Christopher Nolan fans are embarking on epic journeys to see The Odyssey the way they want to | Christopher Nolan

Men Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus embarks on an arduous journey across seas, giants and gods to return home to his family. In a strange parallel, fans of Christopher Nolan have begun their own journeys to see his adaptation of The Odyssey in one of the world’s few remaining Imax 1570 screens, the format favored by the Oscar-winning filmmaker.

Nolan has been a master of Imax 1570, the highest type of video available, specified width (70mm) and 15 perforations per frame. The Odyssey is the first film shot entirely on 1570 cameras, which are known to be very heavy, noisy and require frequent re-installation; the film had to be changed every three minutes during the shooting of Odyssey, with Nolan working with Imax to create a sound-proofing “blimp” to set the 180kg camera in silence to record dialogue at 1570 for the first time.

But 1570 is old art; Most cinemas were converted to digital a decade ago, which means there are only 41 cinemas in the world capable of showing the format. This includes Imax in MelbourneAustralia, which removed its movie projector in 2015 but bought it back two years later when Nolan asked Imax cinemas around the world to show his 2017 film Dunkirk at 1570.

Now, with the release of The Odyssey this week, Nolan fans are coming down from as far away 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 1570 reels of The Odyssey. The main reel runs more than 17km, weighs 240kg, and is, as Imax Melbourne technical manager Dan Drobik says, “a gem”.

“We are one of only 41 cinemas around the world (where) you can see how Nolan made this film,” said Imax Melbourne general manager Jeremy Fee. “There are only seven of them outside of North America in the world, so people seek out these unique experiences.

“We are seeing more people traveling than ever before. We have people who have built their vacations around their Odyssey reviews, which is amazing. “

Melbourne’s Imax is also the largest 1.43:1 movie theater in the world, measuring 32m wide and 23m tall (as tall as a seven-story building). When tickets for The Odyssey went on sale – a year ago – they sold over 17,000 tickets within 24 hours. Since then they have sold over 30,000 tickets; Odyssey is already their eighth highest grossing film of all time, before opening.

Christian Wächter, 45, and his wife, Romy Demeter, 42, left Germany for Indonesia to work, but they are going to Melbourne mainly to see The Odyssey at 1570 in Imax – twice.

Wächter said: “People ask, why would you take the plane to Melbourne to see a movie? “In Germany there is a big Imax screen but it’s digital, so you don’t have a full view. That’s why we love going to Melbourne.”

Many sports fans would not think twice about spending a lot of money to be part of the World Cup, Wimbledon or Formula One – so doing the film is not surprising, he argues: “They spend a lot of money and we are only paying a little, but for the sake of culture. I think it makes sense. It’s not that we are crazy.

Not everyone understands what Nolan advocates. “I told my grandmother about it. She’s 87 years old now. And she just laughed, she didn’t say anything. She just laughed and said, ‘Oh, my God, all of you,'” says Demeter.

“My 70-year-old father asks me, ‘Why? He can’t really understand, because he didn’t grow up with such movies. But my sister and our friends, of course, understand,'” Wächter adds.

Like the 1570 project, Drobik compares the 1570 film to digital audiophiles like vinyl on CD. “They’re all singing the same song to you, but one is very natural, rich, natural,” he says, adding: “(1570) is the best you can do, but it’s still so fun and emotional that, I think, it gets lost a little bit with some of the music that’s played everywhere.

The preparation on 1570 is simple and expensive – Drobik had to be near the projector to show all the Odyssey, “to listen, to hear anything that might sound strange” – but its lack means that “people are willing to pay to come and experience the same and put their phones away”. More and more, the audience asks to take him to the theater: “I feel like I’m alone in the theater. So it’s a shame to know that people have traveled a long way just to see this film.

The growth of Nolan’s work coincides with the partial return of the 1570s: the number of films that can make a 1570 film has risen from 30 to 41 worldwide since the release of Oppenheimer three years ago, while at the same time several filmmakers are returning to shoot the film.

“A lot of other filmmakers are now shooting in 35mm, in 70mm, VistaVision – we did One Battle After Another here, which was shot on VistaVision and it still looks amazing,” says Fee. “It is something that people cannot see on TV or on small screens.

Fee says that Nolan’s influence has also caused people, especially young viewers, to know more about movies: “What I’ve seen, especially this movie, even more than Oppenheimer, is the main reason for people to understand the difference between cinematography and recording techniques. I’ve never seen anything like that. release a movie – that’s new.”

More than 1570 films from classic films, such as Nolan’s 2014 Interstellar, are also more popular than they were released. “Interstellar sells (now) more than it did then because people know how important it is and how important these special events are,” says Drobik.

Like many of Nolan’s films, Wächter respects his ability to find his films the way he wants: “He shoots and ends his film with this look.