Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan admits his ‘artistic sound choice’ is to blame for film fans struggling to hear mumbled lines

Christopher Nolan has admitted that an “artistic choice” he makes during filming can be the cause of viewers having a hard time hearing what is being said in his films.

The British director, who received critical acclaim for his latest film Oppenheimer, has some film fans frustrated by actors who seem to mumble their lines.

The ordeal even prompted some viewers, such as BBC News star Jane Hill, to walk out mid-screen to complain, only to be greeted by cinema staff pointing the finger at the director.

The 54-year-old himself has said he goes against the grain and refuses to let his actors re-dub their lines after filming so they can bring them in during the editing process.

This means that on-screen dialogue in the cinema was performed during filming and not afterwards, meaning it can sometimes be drowned out by music or special effects.

For Nolan, who’s being tipped to be one of the first front-runners at next year’s Oscars, it’s a price worth paying.

Speak against Insiderhe said, “I like to use the performance that was being given at the time rather than have the actor re-record it later.”

“That’s an artistic choice that some people don’t agree with, and that’s their right.”

The acclaimed director’s films have grossed billions at the box office, despite complaints about sound mixing in blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises and Tenet.

The filmmaker, who shoots with IMAX cameras, says part of the problem may also be that the equipment he uses isn’t completely soundproof, despite improvements in recent years.

“Actually, Imax is currently building new cameras that will be even quieter,” he told the publication.

‘But the real breakthrough is in software technology that allows you to filter out camera noise.

“That’s improved a lot in the 15 or so years I’ve been using these cameras.

“Which gives you the ability to do more intimate scenes that you wouldn’t have been able to do in the past.”

Despite the complaints, Oppenheimer is on track to become one of the biggest hits of the year at the UK box office, grossing over £33 million in Britain since its release three weeks ago.

The atomic bomb thriller – starring Cillian Murphy – has also received a slew of five-star ratings while critics called it Nolan’s “finest and most revealing work.”

However, it seems BBC News star Jane Hill certainly disagreed, as she shared that she was frustrated at not being able to properly hear the film’s dialogue due to the loud soundtrack – and was even more surprised when she heard that the problem occurs in almost all of Nolan’s films.

She told her followers, “Saw Oppenheimer. Well, half succeeded. Disappointed that music & effects often drowned out the actors, I missed whole chunks of dialogue.

“I told the cinema I thought the sound needed to be rebalanced – the staff said ‘we have this problem with all of the Christopher Nolan movies’.” Serious?’

And it seems several of her followers agreed, with some complaining of hearing problems with others, confirming that sound issues are common in Nolan movies, including Batman Begins.

One person wrote, ‘It’s not the cinema, it’s the director’s vision. Nolan has done this in many of his films.’

While another shared, “Colleague at work also said the same about the music drowning out the dialogue.”

“It seems to be Nolan thing. I remember seeing one of his batman movies and having the same experience,” a third tweeted.

With one more addition: ‘Yup. His films always have problems with the sound.’

Jane was quick to add that she doesn’t blame the cinema for her bad experience, writing, ‘It should be clear I don’t believe the problem was with the cinema?…. there was nothing wrong with the sound on the trailers!’

Before later sharing her relief that she wasn’t the only one struggling to hear Oppenheimer’s dialogue.

She wrote, “Thank you for so many responses to my observation of Oppenheimer. I’m relieved that not only was I unable to hear the dialogue… but what madness! How can you follow a movie if you can’t hear the actors?!’

Director Christopher Nolan recently addressed reports that the film’s dialogue is unintelligible due to the sound, confirming in an interview that it was an “artistic choice.”

Christopher Nolan’s latest epic tells the story of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, otherwise known as “father of the atomic bomb,” with Cillian Murphy taking on the titular role, delivering a hair-raising performance.

The film received a perfect five stars from Daily Mail’s Brian Viner, who wrote that Nolan balances thriller elements “magnificently” with “profound questions about the morality of laying Hiroshima and Nagasaki to nuclear waste.”

In addition to the praise from the Daily Mail, BBC and Empire both offered five stars, while The Guardian, Independent, Financial Times and Digital Spy gave four.

The historical epic was almost universally praised for its chilling treatment of the development of the first atomic bombs and for Cillian Murphy’s title achievement.

Nolan also received acclaim for Nolan’s amazing cast of A-list actors – including Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt – in small supporting roles.