{"text":[[{"start":6.5,"text":"The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’s 10-year return from the Trojan war, and how Penelope, his wife, weathered the 20 years he spent either fighting or dodging sirens and Laestrygonians on the dangerous journey back from Troy. "}],[{"start":21.45,"text":"Many film lovers are now contemplating a slightly less perilous odyssey of our own: to find a cinema capable of best serving the vision of Christopher Nolan, director of this latest imagining of Homer’s poem. Americans are driving thousands of miles to see it in its Imax 70mm cut. In south-east Asia, film buffs are flying to Singapore to watch it in the Shaw Lido in 35mm. "}],[{"start":44.95,"text":"All of which puts my own half-hour walk to the Curzon Soho in its proper perspective. And, of course, the vast majority of people who watch Nolan’s latest in cinemas will do so at their nearest picture house. Those of us who have carefully planned journeys to see it in its “proper” cut — the 35mm, naturally — are an eccentric minority. Yet our trips, whether short or suitably epic, are an insight into what’s working in the beleaguered world of filmmaking in 2026."}],[{"start":73.25,"text":"First, we know that Nolan makes films that really do reward a grand canvas, both visually and musically. (His latest musical collaborator, Ludwig Göransson, returns as the movie’s composer after Oppenheimer.) Not every Nolan film is flawless but I have never regretted experiencing them in a more expensive format rather than stingily settling for a smaller screen. Similarly, auteur filmmakers, like Alejandro G Iñárritu or Emerald Fennell, pack out cinemas because of their singular vision. "}],[{"start":103.85,"text":"Second, the craze for superhero films seems (finally and thankfully) to be abating. Nolan himself, whose big breakthrough as a box office sensation came in part because of his fantastic work on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, once worried in the pages of the FT that comic book movies had become the sole “seed crop” of cinema, and that if it failed, the industry might too. "}],[{"start":127.1,"text":"It looks like he was wrong about that. Superheroes are still part of the ecosystem — Hollywood will hope that the next Spider-Man flick, Brand New Day, and December’s Avengers movie, will go great guns at the box office — but they are less central and less reliable earners than they were. Our fear that their decline might spell doom for the industry is not yet playing out."}],[{"start":148.1,"text":"Instead, sensation and spectacle are what audiences want, whether that be the feel-good optimism of this year’s sci-fi sellout Project Hail Mary, with its stunning puppet work and beautiful shots of space, or the scares of Kane Parsons’s directorial debut Backrooms. (Horror audiences are the one group of cinemagoers who, it must be said, never lost their appetite for original fare.) "}],[{"start":171.9,"text":"Part of why we’ll go to The Odyssey is because we know we are going to see something remarkable by a great artist. But the other reason is something else entirely. It’s that first nights at a big movie at the Curzon Mayfair or the BFI are always fun, delivering that sought-after feeling of gathering together. "}],[{"start":189.6,"text":"Just as a joke is always a little bit funnier when you’re in the audience at a stand-up comedy show, a scare is a little bit more frightening in a crowded cinema, a moment of sorrow more moving, of drama more shocking. Going to the movies can remind us of our shared humanity by giving us empathy with everything from a children’s toy to an alien made of rocks. But the reason the industry has grounds for hope is that ultimately we are all dumb apes who love to share a story together, whether we were ancient Greeks listening to Homer’s latest yarn or modern film-goers heading to see Nolan’s take on it."}],[{"start":222.8,"text":"And regardless of whether it’s in 35mm or 70mm, for those of us who like to see films with others, the hype around The Odyssey guarantees that we can now look forward to that greatest of moviegoing experiences: sitting down to watch a movie with a full house. "}],[{"start":246.65000000000003,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1784354899_7102.mp3"}