#one day that tenet vs night manager debicki dissertation is coming

[cupiscent]

Comparative Debicki studies

I threatened to do this, and recent discussions in the Tenet discord chat have inspired me to get serious about it because I love Elizabeth Debicki and I love Kat but I am particularly fascinated with how Kat stands in subtle, nuanced contrast to the last thing I saw ED in: the Night Manager. So let’s go.

This is Katharine Barton, art valuation expert and wife of arms dealing billionaire and all-around baddie Andrei Sator (Ken Branagh):

This is Jed Marshall, trophy girlfriend of arms dealing billionaire and all-around baddie Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie):

The similarities are obvious already, right? The differences are where it’s fascinating. (This is going to contain spoilers for both pieces of media, be warned!)

When we meet Kat in Tenet, she is a bitter and despairing woman. She doesn’t love her husband any more (though it’s implied that she did once) but is being held hostage through both their child and her past indiscretions. The Protagonist uses her as a lever and access point to her naughty husband; she is exploited as an asset; she gets screwed over in the process, but ultimately saves herself (with slight risk to the whole operation). Despite her being at various points aloof/bitchy, furious, in peril, and saved from danger by the Protagonist, the movie never tips over into James-Bond nonsense--she gives him a friendly peck on the cheek at one point, and that’s that. Mostly, he represents the return of hope, in the form of someone that her husband can’t control. That gives her the impetus to wake up from her despair--we see her literally sit up straight and pay attention when he walks out of the restaurant where he was supposed to be brought low--and eventually triumph.

When we meet Jed in The Night Manager, she’s probably diving naked into some body of water. This is a common theme for her. Jed knows that she has been purchased as one more accessory of Roper’s billionaire lifestyle--like a yacht, or an artwork. She is here to be expensive and desirable and unattainable to the average person. At one point she states to Tom Hiddleston (whose character has so many names I’ll just call him by actor), “I don’t care who sees me naked, I do care who sees me crying.” She also has past indiscretions, including a child, now being raised by her family far away from her. This pains her; there’s a strong indication of substance abuse. Jed is not happy, but she’s an immaculate and perfect pretense. It’s unclear if she’s ever loved Roper, but she’s certainly here of her own volition, carving out a life with her own sort of power. Then things start getting shaky, Hiddleston starts rattling the bars of her perfect cage, and she starts to get afraid. She is used as a lever and access point to the secrets of her naughty husband; she is seduced by Hiddleston, and exploited as an asset; she gets terrified, and traumatised, and ultimately saved by Hiddleston (at risk to the whole operation).

The big point of difference is obvious: Kat saves herself. And gosh that is powerful, especially contrasted with Jed, who trades one violent man’s protection for another, and who is saved partly because Hiddleston couldn’t save the last beautiful woman who came to him for help escaping Roper’s net of crime. (Then again, The Night Manager is le Carre, in all his complexity. Hiddleston needs Jed to be his salvation. He’s a goddamn mess who no longer knows himself and he needs to be her hero. In comparison, the Protagonist needs to get the job done, but he still wants to help Kat as much as he can.)

But in a way, Kat is still under the protection of menfolk--she’s first mentioned as “niece of Sir Someone-or-other Barton”, and there’s an implication that that’s partly why she hasn’t been more summarily dealt with by Sator. She’s got status and privilege and power behind her; people who can make life extremely difficult for Sator. But none of that has saved her from making terrible choices and ending up in a terrible situation. It isn’t enough to save her.

Jed’s power is self-made. She wields her body like a weapon, carefully honed and beautifully caparisoned. Every man in the room is supposed to be stupid with lust for her the moment she walks in; that’s the whole point of her, that’s why Roper picked her. But all that power also can’t save her from her terrible choices and this terrible situation. (I’m particularly fascinated by the nuance here of the “powerful” femme fatale, and a narrative of the power of a confident woman that usually shows up in lines like, “fuck those stuck-up bitches, you think you’re too good for me?” Jed’s is a fragile, ephemeral power, that evaporates in the face of male violence. Kat is physically threatened and beaten by Sator, but she’s never made quite as helpless, alone or terrified as Jed is. In a way, Kat is saved by the Protagonist, it’s just not at the end of everything.)

Both of them are women who seem to have a lot of poise and power, but are the victims of abuse and physical violence from their partners. (Sidebar here that I get very weary about intimate-partner violence being used as a marker of villainy in films. Of course he’s evil, he’s not just an arms dealer, he beats his wife. Never mind all the “such a nice guy”s who also beat their wives.) Both of them show different sorts of courage in attempting to leave the situation. Both of them show, in varying ways, how goddamn hard it is.

But in the end, the thing that strikes me most starkly and hauntingly is that Kat would probably think Jed’s a strumpet, and Jed would probably think Kat’s a bitch, and neither woman would be able to escape their solitary confinement. And I feel like I’ve seen some echoes of that in reactions to Kat, where some movie-goers don’t seem to know what to make of her if she isn’t supposed to fit into that James-Bond’s-girl sort of role.

Anyway, the bottom line is: I initially made a joke with my husband about Elizabeth Debicki getting typecast as the evil arms-dealer’s trophy spouse, but these are two fascinating characters done different in ways both big and delicately small, and I remain in absolute awe of her magnificent performances.