The Current Cinema - The editor cant resist a few remarks on THE ODYSSEY (Christopher Nolan, USA, 2026)

 

OK...here's my thoughts on Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

First. I haven't read the book. Then again I hadn't, (and still haven't) read The Bible when I saw Nicholas Ray's King of Kings and George Stevens The Greatest Story Ever Told though I was a lot more familiar with the basic story. I might try and read The Odyssey now, just as I might try and read Albert Camus' The Outsider after seeing the recent Ozon film version.

Second. I watched the film at the Ulladulla Arcadia Twin Cinemas at 10.00 am with a half dozen others, most around my own age. The charge for the toilets at the end of the 2.46 minute running time of the actual visuals (which I presume means that there are 20 minutes of credits to make up the advertised time of 186 minutes) was hectic.

Third. I therefore did not see the film on IMAX, 70mm or any other advanced format beyond the usual presumably 4K projection that is the standard these days. For some that might mean I saw something resembling a VHS pan and scan tape compared to the real thing that Nolan shot entirely with IMAX film cameras. 

In that light I have decided that, with permission, I am going to filch Ross Campbell's report posted on Facebook about his IMAX experience. Ross writes: Saw Christopher Nolan's film THE ODYSSEY this afternoon at Melbourne's IMAX cinema. Congratulations to Kevin Adams and the entire IMAX projection team for their splendid presentation of this epic achievement. THE ODYSSEY is the first full-length feature film to be made entirely on full-frame 15-perforation 70 mm IMAX film. Cinema’s biggest format. Cinema’s biggest screen. And it’s film!

"Melbourne's IMAX is one of a very small number of venues in the world, and the only one in the southern hemisphere, that still maintains these remarkable projectors where the film runs horizontally through the machine. Melbourne’s projection team has become internationally recognised for keeping the 15/70 equipment in first-class operating condition. Projectionists from other countries have looked to Melbourne as one of the exemplars of non-digital IMAX presentation.

"The 15,000-watts of combined sound, distributed across the front screen channels, side surrounds, rear surrounds, overhead channels and the sub-bass system, envelopes the audience in a totally immersive experience. Sitting centre towards the back rows, it was enthralling.

"I look forward to seeing THE ODYSSEY again, currently screening at the Sun Theatre Yarraville, where it’s being shown on film in the 2.2:1 widescreen 70 mm format; it’s in the Barkly auditorium where Rob Murphy and Brian Davis had such success with Tarantino’s THE HATEFUL EIGHT in 2016.

"Prior to seeing the film, I found a very helpful podcast from The Rest Is History team on YouTube where they give a detailed chronological account of Homer’s ODYSSEY. Both Homer and Nolan delight in playing with a non-linear presentation of the story: flashbacks within flashbacks? Decidedly. The Rest Is History even has fun in suggesting an Australian connection with the emphasis on ‘barbecues’. Theirs is an engrossing account of THE ODYSSEY to prepare one for Nolan’s magnificently imagined film. The first sight of the Trojan Horse alone is worth the price of admission.

The Complete History of Homer’s Odyssey ".

Fourth. I admired Nolan's decision to avoid any mock Shakespearean dialogue. The conversations are down to earth. There are no four letter words uttered that I recall.

Fifth. I had some trouble following the narrative, the individual highlight sequences being straightforward, as it cut between pasts and presents in a sometimes complicated manner though from the moment Odysseus returns home, the last hour or so is pretty straightforward.

Sixth. For a cinephile Nolan doesn't seem to have learnt many lessons regarding choreographing hand to hand combat and battles in general. A look over the symmetries of late Kurosawa from Throne of Blood through Yojimbo and Sanjuro would have been a big help and maybe some quick pointers might have been gained even from the Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies and from just about anything made by Tsui Hark.

Seventh. There is music, throbbing and rather undulating throughout. It places a layer of bubbling and unmusical sound over everything. Not sure if that isn't finally just irritating.

Eighth. I dont quite understand why Odysseus had to keep his identity secret when he finally returned. His son twigs who he is but no one else does. He has to have the epic battle in the Palace to round out the action so I assume it's all related.

Ninth. Nolan's current career arc strikes me as somewhat similar to Cecil B De Mille, William Wyler and George Stevens who all used their authority to make more and more bloated pictures as their careers headed for conclusions (I know Wyler made a handful of pictures after Ben-Hur including, The Children's Hour andThe Collector and Stevens made The Only Game in Town to finish off but you know what I mean). Nolan is a way away from the conclusion of his career so I recommend for next, I know I know, something like The Collector, or maybe something like Following, Memento or even a remake of some little known European thriller like Insomnia. Maybe Claude Sautet's Classe Tous Risques...just saying...

