Films

«Tenet: we weren't ready!

4 reading minutes

written by Kelly Lambiel · September 09, 2020 · 0 comment

As the title suggests, the palindrome comes from the Sator square found in the ruins of Pompeii, Tenet takes us in all directions. As soon as we think we've grasped a few keys to understanding, we miss them, and it's back to square one. Superimposed temporalities, espionage, enigmatic characters, scientific theories, unprecedented special effects - this is great Nolan, of course, but it's also a real intellectual challenge. «Some will correct me.

Following a muscular and surreal operation in an opera house, the protagonist (John David Washington), tasked with retrieving a mysterious package, learns that he has been recruited by a spy agency to prevent a potential end of the world. He is then told of a revolutionary technology that enables future generations to communicate with the past (the film's present): inversion. Contrary to what you might think, this is not a case of time travel, but rather of objects and/or people altering their trajectory, paradoxically moving backwards.

Following explanations that are as quick as they are unintelligible to a literary brain like mine, we somehow manage to understand that this discovery has fallen into the hands of the wrong people. The Russian businessman Sator (now that sounds familiar!), played by Kenneth Branagh, plans to use it to reverse the course of time and correct the past, at the risk of annihilating our world.

If you're still following me, you'll also learn that there are a number of main and secondary characters whose motivations, actions and reactions are still somewhat unclear to me. And that the insertion of dialogue, intended (perhaps) to let us breathe between action scenes in which different temporalities are superimposed at dizzying speed, does nothing to help us get our bearings, despite all the energy deployed by Neil (Robert Pattinson). After 2h30 of’imbroglio, The result is a breathless, neuronal rollercoaster.

One thing is certain: a second viewing is in order. And it's not just for economic reasons that a number of critics - admittedly a little too enthusiastically - have presented the film as a "must-see". Tenet as the film that will «save» cinema. Of course, one could argue that Nolan, who skilfully took advantage of the complexity inherent in Inception, has pushed the gesture here to an extreme, disproportionate paroxysm. It's also regrettable that the plot, which is very difficult to unravel «for very little», ends up obliterating the characters, who are invisible and insipid. But there's no denying that his latest work, whether you love it or hate it, has a real, almost physical impact on the viewer.

While some people give up, I was so bewildered and intellectually stimulated that I had to do research, read reviews, watch videos and consult discussion forums to quench my need for understanding. After that, armed with numerous theories from minds as intrigued as mine, supporting or contradicting my explanations, I went back to see it... only to realize that, while some aspects had been clarified, others remained and will remain, I suppose, in the shadows.

In short, what I liked about it was that, while it left me confused and hungry, the film lived on in me after the screening. A bit like when the enigmatic first season of a new series you've loved comes to an end. That moment when, while waiting for the sequel, you come up with a whole bunch of theories. I say, long live consensual frustration!