Classic Bond Movies Influenced Tenet
Jeffrey Kurland, costume designer for Tenet, confirmed the critics' assumptions that Nolan's work is supposed to refer to the style of spy cinema, known mainly from the movies about James Bond.
Both in professional reviews of Tenet and comments of ordinary viewers on social networking websites, there were some common points between Christopher Nolan's latest work and the movie series about agent 007 (and especially when it comes to these classic Bond movies). Dialogue solutions, high stakes, similarly dosed tension - the characteristics of spy cinema were popping up at every corner.
These feelings were well-founded, and now we can also consider them correct, because they were confirmed by one of the co-founders of Tenet, Jeffrey Kurland. He was responsible for designing the costumes (earlier he had done it on the set of Inception or Dunkirk, for example). The artist gave an interview for Esquire and told about his main inspirations:
“If you're making a movie like this then Bond is the kingpin. [...] But you want to make it different. I was more creating the Sean Connery Bond than anything else. Not necessarily suit styles but the way the suit is worn by the character and the way he looks in the suit, and I was trying to go beyond that.
It's more the character of Sean Connery's Bond, not necessarily the clothes he was wearing, because obviously those were made in the Sixties. It's a totally different period. [...] You want to achieve the essence of that, without stealing it but still get the satisfaction that it gave.. When you went to your first James Bond movie and saw Sean Connery, you thought: "Wow, this guy's amazing, I want to grow up to be like that." You wanted that quality."
We don't know how much influence agent 007's legacy has had on the script itself and on Nolan's specific directorial choices, but since the costume designers used it in handfuls, we can safely assume that the rest of the crew were also looking for inspiration in similar areas. And if we want to see the similarities on our own, support Christopher Nolan by going to cinemas where we can still see Tenet.