Adrian Martin starts a new Substack blog. A sample and a link to subscriptions...

 Melbourne-born, Barcelona-based Adrian Martin has started his own Substack blog drawing attention to the massive catalogue of his past and continuing writing. Below is a sample he has sent through. If you would like a free 7 Day trial then click through here. For a sample, keep reading..

Three Scenes of the 1970s

A suite of moviegoing reminiscences from 2017

1. In the Realm

In 1977 I was 17, not yet old enough to legally attend the Melbourne International Film Festival. And certainly not old enough to view the uncensored print of Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a Japanese film already notorious for its unbridled – and sometimes unsimulated – sex scenes. But there I was, unaccompanied, bravely queuing up with thousands of strangers outside the enormous, old-style Palais theatre, very early on a Saturday morning, to see this ultra-special event, in 35 millimetre celluloid on a vast, loud screen.

The feeling of engaging in an illicit adventure both before and during the screening was overwhelming; I was convinced that the cops would bust in at any second and drag me – only me – whimpering from the theatre.

Near the end of the session – as the genitals of Kichi (Tatsuya Fuji), voluntarily strangled to death, are tenderly severed and brandished by his enthusiastic lover, Sada (Eiko Matsuda) – we all heard a bloodcurdling scream, issuing from a distressed audience member up in the highest seats of this picture palace. Emergency service was required for this suitably transgressed spectator.

Afterwards, in the nearby back streets of this suburb along which I walked home in a daze, an even stranger apparition seized the world – this one more in tune with the Georges Bataille-style surrealism and eroticism of the film just witnessed. Parked cars, with no one visible in any seat, rocked gently or violently back and forth, as if seized by a magical will. Clearly, some spectators, unfazed – or perhaps incited – by the final castration scene had raced to their mobile bedrooms to live out the movie before its credits had even stopped rolling.

I made it home safely that day, avoiding police arrest for my crime against state restrictions over my delicate consciousness. But I had to wait twenty-three years before seeing In the Realm of the Senses again in any form but the pathetically dubbed and cut video version that circulated for decades. On screen, fully restored and re-released, I saw that Oshima’s film had lost none of its hushed, riveting power.

But in 2000 there was no scandal: no public figure made a fuss over it; the cops were not called in; nobody screamed; the empty cars in nearby alleyways sat forlornly still.

As a wise man said: “Only those who lived before the revolution know life’s sweetness”.

Serail

2. Anamorphosis

As hard as it is to imagine from the viewpoint of today, Jacques Rivette’s Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) was enough of a commercial success in Melbourne cinemas of the mid-to-late 1970s to create space for the release of an even more experimental film hailing from the Rivette ‘family’: namely, Eduardo de Gregorio’s Sérail (aka Surreal Estate, 1976). Argentinean-born de Gregorio had been a script collaborator on Céline and Julie, always present during shooting to provide any dialogue or extra ideas needed on the spot.

Re-seen today, Sérail loses none of its strangeness. [Note: I will be writing more about the film in a forthcoming issue of Narrow Margin in 2027.] A British novelist (Corin Redgrave) in France is drawn in by a sprawling, atmospheric, mostly empty manor where two mysterious women (Bulle Ogier and Marie-France Pisier from Céline and Julie) spin stories and adopt fake identities. Lurking in the background is none other than Leslie Caron, perhaps more of a Mabusean manipulator than she is letting on.

But what happened to the ending? From the ‘70s, I retain an absolutely vivid memory of the final shot: we are serenely looking at this haunted house from an exterior, distant vantage point when, suddenly, it is as if (pre-David Lynch) a lens is removed from the camera, utterly warping the image. It’s a beautiful flourish: this film about how fiction devours life itself auto-destructs at the end, its fragile illusion going up in smoke.

However, when I test this recollection out on friends around the world, no one can confirm it – and the visual effect is definitely not included on the director-approved DVD edition of Sérail. (De Gregorio himself died in 2012).

I am forced, finally, to accept the hypothesis of another Melbourne cinephile from those years: it was probably the cinema’s projectionist, anxious to set up for the next session (of an altogether different film), who yanked off the anamorphic lens that would have been necessary to unsqueeze the print of the widescreen Sérail.

In this instance, at least, I am grateful that the projectionist’s intervention – his personal contribution to the unwritten, global history of expanded cinema – was perfectly in tune with meta-fictional conceits of the film itself.

Rio Bravo

3. The Ciné-fils

At the very end of the ‘70s, I attended what must have been one of the last ‘children’s Saturday matinees’ scheduled at a suburban cinema situated far from Melbourne’s centre – and most certainly the last to screen an old, classic Western, a ritual that had been slowly dying out across the decade. Ten years previously, when I was a child, my father had often taken me to the cinema to watch Westerns, old and new.

