'The Odyssey' Mailbag and Nolan Movie Rankings
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What do the hosts say in the opening welcome and program reminders?
Hello and welcome to House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. Joining me today is the beautiful, it's the luminous Mallory Rubin. Hello Mallory, how you doing? Hello my darling. I am delighted to be back on the open waters, talking Nolan, talking Odyssey. I was told that the entire pod would be about Argos and it seems that's not the case and so I'll process that on my own. Honestly, you can make it about Argos if you want to. I think you can do whatever you want to do. We are here to do Odyssey mailbag questions and our complete Nolan ranking right after this.
Okay, rapid fire program reminders. We are wrapping up our House of the Dragon coverage. Wild. I know. The season melted away. Wild. By the time you listen to this, this is the last episode we're going to do before our Talk of Thrones finale that will come right after the finale. We have hopefully a special episode that will sort of be nestled in between there. We don't like to announce it until it is done. And then the deep dive. That's right. The last House of the Dragon deep dive. Sad. It is sad. Very sad. If you are in Los Angeles or in the surrounding area, we are doing a screening of Labyrinth as part of American Cinematheque's Friend of the Fest series. That is Monday the 24th, I believe. Is that correct?
That's right. 10 p.m. 10 p.m. at the Los Feliz 3. Those tickets are still available. Snatch them up. Yes. And then we'll also be in Baltimore for the live show. Those tickets are not available. But if you have them already, we will see you there. You should have instructions in your email. If you purchase the tickets, you should have now times, arrival instructions, all of that. Great. So check your inboxes. Yeah. Okay. Like. Subscribe. Email hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. Follow us at House of R Pod on socials. Do it. Subscribe to the pod. We like all of those things from you all. And then spoilers today is for The Odyssey. Yeah. All of Greek mythology. Any Nolan movie ever. Any Nolan movie ever. Yeah. That's the vibe.
But we're just going to answer some of the questions that you all sent in to hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. Yes. And then in a very timely faction do our Nolan rankings. That is the plan today. That's right. We're going to start with the subject matter that we got the most emails about, understandably so. And this is about Emily Wilson, who is one of the translators of The Odyssey, whose translation we referenced a lot in our episode, who wrote an article in the London Review of Books critiquing the film. Yes. In some senses, quite sensibly, and in other senses, a little scathingly. And it has become a bit of a sort of an online uproar. Yeah. So I'm just going to hit you with a couple choice quotations.
But there are other quotations to visit, I think, from her piece. No question. But she says, unlike some of Nolan's other films, The Odyssey is not boring, thanks to the source material, which is impossible to mess up entirely. Incredibly rude. Then she says, it lacks psychological, emotional, political, and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivations for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, which we talked about. And we agree, honestly. I agree, anyway. And all the food looks horrible. That's not something I had noticed, but something to think about next time I watch it. Molly Rubin, what are your initial reactions to this?
What do you want to say about this? Boy, I... This is so weird to me. Is it? Yeah. I think I find the robust discussion and debate about the rendering of the text on screen interesting, and I think what better time than when everybody is talking about this film and this adaptation to talk about the soul and heft of the text and how to render it. That part makes sense to me. I also, to be clear, do not think, and I think that this reaction to... Emily Wilson's piece feels like an overcorrection. I don't think that Emily Wilson needs to be, like, fawning and worshiping at Chris Nolan's feet because this movie brought a lot of new attention to and purchases of her translation.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What do the hosts say in the opening welcome and program reminders?
0:05–9:11
2
How do they introduce the Emily Wilson critique of the Odyssey film?
9:11–53:13
3
What do the hosts say about Greek tragedies and the Hadestown musical?
53:13–56:27
4
Should the Song of Achilles adaptation be a miniseries or a movie, and where would it belong?
56:27–1:02:51
5
How do the hosts begin ranking Christopher Nolan’s 13 directed films?
1:02:51–1:36:46
6
What are the final top‑to‑bottom rankings for each host’s Nolan list?
1:36:46–1:41:17