biopic of an American theoretical physicist, jumps between the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Sir Christopher’s films often provide a satisfying moment of realisation. But they rarely reward viewers who ruminate on the plot after the credits roll. In the case of “Memento”, for instance, you might wonder how a character with amnesia remembers his amnesia. Roger Ebert, a late American film critic, joked that the protagonist “suffers from a condition brought on by a screenplay that finds it necessary, and it’s unkind of us to inquire too deeply”. Similar questions could be asked of dreams, wormholes or, in “The Prestige” (2006), his film about magicians, cloning and teleportation. All of it makes for entertaining cinema, but it does not make much sense. Viewers’ enjoyment of these films hinges on their willingness to suspend scepticism and tune into the vibe. A more serious charge concerns Sir Christopher’s treatment of female characters. The most important woman in “Memento” is the protagonist’s dead wife. Dead wives or girlfriends also further the plots of “The Prestige”, “Inception”, “The Dark Knight” and “Interstellar”. “Dunkirk” features just two minor female characters.
This charge can be overblown, though. “Interstellar” features two strong female figures. Anne Hathaway, Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhaal play integral roles in the Batman films. And Emily Blunt got an Oscar nod for her stellar performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer’s (admittedly stoic and long- suffering) wife. Sir Christopher has not written a female protagonist just as Greta Gerwig, a star female director, has not written a male one in her solo projects. For it is not women, but people, in whom Sir Christopher has only recently begun to show interest. The protagonist in “Tenet”, as well as a pivotal character in “Dunkirk”, has no name. Many film-makers progress from small, intimate films to bigger-budget, higher-concept ones; in some ways, Sir Christopher has taken the opposite path, going from films that unfold like puzzles to something more human. “Oppenheimer” depicted the enmity between the titular character and Lewis Strauss, his bureaucratic nemesis. As such, it was Sir Christopher’s first film to feature a conflict of actual personalities, as opposed to goals, as in “Interstellar”, “Inception” and “The Prestige”, or good versus evil, as in “Tenet” and his superhero films. In making “The Odyssey”—the story of a man returning to his family—Sir Christopher has, like the gods of Homer, started paying attention to mere mortals. ■ For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com//culture/2026/07/16/why-sir-christopher-nolan-inspires- such-devotion-and-contempt
Emo culture was not just a phase, as it turns out The business of misery is thriving as emo bands go back on tour July 16th 2026 EMO CULTURE was all the rage in 2006. In fact, rage was part of the appeal: “emo” stands for “emotional hardcore”, a style of music that combines intense punk-rock stylings with introspective lyrics. Bands such as My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore made the upper reaches of the charts in America and Britain. Teenagers sporting heavy black eyeliner and side fringes gathered in city centres and posted moody selfies on Facebook and Myspace. Now emo is back. My Chemical Romance is marking the 20th anniversary of its album “The Black Parade” with a worldwide stadium tour. The band recently played three gigs at Wembley Stadium in London. Each night the
90,000-capacity venue was packed with screaming fans who had dug out their studded belts for the occasion. It is not just My Chemical Romance that is getting fans in their feels. Fall Out Boy has toured in recent years. All Time Low played its biggest show ever at the O2 Arena in London earlier this year. Jimmy Eat World is currently on tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its “Bleed American” record. (One track urges the listener not to “write yourself off yet”—the band seemingly took its own advice to heart.) The genre’s comeback has been building for some time. When We Were Young, a pop-punk and emo festival, launched in California in 2017 and has since moved to a bigger spot in Las Vegas. It has proved there is still a market for misery. But the trend is reaching its zenith now because of the 20-year nostalgia cycle that affects everything from fashion to games and tv shows. Today fans can find dedicated emo club nights and brunches. Dana Egan leads spin classes at Psycle, a fitness studio in London, to an emo soundtrack. She is thrilled to see the music making a return; she was “always an emo kid”.