But here was my golden opportunity, as a young cinephile, to see Howard Hawks’ mythic Rio Bravo (1959) – the film beloved of critics from Robin Wood to Serge Daney – projected on the big screen.

I was the only adult present. Just before the screening started, several parents dropped off their very young kids at the cinema door. These children tolerated about one minute of this ancient movie before deciding to run around the aisles, shouting and playing.

Except for one small boy, who detached himself from the group … and silently came to sit next to me. At intermission (it’s a relatively long Hollywood film), he looked up at me and plaintively inquired: “Do you like this film, Mister?” I answered, as enthusiastically but also as pedagogically as I could: “Yes, I sure do! It’s great!”

The film started again, and the boy silently stayed in his seat for the duration, eyes fixed on the screen. At the end, when the lights went up, he said “Bye, Mister”, and walked out into the street where one of his parents was waiting to pick him up.

© Adrian Martin September 2017

On Apple TV - Rod Bishop recommends STAR CITY (Ronald D Moore, Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi, USA, 2026)

After five seasons of For All Mankind on Apple TV, the showrunners Moore, Wolper and Nedivi have produced an official spin-off.

It’s another space-race alternative history and Star City starts with the same premise: the Russians beat the Americans to a crewed landing on the Moon. But the similarities end there. This new series plots its own course as a paranoid spy thriller embedded in a counterfactual account of the 1970s Soviet space program.

The Russian “Chief Designer”, played by the underrated Rhys Ifens (channeling Max Von Sydow), pushes for a new, clandestine operation to send a crew of cosmonauts on a nine-month mission to Venus and rack up another space victory for the glory of Mother Russia.

The Americans have other ideas of course, and Star City spends almost as much time on spy craft as is does on space exploration. Le Carre’s “Moscow Rules” apply here and the malevolent Head of KGB surveillance Colonel Lyudmilla Rascova (the equally underrated Anna Maxwell Martin), holds command over the space scientists. She has to combat traitors and the dastardly Americans, with their CIA sponsored espionage, subterfuge and shadowy agents.

The grainy, gloomy cinematography and the totalitarian brutalist buildings of Star City give the series an unmistakable 1970s feel, reminiscent of the television adaptation of le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. George Smiley would feel at home here.

It’s one of those series that gets better with each passing episode, and as the surveillance increases, so does the tension. Every character comes to feel they are being watched, and only one mistake will end their careers and maybe their lives. Things might turn worse at any moment; like the old 1970s saying “paranoia is true perception”.

Ryan Britt: “Sometimes, and this is a compliment, you forget this is a show about space travel…When Star City is at its best it’s a slow-burning spy show with the subject of optimism under extreme pressure.””

 

At the French Film Festival and screening elsewhere - David Hare recommends AUTUMN IS COMING (François Ozon, 2025)

The screen above shows supporting actress Josiane Balasko, left with lead Hélène Vincent driving off to forage for mushrooms in François Ozon's latest noir comedy/drama from last year Quand vient l'automne (Autumn is coming).

In the second screen Hélène, here given such splendid close ups from Ozon in all her 82 year old glory, now cooking the mushrooms for dinner (screen below) to feed her obnoxious daughter, a spectacularly vile Millennial parody by the fabulous Ludivine Sagnier. 

Last screen is a sassy (and sexy) Malik Ziddy as Helene's son-in-law. 

After a deeply personal and powerful debut back thirty odd years with his earlier "transgressive" features - Les Amants Criminels, Gouttes d'Eau sur Pierres Brulantes, Swimming Pool, Sous le Sable - and more, I felt in the last decade or so Ozon was losing his edge, as though the treatments, he was giving to his screenplays were simply flattening out into "moral" equivocation.

Quand Vient L'Automne is a wildly triumphant return to form, and mood and the sheer variety of his players with their highly individual playing styles admirably conjures a micro world of real people reacting variously in extreme circumstances.

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - NINE CLASSIC RESTORATIONS

“I am grateful that my earliest films will finally be shared with an Australian audience in Melbourne, 45 years after my unfortunately-lost film Justocoeur played there in 1981.” Mary Stephen, filmmaker, Shades of Silk, screening in MIFF Restorations section

Cinema Reborn recommends Melbourne audiences make the time to check out the superb collection of restored classicsbeing presented as part of MIFF’s 2026 selection.

ANIKI-BOBO

Dir. Manoel de Oliveira, 1942, 72 mins, Portugal, Australian Premiere

The feature debut of Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira returns to the screen, beautifully restored, as a charming, proto-neorealist revelation.

