Why are journeys one of cinema’s defining storytelling forms?

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey brings one of literature’s greatest journeys to the screen. Laura Gommans and Tom Ooms discuss whether the film succeeds as an epic, why Nolan’s obsession with IMAX shapes the experience as much as the storytelling, and whether a cast this famous ever lets the world of the film feel fully inhabited.

They also introduce LAB111’s new season of quests, exiles and homecomings, from Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Beau Is Afraid to The Seventh Seal, asking what these films reveal about why cinema returns to stories of people searching for a place to belong.

Get tickets to The Odyssey @ LAB111

Get tickets to It’s Not The Destination, It’s The Journey @ LAB111

Get tickets to Cine Of The Times: No Country For Old Men @ LAB111

A LAB111 production. Edited and produced by Elliot Bloom, co-produced by Laura Gommans. Music by Hugo Emmerzael. Artwork by Studio FFF.

It’s the big bang of both our 10th episode and the origins of the summer blockbuster, although this episode is not quite like the high-end production of your usual Hollywood films! With Hugo at Venice film festival, Kiriko & Tom attempt to determine the definition of a (summer) blockbuster, is it more than just a “box-office hit”? In conjunction with the upcoming Suspicious Minds program, a retrospective of Denis Villeneuve’s work, we also explore what is a so-called “intelligent blockbuster”, skeptical of Christopher Nolan and his apparent pioneering of this heightened term.  By exploring the history of the summer blockbuster, we attempt to resolve what the future of this historic marketing strategy has in an industry now dominated by streaming platforms.

Make sure to leave us your review of Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016) at celebratingcinema@lab111.nl and expect to hear Tom read it out in one of his many film impersonations next episode!