The boldest and most complex director
"Tenet" .. Christopher Nolan redefines science fiction cinema for the second time
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“Tenet,” or “tenet,” is a word read from both sides in both languages, even if we mentioned the name in Arabic twice in this passage, it is not in vain. “Tenet” means a doctrine or principles. Do not look at the meaning, as it does not mean anything, but look at the name in both languages and read it from both sides.
Then look at the movie poster, you will find the protagonist pointing his gun in opposite directions at the same time, as if he was a reflection of himself. Have we seen this in previous movies? Maybe, but "Tenet" is still a different movie. Cinematic genius comes in different forms, it may not be required that the film be completely original, but it depends on the way of presentation. The Russian movie "Sputnik", for example. Or, it's based on showing the same story by recycling characters (The classic Western trilogy by Howard Hawks and John Wayne: Rio Bravo 1959).
Eldorado 1967 and Rio Lobo 1970), or based on presenting the same idea in different ways, but each method dazzles the viewer in its own right. Here, English filmmaker Christopher Nolan has his own unique ways.
"Tenet" and "Tenet" and "Tenet" believe us, the repetition is not in vain, but it is in the genetic code of the film. This is not Groundhog Day, not Edge of Tomorrow, not even Terminator or Predestination. This is a movie that you have not seen before! This is a movie to watch from start to finish and back!
This is a film. You have to choose either to understand the story or enjoy the action scenes, excitement, chases, bombings and fighting .. If you choose to understand the story, that is not guaranteed, because it is a "tenet" from both sides, and if you choose action, your pleasure here will not be matched by anything else.
Nolan is a genius, who only comes with original cinema and unusual ideas in an already bankrupt era of cinema. This film, which experts expect will save cinema from the recession of the "Covid-19" epidemic, is the film whose maker insisted on showing it cinematically and Warner Bros Studios gave up its showing in the United States first, as it opens next week in some states without others. But it opened in the Middle East and Europe.
It is the most expensive original film for its owner, but we do not care if it will save an already bankrupt industry, what is important is Nolan's ability to make an original and high-quality movie that makes the viewer scratch his head from extreme confusion after watching and thinking about it for days, this is exactly what is called an original cinema.
"Tenet" is a giant and confusing sci-fi movie, primarily an entertaining film, whose hero, called a "main character", faces incursions from the future, while temporal movement goes in both directions at the same time, that is, from the past to the future, and vice versa, meaning parallel worlds.
There is an amazing scene of a 747 aircraft detonating and then crashing into a warehouse at an airport! Then with a reverse movement coming out of the wreckage, neither collision nor explosion occurs, did you understand anything? Do not try, as this is strange "Tenet"! The reasons will become clear later in the film, when one of the characters explains the movement of time.
Neil (Robert Pattinson) a British intelligence officer in Mumbai calls a key figure (John David Washington).
A "key figure" receives orders from a secret US government agency to deal with a crisis related to a new Cold War, an attack from the future by forces capable of manipulating time and making it the opposite.
The two previous paragraphs seem incoherent, or as if they are two separate scenes. Please excuse me, this is "my tenet"!
A "main character" sees pistols that absorb bullets instead of firing them, and he is surprised as we are! The question: “Who will take advantage of this terrifying, time-reflecting technology and how to confront it?” This leads our anonymous hero to a wealthy Indian arms dealer named Priya (Dimple Kapadia), Russian oligarch Andre Sator (Kenneth Branagh), and his persecuted wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) And this satur possesses the technology to travel through time in both directions, that is, according to the rules of the movie game, he controls the world.
In terms of performance, Debicki is dominating the movie because her role requires showing many emotions, as she is the oppressed wife of an evil and unjust husband who threatens to deprive her of her son, so that we see her planning, angry, crying and in pain. As for the rest, they all perform without emotion, especially Washington and Pattinson who work together, and the latter makes jokes from time to time. There is an appearance of Michael Kane as a British intelligence officer, and Kane is present in nearly every Nolan movie.
This story is simple and there is no need to expand further because the text is very complex. If you want to survive in your mind and understand something from the film, there is a simple way: think the opposite, everything is reversed, or as Neal says to its owner: "You have a future in the past!", Many shots Repeated in the movie from right to left and vice versa!
Whenever a shot is repeated, new details emerge that a "main character" discovers, there is a scene of a plane crashing and reversing, a terrible chase and reversal of cars, and a battle scene in an airport warehouse and back! Movement is reversed and people are walking back, but have you seen two people fighting backwards ?! Does fire burn someone who has entered a reverse time ?! This is the weirdness of Tenet.
Nolan is obsessed with the idea of time and time travel. If we go back to all of his original films with the exception of the Batman trilogy, we will find the following: "Memento" about a man with short-term amnesia who does not remember what happened. Finally,
The film about the man’s investigation into the murder of his wife takes the story into a forward scenario and flashback scenes that go back in time.
Then Nolan brings "Insomnia", a replay of a Norwegian movie with the same title, about a detective who goes to Alaska to investigate a murder, and when the time changes (day six months and night six months) he suffers insomnia and kills a policeman by mistake as a result of his delirium.
Then «The Prestige» which is a quote from a novel and includes a device that manipulates time, then «Inspection» about a man who specializes in stealing ideas or cultivating them by invading the dreams of his victims, and here the speed of time varies between the layers of dream and reality.
Then "Interstellar" about a man traveling through galaxies to discover an alternate planet after the destruction of the Earth. Whenever he lands on a planet, time slows down sharply or accelerates greatly until it is more than 100 years old and its shape has not changed. In this for the film Nolan redefined science fiction cinema.
Then "Dunkirk" and it contains a story from three points of view: The first takes place on the ground over the course of a week. The second one takes place at sea on a yacht that takes part in rescue operations in one day. The third occurs in the air for one hour.
Finally, Tenet! In our reading of Dunkirk in this space in the summer of 2017, we said that “Christopher Nolan redefined World War II cinema,” and today we say that “(Tenet) is redefining science fiction cinema, especially time travel films for the second time in one decade.” Note all of Nolan's original films are titled one word.
This movie is bold, complicated and insane to an indescribable level, and it is not important to understand it, and it may not be required to understand it, but you have to appreciate this original masterpiece made by Nolan.
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"He makes the viewer scratch his head from extreme confusion, after watching him and thinking about him for days. This is exactly what is called an original cinema."
"Either you understand the story, or you enjoy the action scenes, the thrillers, the chases, the bombings, and the fighting."
This is the movie that experts expect will save cinema from the recession of the "Covid-19" epidemic.