“Embodies a poetic sensibility … Staggeringly simple in conception, it’s an immaculate piece of filmmaking and just one of many wonders that Manoel de Oliveira brought to cinema in his many years of indefatigable creation.” – The Film Experience

Tickets Click Here

CAN SHE BAKE A CHERRY PIE?

Dir. Henry Jaglom, 1983, 90 mins, USA, International Premiere

Recently restored to 4K, this underseen odd-couple romance is a sweet slice of 1980s New York life featuring cameos from Larry David and Orson Welles.

“A delightful and nostalgic glimpse into the past, Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? deserves a place in the pantheon of great New York City movies.” – Film Inquiry

Tickets Click Here

I SHOT ANDY WARHOL

Dir. Mary Harron, 1996, 103 mins, USA, Australian Premiere

In its Australian-premiering 4K restoration, Mary Harron’s fictionalised portrait of radical-feminist avenger Valerie Solanas still aims truly at manufactured cool and exploitative notoriety.

“As unexpected as it is riveting … an exemplary and dynamic work that goes about as far as a narrative film can in both analyzing a complex personality and portraying a cultural scene.” – Variety

Tickets Click Here

MY LIFE WITHOUT STEVE

Dir. Gillian Leahy, 1986, 53 mins, Australia, Australian Premiere

Almost as controversial as it was lauded, this gorgeous, rigorously composed reflection on a break-up is a landmark work of Australian feminist cinema.

“A story of solitude, pain and obsession, of raw emotions elegantly presented and endlessly interrogated.” – Senses of Cinema

Director Gillian Leahy is a guest of the festival and will be in attendance at the Wednesday 19 August session of the film.

Tickets Click Here

NADJA

Dir. Michael Almereyda, 1994, 93 mins, USA, Australian Premiere

Droll and (un)deadpan, this stylish David Lynch–produced 90s indie curio – newly 4K-restored – follows an elegant vampire stalking Manhattan by night.

“Does any movie await cult recognition more than Michael Almereyda’s Nadja? … Every inch of the experience personifies cult value: that lightning-jolt discovery of something so roundly adventurous while so attuned to itself.” – Le Cinéma Club

Tickets Click Here

NINJA SCROLL

Dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1993, 99 minutes, Japan, Australian Premiere

Vividly restored in 4K, this 1993 anime masterpiece follows a ronin, a ninja and a spy on their quest to defeat eight superhuman warriors.

“One of the most influential anime movies of all time … a true anime/cult classic, which separates itself from the mass of similar titles due to its elaborate script [and] astonishing battles.” – Asian Movie Pulse

Tickets Click Here

SHADES OF SILK

Dir. Mary Stephen,1978, 62 mins, France/Canada, Australian Premiere

Long out of circulation, this evocatively elliptical tale of Sapphic yearning in 1930s Shanghai – newly restored – has been hailed as a major rediscovery.

“A visually sumptuous and delicate tale … The film is carried by elegant voiceover and entrancing cinematography that gracefully relate how memories and regrets linger.” – Film Comment

Tickets Click Here

TILAÏÏ

Dir. Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1990, 81 mins, Burkina Faso, International Premiere

An adulterous love affair brings tragedy to a traditional village in Burkina Faso in Idrissa Ouedraogo’s masterful, Cannes-awarded fable, now restored in 4K.

“Tilaï unfolds with the stateliness and inevitability of Greek tragedy – but with lots more humour … as exhilarating an experience as it is haunting.” – Los Angeles Times

Tickets Click Here

WEIGHED BUT FOUND WANTING

Dir. Lino Brocka, 1974, 128 mins, Philippines, Australian Premiere

In this scathing, multi-awarded, newly 4K-restored 1974 drama – regarded by Lino Brocka as his “first novel” – an affluent teen disillusioned by privilege befriends two outcasts.

“A seminal work in contemporary Philippine cinema … like a rock flung through a plate-glass window – a clarion call.” – Critic After Dark

Tickets Click Here

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE MIFF PROGRAM

KEEP CHECKING OUT THE CINEMA REBORN INSTAGRAM PAGE FOR MORE NEWS OF THE MIFF RETROSPECTIVE PROGRAM INCLUDING THE RETROSPECTIVES DEVOTED TO LISANDRO ALONSO AND KIM NOVAK

---

AND STAY TUNED FOR AN ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT CINEMA REBORN’S DATES FOR 2027 AND SOME FIRST NEWS ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS.

Please forward this email to any of your friends who may be interested in Cinema Reborn’s activities and ask them to subscribe direct or send an email to cinemareborn2025@gmail.com