THE SEVEN most dangerous words anyone can say to a film aficionado are: “What do you think of Christopher Nolan?” The question will almost certainly elicit one of two reactions: a long, fevered disquisition on the masterful craftsmanship of his 12 feature films (now 13, with the release of “The Odyssey”)—or eye-rolling contempt. Almost nobody will shrug and say, “Eh, he’s fine.”
Perhaps that is unsurprising: ambitious artists tend to provoke strong reactions, and Sir Christopher Nolan is nothing if not ambitious. He is the seventh-highest-grossing film director ever, and the most important British film-maker since Alfred Hitchcock. Like Hitchcock, he is devoted to the technical work of film-making: “The Odyssey” is the first blockbuster to be shot entirely on IMAX film, a format that produces sumptuous images but is harder to work with than digital cinematography.