#Will Tenet Bring the Movie Industry Back to Normal? Kenneth Branagh Thinks So

Kenneth Branagh is an actor and filmmaker who has been involved with a number of well-received movies, from Thor to Death on the Nile. He is next going to be seen in Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated new movie Tenet. During a recent interview, Branagh revealed that he thinks a Nolan movie is the antidote a beleaguered film industry sorely needs at this point.

“Our movement toward this latest development…is symbolized by the return of large numbers of people to all be at a distance but still [take part in a] group communal experience of a piece of entertainment. That’s a big deal right now in our world, it’s important. It would seem to go with what I can tell you is a movie that is worth the public’s attention, that can be a great thing. All other movie companies are looking at it with real interest, to say the least, because it also uniquely combines with [Nolan’s] unusual brand. An auteur filmmaker who knows how to make a blockbuster. So if he’s on form, then the movie business gets a lovely kick back into the direction of somewhere near normal.”

Christopher Nolan is widely regarded as the foremost blockbuster filmmaker in Hollywood at the moment, combining crowd-pleasing spectacles with a fiercely individualistic view as a filmmaker. On the sets of Tenet, Branagh was able to have a first-hand view of Nolan’s expertise and has nothing but praise for the filmmaker.

“[Nolan] seems to be able to manipulate time. Not only does he obsess about doing it in the stories of his movies, in the making of them he seems to stop time to address difficult things. I never felt, as I sometimes do in lesser hands, you get rushed when big effects moments in movies overpower, and the crane, and the action, and the equipment, and the vehicles are all happening and suddenly the actors are panicked. Because it needs to happen now. Chris Nolan seems to be able to stop that, sort of Matrix pause, come and direct you as if there isn’t a care in the world. You could take all day to rehearse the scene if you want. And then he goes back to unleashing the monster of chaos that will surround you. [He makes] the two things marry up. It’s like seeing a painter at work. It’s fascinating to watch.”

Tenet tells the story of a group of international spies who must work together to prevent armageddon. At the center of the plot is a new form of technology that allows for time inversion, where cause and effect are reversed in real-time.

The trailer for the movie has so far set up Branagh in the role of the standard movie villain, but the actor has hinted in past interviews that all is not as it seems and that the audience may very well see him switch places with the movie’s protagonist, played by John David Washington, at some point before the credits roll. This story originated at Collider.

Topics: Tenet