In Homer's Odyssey, the hero Odysseus embarks on an epic journey spanning oceans, monsters and gods to return home to his family.
In a remarkable parallel, Christopher Nolan's fans are embarking on epic journeys of their own to see his adaptation of The Odyssey in one of the few surviving Imax 1570 cinemas around the world, the Oscar-winning film-maker's preferred format.
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Nolan has long been a champion of Imax 1570 film, the highest-resolution film format in existence, named for the width of the film stock (70mm) and the 15 perforations on each frame.
The Odyssey is the first feature film ever shot entirely on 1570 cameras, which are notoriously heavy, loud and require frequent reloading; the film stock had to be changed every three minutes during the Odyssey shoot, with Nolan working with Imax to develop a soundproofing “blimp” to house the 180kg camera to make it quiet enough for him to record dialogue on 1570 for the first time.
But 1570 is old technology; most cinemas shifted to digital around a decade ago, which means there are now only 41 cinemas in the whole world capable of projecting the format.
These include the Imax in Melbourne, Australia, which removed its film projector in 2015 but bought it back two years later when Nolan appealed to Imax cinemas around the world to show his 2017 film Dunkirk on 1570.
Now, ahead of The Odyssey's release this week, Nolan fans are heading down under from places as far flung as Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and Los Angeles to watch the film at Imax Melbourne, which is the only cinema in the southern hemisphere with a 1570 reel of The Odyssey.
