The boffo global box office for Tenet is proof of the public appetite for Christopher Nolan's abilities as a filmmaker, but as the film opens in more countries and, gradually, the United States, familiar questions are being raised about the director's idiosyncratic approach to sound, and its impact on how much - or how little - of the film audiences are able to comprehend.
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Messages posted on Reddit in the past week reflect some of the frustration among filmgoers. One user wrote: "The sound mix was awful. This is really unacceptable and reduced my enjoyment of this movie considerably," while another said, "There was some crucial dialogue that was nearly inaudible."
Elsewhere, one remarked, "I couldn't hear a solid 30 minutes of dialogue because everyone was mumbling through masks." And so it continued.
Many commentators also noted that similar complaints had been voiced about previous Nolan films. In The Dark Knight Rises, for example, Tom Hardy's Bane wore a heavy muzzle that garbled so many of his lines that the character has become a cultural touchpoint for incomprehensible dialogue in movies.
Meanwhile, foghorn scores in Dark Knight Rises and Inception, as well as Interstellar, also serve to overwhelm the dialogue.
"This isn't unusual for Chris' films," says a studio insider. "But with eight nominations for sound and five wins, the record speaks for itself."
One UK exhibitor responding to gripes about inaudible exchanges in Tenet said on Twitter that the fault lay with the 35mm print and said that it was switching to a digital version for improved sound quality.
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Given that these complaints were trickling in from multiple venues in different cities, towns and countries, that makes it seem as if all of this is a deliberate artistic choice. That makes it even more exasperating for some.
The frustration is heightened further because of the pent-up anticipation caused by the COVID-19 shutdown, and the repeated delays to Tenet's release. Nolan's status as "the savior of cinema," in the words of one European exhibition professional recently, has only added to the weight of expectation the film has had to carry.
Sound professionals contacted by Variety were reluctant to comment on the work of others, especially given the stellar track record of Tenet's sound team, led by supervising sound editor Richard King, who won Oscars for Nolan's The Dark Knight, Inception and Dunkirk, and a nomination for Interstellar.
One supervising sound editor, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, notes that "the sound mixes for Christopher Nolan films are painstakingly considered. Everything you hear (or don't hear) is the result of "ultra-conscious direction."
He adds: "If you understand 'the gist' of the dialogue, then they're happy. As a dialogue editor I prefer to understand each word, but that's my preference."
Mentioning that the film had an "excellent sound team," an award-winning sound mixer says: "I know Nolan does like to push the envelope.
"He's an artist and I don't think he believes in working to the lowest common denominator of projection environments."