The crowds at concerts often span the generations. Millennials—the original emos—attend alongside Gen Z fans who discovered the bands after most had split up. Rhys Boyle, one such follower, says that “My Chemical Romance broke up when I was 13. And I remember thinking, ‘Oh man, I’m not gonna be able to see them live ever.’” Fans insist emo has endured because it offers a sense of empathy and community in hostile, bewildering times. “A lot of people who are emo are a bit neurodivergent, a bit queer and a bit weird,” says Nez Ray, a fan at Wembley; the music makes them feel as though they are not alone. Perhaps the angst and the eyeliner are here to stay, then. As “Welcome to the Black Parade”, My Chemical Romance’s biggest hit, puts it: “We want you all to know/We’ll carry on.”■ For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com//culture/2026/07/16/emo-culture-was-not-just-a-phase-as- it-turns-out
A mystery street artist is taking over cities You can hunt for his mosaics in Paris and beyond July 16th 2026 STANDING AT THE top of the Eiffel Tower, almost everyone looks down. Tourists jostle to peer at Paris’s famous landmarks and the snaking Seine. Yet those in the know gaze upwards: they climb to the highest public platform to view not the metropolis, but a mosaic. Up in one nook is a small pixelated artwork made from ceramic tiles, which depicts a blue creature with a cloud. Invader, the Frenchman behind the mosaic, is one of the most prolific street artists in the world. (Yes, he is even busier than Banksy.) He has planted more than 1,500 works across Paris alone. There are thousands more such “invasions” in over 80 cities around the world, from New York to Tokyo. His pixelated pictures have been affixed to the Hollywood sign and a ski lift
in the Swiss Alps; they lie at the bottom of the ocean near Cancún and orbit Earth in the International Space Station (pictured above). Like any successful intruder, he often works under cover of darkness. (Invader has installed almost every piece himself, from Miami to Marrakech.) And, like any serious street artist, his identity is a secret. That hasn’t stopped him from gaining fans. If you know a child in a city that has been invaded, chances are you’ve heard of FlashInvaders, an app on which you score points for finding (or “flashing”) the mosaics. The game has more than 550,000 players, up from about 360,000 in 2024. Players have logged some 47m flashes to date. Invader uses the ancient practice of mosaic to create figures inspired by retro video games. Each tile acts as a “perfect pixel”, as Rafael Schacter, a street- art expert at University College London puts it, which makes the mosaics look like digital images. Many are variations of the crabs and UFOs found in “Space Invaders” (1978). Others reflect their surroundings, as with a fox drinking a cup of tea in London.
The pixels also mean the images can be scanned on a phone, a bit like a QR code, to play FlashInvaders. The aim of the game is not only to interact with fans, says Invader—who spoke to The Economist via email to stay anonymous—but also to spark curiosity and urban dérive (exploration). Searching for the mosaics takes you to parts of cities you wouldn’t normally see. The game can require detective work, as players must avoid being duped by impostors who try to mimic Invader’s style. FlashInvaders has drawn comparisons to Pokémon GO, an augmented- reality app, though it was created two years earlier, in 2014. Both games encourage players to go outside in pursuit of their favourite monster or mosaic. The app also fits with a wider trend to merge digital and physical play for children, from app-assisted board games to LEGO bricks with built- in chips that respond to sound and movement. Yet FlashInvaders is free: the app is purely a passion project and makes no money. The app stands out because it encourages people to “look at their environment in a different way”, notes Mr Schacter. Mobile games are often criticised for glueing people to their phones, but this one teaches you to take notice of the world around you. Whether on a little-known street or at the top of the Eiffel Tower, it’s always worth looking up. ■
For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com//culture/2026/07/16/a-mystery-street-artist-is-taking- over-cities
George Sand’s life was a heady mix of sex and serious fiction A new biography seeks to restore the French novelist’s place in the literary canon July 16th 2026 HOW MUCH do you know about George Sand? If you are an Anglophone reader, the answer is probably “not a lot”. You might recall that she was a French writer and that “George Sand” was a pseudonym (her real name was Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil). Perhaps you know that she wore men’s clothes and smoked cigars, or that she had a long affair with Frédéric Chopin, a celebrated composer. Only a few, however, will be able to name her works—and even fewer can claim to have actually read them. (Francophone readers, meanwhile, may have studied her books in school.)