by James Mottram

Titan Books, out now

A glossy, behind the scenes look at the production of Christopher Nolan’s new sci-fi thriller, but will it really reveal all the secrets?

There’s probably a whole book that could be written about the politics and mechanics of Tenet’s exhibition in cinemas, but that’s for another day. As one of the many who was still scratching their head hours after watching Tenet, not least because a lot of the important exposition was low in the mix and drowned out by a loud soundtrack, I approached this new 150-page coffee table book from Titan with glee. Would I get clarity around the temporal war, reverse chronology and entropy? No, actually, that’s understandable left for the film itself and your understanding following additional viewing. Instead, this book, written by James Mottram, focuses on the nuts and bolts of the film’s production, and there’s a lot to learn.

In the Foreword by star John David Washington (The Protagonist) the actor shares that he was a fan of Memento and shares his delight with getting to work with Nolan. It’s a common theme, with many of the artists in front and behind the camera explaining how they couldn’t turn down working with one of cinema’s contemporary visionaries. We learn that the director first hatched ideas about this story 20 years ago, though only started work on the script in 2014.

We then look at how the IMAX-lensed movie was filmed across seven countries, from pre to post production. There’s a focus on of the characters and the actors who play them and then we get into the really interesting stuff. The movie was shot under the name of Merry-Go-Round, a real 747 was bought from an airplane graveyard and F50 catamarans were really shot in the Solent rather than off the Amalfi coast. Mottram takes us from department to department, location to location, identifying the juicy titbits of info, while not going so deep that the casual reader steps into a nerd’s paradise. The handsome volume is cheekily bookended with a Backword by Sir Kenneth Branagh (the movie’s villain).

Verdict: Every set piece and bit of tech of Tenet comes under the spotlight, reminding you of just what a huge undertaking such a big budget movie is. An ‘access all areas’ pass, it might not explain reverse time, but you certainly won’t take the movie’s production for granted. 9/10

Nick Joy

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