22 August 2020 | New Scientist | 33Film
Tesla
Michael Almereyda
Out 21 August
TO MANY, Nikola Tesla is a folk
hero. He is a steady fixture in
science fiction, and his role in the
war over whether alternating or
direct current should be used to
transmit electricity in the late
19th century has cemented him in
the popular imagination as a slayer
of giants. Take that, Thomas Edison.
In Tesla, director Michael
Almereyda makes hay out of that
war and other events from the
visionary inventor’s life, but not
without including a few fantastical
turns of his own.
The film begins with Tesla (Ethan
Hawke) working at Edison Machine
Works, where he butts heads with
his employer over funding. Edison
(Kyle MacLachlan) is bullish and
xenophobic, asking Tesla, who was
born in what is now Croatia, if he
has ever eaten human flesh.
The depictions of Edison’s
attempts to discredit alternating
current, from using it to kill animals
in public demonstrations to the
botched electrocution of a prisoner,
is well-trodden ground for people
familiar with his ruthlessness.
Yet the film achieves more
nuance in its brief flashes of
Edison’s personal life than it ever
does with Tesla’s. A biopic that
leaves you more interested in
the subject’s rival has gone
wrong somewhere.
Part of this failure comes
from the moments that the film
prioritises. Tesla’s poverty after
leaving Edison’s firm and being
swindled by his own business
partners is mentioned only briefly,
for instance, in favour of repetitive
demonstrations of his induction
motor that have none of the visual
dynamism such a revolutionary
invention deserves. “No sparks,”
one observer notes.
The story is periodically
interrupted by Anne Morgan
(Eve Hewson), the daughter of
one of Edison’s principal investors,
who sits with a laptop and offers up
pithy, fourth-wall-breaking context.The film is also peppered with
farcical metaphors, including
ice-cream fights, rollerblading
accidents and even an anachronistic
rendition of Everybody Wants To
Rule The World.
While these choices confuse
as often as they delight, it is fitting
for a Tesla biopic to take risks
and display such imagination.
One poignant scene asks us to
envisage a world in which Edison
apologises to Tesla and suggestsa partnership. What could Tesla
have achieved with the commercial
guidance of “an enlightened
hustler” like Edison?
Hawke plays Tesla as a morose
workaholic, bristling with social
discomfort. Though there is a
degree of truth in that portrayal,
Tesla was reportedly well-liked
when he did socialise and had a
variety of interests, with one
contemporary describing him as “a
poet, a philosopher, an appreciator
of fine music, a linguist, and a
connoisseur of food and drink”.
Such qualities are barely touched
on, save for a sequence in which he
is deeply moved by actress Sarah
Bernhardt (Rebecca Dayan), who
becomes a figure of fascination.
It is in his interactions with her that
Hawke is finally given something
to do; Bernhardt witnesses Tesla’s
humiliation at the hands of Edison
and the shame breaks through
his taciturn shell.
Ultimately, the film rarely
finds the will to be interested in the
man Tesla actually was. Coupled
with its incoherent – if striking –
aesthetic, this means Tesla too
often feels like an empty frame,
or a motor without the power to
keep it running. ❚Tesla leaves you more
interested in Thomas
Edison (Kyle MacLachlan) CO
URTE
SY
OFIFCFILMSAgainst the current
Tesla is a creative and imaginative biopic, but it does a better job
with Thomas Edison than its lead subject, says Bethan Ackerley
“ Tesla’s poverty after
leaving Edison’s firm
and being swindled
is mentioned only
briefly”Don’t miss
Watch
Unknown Origins
sees a murderer recreate
superhero origin stories
in an entertaining caper
set in Madrid. During
production, comic fans
mobbed its comic-book
store set, thinking it
was real. On Netflix
from 28 August.Read
Terra Incognita by
Ian Goldin and Robert
Muggah features
“100 maps to survive
the next 100 years”,
showing how people,
cities, wars, climates
and technology are
changing Earth.Listen
Invisibilia tells
sumptuously produced
tales of scientific wonder
as Alix Spiegel and
Hanna Rosin explore
the hidden forces
shaping our behaviours,
ideas and beliefs in this
NPR podcast.
NETF
LIX;^ LEONAR
DOSANT
AMARIA^ FORNPR