So much of life’s pleasures spring from contradiction. Take, for example, Christopher Nolan, whose movies often live in the liminal space between science fiction and science fact, boasting bleeding-edge, highly technical filmmaking techniques. And yet the man retains the aura of a simple, tea-sipping gentleman disinterested in doing anything new.
In a recent interview with People magazine timed for this week’s home video release of Tenet, Nolan reiterated his stance concerning some of the staples of modern living.
“It’s true that I don’t have a smartphone,” the director said. He explained that he does have a flip phone, but only takes it with him “from time to time.”
“I’m easily distractible so I don’t really want to have access to the internet every time when I’m bored,” he added.
He then slipped in a remark that appears to work against previous reports. “When I’m working,” he said, “I’m just surrounded by, I mean, everybody’s got a phone. I can’t hide, so I’m very easy to get in touch with when I’m working.”
Earlier this year Anne Hathaway suggested that Nolan did not allow chairs on the set of his movies. Nolan’s representatives clarified that he meant he only didn’t allow chairs for him and the only things banned were cigarettes and cell phones. (It was conceded that the phone ban was not always successful.)
In his chat with People, Nolan also stated that email is out. “I just have never been particularly interested in communicating with people in that way. I prefer just calling people from a landline.”
As everyone knows, nothing sounds crisper and cleaner than a landline, and it’s the only method of telephony that can withstand a prolonged power outage. One can endlessly debate the use of film versus video in image capture for motion pictures, but on this one anyone who disagrees with Nolan is simply incorrect.
While the director seems to have cooled down a bit since his initial statement concerning Warner Bros. shifting their 2021 slate to HBOMax, he continued to express his love for the totality of movies, from production through exhibition.
“When people talk about the movie business they tend to think about movie stars, highly paid directors and stuff,” he said. “Really,” he continued “you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people, ordinary people, who work in theaters, who scoop popcorn and sell tickets.”
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