3 hours ago
4
Over the next few weeks, Dan Drobik will be cooped up in a little cinema booth bringing The Odyssey to life.
He didn’t star in the film or help make it. But without Drobik, and other projectionists like him, people wouldn’t be able to see the mythological epic exactly as Christopher Nolan intended: in IMAX 70mm.
This, the IMAX technical manager explains, is an analog film format. It relies on a projector and physical film prints rather than standard digital prints to tell a story. It’s also the largest film format you can project on – you won’t see a sandalled Matt Damon any bigger.
“Film prints have gone the way of the dinosaurs, but thankfully Christopher Nolan is a big fan of IMAX 70mm. So, we’re lucky enough to have maintained our projector and can still display it here,” Drobik says.
IMAX Melbourne is the only cinema in the Southern Hemisphere screening The Odyssey in such a format. There are only 40 other cinemas worldwide showing the film this way, with some fans travelling from as far as Germany to experience it. It also has the largest 1.43:1 screen in the world, making it the exact ratio Nolan shot in. According to an IMAX Melbourne spokesperson, patrons will see up to 40 per cent more image than in a standard cinema.
It may sound gimmicky, especially given the price ($47 for an adult ticket, $70 for premium seating). But his hasn’t repelled cinemagoers.
IMAX screenings have been selling out globally months before the film’s July 16 release. At the UK’s BFI IMAX, more than 28,000 tickets were sold within 24 hours. Meanwhile, The Odyssey has become IMAX Melbourne’s highest grossing presale of all time, beating Nolan’s previous heavy-hitter Oppenheimer.
So, what exactly are patrons getting for this hefty price? According to Drobik, it’s an entirely singular experience.
“There might be a blip on-screen, you may see some dust or hear the whir of the projector. It’s part of the magic, it has a real and raw feeling.”
It’s similar to the difference between vinyl and CDs, he says. “There’s an earthier, more natural feel to film. Some of that magic has been lost going to digital. As much as digital looks crystal clear, sharp and flawless … You don’t have the soft edges and the warm glow of the projector. People are willing to come back to capture that feeling of film, rather than the generic mass-produced digital thing.”
People are craving a full cinematic experience, Drobik adds, especially since COVID-19 when picture-perfect streaming dominated entertainment. Sick of “brain rot” and pervasive digitisation, we’re turning to physical media that hearkens back to simpler times and requires genuine craft.
To show The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm, the reel must be threaded through the projector by hand for every session. That’s hours of work for multiple daily screenings, Drobik says. Laid flat, the reel runs more than 17 kilometres long. Wound, it sits at about two metres across and weighs about 250 kilograms. It’s so hefty that shorter projectionists need to carry a little step-ladder while working. Its sheer scale, Drobik says, is often enough to attract audiences.
IMAX used to release one 70mm film every three years, nearly all of which were Nolan titles. Since Oppenheimer, however, there have been six (Joker: Folie à deux, Dune: Part II, Sinners, Project Hail Mary, One Battle After Another).
Standard 70mm film is also experiencing a major surge, with several Australian cinemas such as Sydney’s Ritz, and Melbourne’s Rivoli and Astor cinemas screening The Odyssey in the analogue format. The latter theatre is the only Melbourne venue presenting the film using an original changeover projector, which requires someone to switch from one projector to another during the film.
Jeremy Fee, general manager of IMAX Melbourne, says most of the people swarming to these screenings are in their 20s and 30s, and many are die-hard fans of Nolan, or other auteurs – such as Denis Villeneuve, Ryan Coogler and Jordan Peele – who manage to access IMAX or film cameras.
“These people are really interested in format and filmmakers’ choices now,” Fee says. “I’ve never seen the film format debate rage so strongly. It’s scarcity [of analog film screenings], but it’s also the fact that there’s a lot of knowledge now about how filmmakers have shot a film and how they want you to see it.”
Though some may consider this a temporary nostalgia-driven trend, Fee believes it marks a new frontier of premium cinema. More filmmakers are breaking into this space, he says, with an increasing number choosing to shoot in 35mm or 70mm. Cinemas like IMAX Melbourne are also training new staff in projection to help future-proof the medium.
“There’s proof that this film resurgence is going to last for quite a long time, and people will want to seek out this sort of quality experience they can’t get anywhere else.”
Analogue film still remains relatively scarce, however, and isn’t affordable to everyone. Cinemas are thus leaning into other novel experiences that help entice audiences, such as midnight screenings. Nolan fans can watch the film first-thing on Thursday at IMAX Fountain Gate, the Ritz, as well as at various Event and Hoyts cinemas around the country. Most of these screenings have already sold out.
Some chains, including Palace Cinema, have developed “sword and sandal preshows”, and bespoke cocktails for The Odyssey screenings. Melbourne’s Cinema Nova even hosted a four-week book club event in collaboration with The University of Melbourne and Readings Books, wherein the city’s leading academics in Homer’s epic poem gave weekly lectures discussing the work. This event sold out within 24 hours.
“People are realising that if they’re going to come out, they want the full experience,” Drobik says. “You can’t keep up with everything these days. So, now we have these very specific directors who release big, singular experiences. There might only be one or two a year, but they’re well and truly worth seeing in these special formats.”
The Odyssey will land in Australian cinemas on July 16. The first IMAX Melbourne IMAX 70mm screening will take place at 12.01am on Thursday.
