, allowing actors like Joseph Gordon-Levitt to perform physically exhausting stunts on the walls and ceiling during dream sequences. This created a much more visceral, tactile experience for performers and audiences alike, compared to CGI.
Why practical effects still matter
Filmmaking has always been a medium that tests the limits of groundbreaking technology while trying to authentically explore grief, joy, desire, fear, hope, love, and other timeless truths of the human condition. To be sure, all of the great visionaries—from Spielberg to Cameron—have tried in their own way to honor both of these elements. And, arguably, it’s what so many proponents of AI in filmmaking are failing to comprehend.
But, as AI continues to enter the art form, it’s all the more refreshing to see industry leaders still prioritizing human connection, and the excitement cultivated because of it.
