Made prior to the Paris terror attacks in November 2015, and released after, Bertrand Bonello’s “Nocturama” (our review) arrived during an interesting time in the world, and still maintains a thrum of relevance. Traveling through the festival circuit last year, it was not unnoticed that the film was not at Cannes, where the director had previously presented four of his movies. And his movie, about a group of millennials who commit acts of terror, but without a clear reason, ruffled some feathers. Now, with the film’s U.S. release on the horizon, Bonello has a few things to say.
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The director has penned a piece for Artforum, explaining the genesis of his movie, which he feels reflects that “we live in a period that can create a person who is totally fascinated by terrorism and capitalism at the same time.” We also live in a period where if a director skips Cannes, theories and chatter will arise online, and Bonello reveals that being excluded from Croisette likely hurt the movie from a business perspective, but says the knee-jerk reaction on social media didn’t help matters either. Here’s an excerpt:
Cannes didn’t want the film, so we decided to go to the Toronto and San Sebastian festivals. The exclusion from Cannes probably didn’t help for sales and at the box office. There were so many articles and messages on online social networks that said the film was not selected at Cannes because of its subject. The controversy began from there, and it was difficult to stop it. Of course, I wonder how the film would have been received if it were released two years before. The French critics understood it. My problem was with the social networks, the blogs. There are a lot of haters on these platforms.
We’ll see how those platforms respond when “Nocturama” opens on August 11th.
