Not all of the dialog in Interstellar is entirely audible, and complaints about it were apparently so widespread that certain theaters put up signs saying their equipment wasn’t to blame. Knowing what a perfectionist Christopher Nolan can be, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the famous director/scarf enthusiast to ask him what’s up with these homies dissing his mix.
Nolan attributed Interstellar’s sound to “very tight teamwork” among composer Hans Zimmer, re-recording mixers Gary Rizzo and Gregg Landaker and sound designer Richard King. “We made carefully considered creative decisions,” he said. “There are particular moments in this film where I decided to use dialogue as a sound effect, so sometimes it’s mixed slightly underneath the other sound effects or in the other sound effects to emphasize how loud the surrounding noise is. It’s not that nobody has ever done these things before, but it’s a little unconventional for a Hollywood movie.”
As one example, he cited the scene during which Matthew McConaughey is driving through a cornfield — something Nolan actually did, riding in the back of a car while filming point of view shots. “It’s incredibly loud … exhilarating and slightly frightening,” he laughed as he described his experience. “I was very keen to try and give the audience the experience and the chaotic feeling with the sound.”
I really hope the scene where Christopher Nolan tries to find a cornfield to drive through to test the sound is part of the DVD special features. Specifically, the part where the location scout knocks on the door of a rickety midwestern farmhouse, asking “Excuse me, sir? There’s an English gentleman out here who was wondering if he could flatten some of your corn. We’re making a movie about wormholes, you see.”
“The idea is to experience the journey the character is going on,” he said. “[For instance] the experience of being in the cockpit is you hear the creaking [of the spacecraft]; it’s a very scary sound. We wanted to be true to the experience of space travel. We wanted to emphasize those intimate elements.” [THR]
Other than the sound system shutting down completely the first time I tried to see it, I had no issues with the sound mix in Interstellar. I’m a big advocate of more negative space in in the incredibly and increasingly busy modern sound mix, but compared to the extended Hans Zimmer music video that was The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar‘s mix seemed positively minimalist. And even if you disagree with his artistic choices, it’s hard to criticize a guy who’s anal retentive enough to ride around in a truck smashing through a corn field just to see what it might sound like. Too bad there was no pick-up truck ride through a corn field that could’ve saved us from Anne Hathaway pondering the scientific mystery of love, because that scene was terrible.