Oscars 2024: Why Christopher Nolan should win ‘Best Director’
There’s no doubt that if Christopher Nolan could do absolutely every job in making one of his productions, he would. From the writing to the camera work, from the makeup and hair to the editing, it’s fair to say that Nolan has a complete artistic obsession with every facet of his profession, which has admittedly led to some of the most brilliantly detailed and perfectionist pieces of modern cinema.
In that light, it’s no surprise that Nolan has been nominated for ‘Best Director’ at the 2024 Academy Awards, and even though he is facing some serious and rightful competition from the likes of Justine Triet, Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos and Jonathan Glazer (one hell of a grouping of directorial prowess) it’s Nolan who surely deserves to take home the award for his once again masterful work on Oppenheimer.
Following the release of Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy attended a screening of the film at the Picturehouse cinema in London with a Q&A session with Kenneth Branagh. At one point in the conversation, Murphy detailed the kind of artistic obsession that makes Nolan such a remarkable director and explained how he is present in pretty much every decision that’s made surrounding the film, including hair, makeup and costume.
“Chris was obsessed with the hat,” Murphy said. “He was obsessed with his haircut. I had this haircut, where he went from the kind of curly Einstein younger Oppenheimer to the older, more acetic monk-like cut. He called me at half past nine in the morning and I thought ‘I’ll be home for eleven’. It was a five-hour haircut. I was in there from half nine until two o’clock. He supervised almost every follicle. That’s his attention to detail.”
Obviously, there’s an element of hyperbole in Murphy’s words, but more so, there is truth. Despite not being a hairdresser himself, Nolan felt the need to supervise Murphy’s trim as though he were teaching the barber a few tricks. It’s that kind of control freak behaviour that indeed makes Nolan what he is – the living epitome of just what a film director is, something that Murphy was keen to stress further.
“He’s over everything,” the actor added. “The colour of the socks. The model of the watch. Every single detail. He feels that everyone who works on the film, all the HoDs, are just extensions of his job – which is the real definition of the director. He can’t do everything. He does pretty much everything, but he needs all these brilliant people to fulfil his vision to bring his vision to life.”
With that in mind, we can begin to appraise the many different parts of Oppenheimer that make up its brilliant whole as though they are indeed extensions of Nolan himself. The mesmerising cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema – somehow capturing a recreation of the Trinity Test without the use of CGI – the development of the haunting and powerful score by Ludwig Göransson, the Oscar-nominated performances by Murphy and Robert Downey Jr, Jennifer Lame’s editing, plus the aforementioned costume design by Ellen Mirojnick.
Now, that’s not to take anything away from such figures, who are all undoubtedly deserving of their respective individual merits, but rather serves to point out the brilliance of Nolan as an overseer of a film’s production. The term director is one that can evade understanding, but Nolan’s work and the subsequent comments of his actors and contemporaries are proof of his brilliance in his profession.
Let’s not forget the actual historical importance of Oppenheimer either, for it’s not just a production masterpiece but is a culturally and politically vital piece of cinema that explains to us how we got here, too, and it possesses a detailed sense of scientific rigour in the process.
Nolan has never taken on an easy film, and he’s equally never assumed the intelligence of his audience to be any lower than his own, and Oppenheimer yet again showcased a master director at work, a vital contemporary cinema figure with an undying love for his medium. Though Nolan faces some strong competition from Lanthimos, Glazer et al., it’s Nolan who undoubtedly deserves to take home the ‘Best Director’ award at this year’s Oscars.
