Movie Review: Nocturama

Nocturama **** / *****

Directed by: Bertrand Bonello.

Written by: Bertrand Bonello.

Starring: Finnegan Oldfield (David), Vincent Rottiers (Greg), Hamza Meziani (Yacine), Manal Issa (Sabrina), Martin Petit-Guyot (André), Jamil McCraven (Mika), Rabah Nait Oufella (Omar), Laure Valentinelli (Sarah), Ilias Le Doré (Samir), Robin Goldbronn (Fred), Luis Rego (Jean-Claude), Hermine Karagheuz (Patricia).

 

Nocturama is a film about a group of French teenagers and early 20-somethings, who plot and carry out a series of terrorist attacks in Paris over one day and then hide out in an evacuated mall that night before they plan to make their escape. The writer/director Bertrand Bonello never even attempts to explain their motivations – they are of different ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds, and they spend almost no time discussing ideology - the closest we get is a theory, exposed by one of them, that in civilization comfort gives way to chaos, and eventually a renaissance comes along – so the best information you have on why they do what they do is to perhaps bring on a new renaissance. And yet, I don’t really think that’s it either – perhaps they do what they do out of sheer boredom or free of being subsumed about a culture they are supposed to rebel against, even if they don’t quite realize why they are rebelling against it. They attack symbols of both France’s past – a Joan of Arc statute, dosed in lighter fluid and set ablaze, and its globalist future.

 

Yet, while Nocturama doesn’t necessarily answer the questions it raises in the way we in the audience may want and/or expect it to, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t provide some sort of insight into these kids, their actions and the society that gives rise to them. The film is basically two acts, and a denouement. In act one, we see them as they carry out their attacks – and operate as a well-oiled machine. They take subways at specific times, meet up, and break apart – plant bombs, clear buildings, use fake credit cards to get access to what they need, etc. They do it all with ruthless efficiency, and almost no hesitation or nerves (there are a couple of shots that show this, but not many). They don’t want to kill anyone, but will if they have to. In the second act, the group meets up and is let into a mall by Omar – one of their own, a security guard, who helped to evacuate the mall in the ensuing panic as the terrorist attacks come out, and then got rid of the of the security guards in brutal fashion. The group spends the long night in this mecca of consumerism – it’s nearly impossible not to think of George A, Romero’s masterpiece Dawn of the Dead when watching this film – as these young people seeming consume and become enthralled with the trappings of the society they earlier sought to destroy. One of the most surreal moments in the film comes when one of their number sees a manikin dressed in the exact same outfit he currently has on. The group spends the night trying on the clothes, sleeping in the fancy beds, eating and drinking the expensive food, occasionally switching on the big screen TVs to see the aftermath of their handiwork – but turning up pop music to drown out the sound more often than not (Willow Smith’s Whip My Hair is put to great use in this way). The denouement is inevitable from the start – yet it’s still chilling to see it play out the way it does, with the same heartless, ruthless efficiency the gang used at the beginning of the film.

 

It’s only gradually do we start to get to know some of the characters involved – and then, some better than others. There is David (Finnegan Oldfield) and his girlfriend Sarah (Laure Valentinelli), who perhaps seem like the idealists of the group – although what they idealize is not clear. Omar, the security guard (Rabah Nait Oufella) is the most chillingly cold blooded – as nothing seems to bother him at all. The others seemingly float through doing their own thing.

 

Bonello’s direction here is phenomenal – with long, smooth tracking shots that feel otherworldly. The film casts a dreamlike spell over the audience, fitting, because all of these characters are living in their own private fantasy worlds – worlds they share with no else, not even each other. It is violence that breaks the film out of that dream world – when it happens in the film it happens quickly, and often brutally. The film may not be interesting in providing explanations for terrorism, but it’s not blind to its effects.

 

Not surprisingly, Nocturama has been controversial since it hit French theaters last fall, and went on the festival circuit after that - apparently many fests – like Cannes, which has played Bonello’s film in the past, didn’t want this one. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given the terrorist attacks France has endured recently (Bonello wrote this film years ago, and shot it before the most recent wave). Some just do not want to be challenged to think about terrorism except in the most black and white terms. I get that. For those who want to see a brilliantly made and provocative film though – a film that recalls Romero, Godard, Van Sant and more all in one expertly crafted package though, Nocturama is a must see.