Nocturama + Terrorism

Reducing Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama to a straightforward psychological reading barely scratches the surface—which is exactly what makes the film a productive starting point for this week’s Film Comment Podcast. When setting out to make a film depicting terrorism, filmmakers must thoughtfully parse out aesthetic choices about narrative tone and character intentionality, while also being mindful of the potential impact of historical memory. FC Digital Editor Violet Lucca is joined by Aliza Ma, head programmer at Metrograph, and Jeff Reichert, filmmaker and co-editor of Reverse Shot, to look at a few specific approaches spanning national and historical contexts—a varied sample set, from Olivier Assayas to Paul Greengrass to Japanese director Kazuhiko Hasegawa.