NOCTURAMA [Blu-ray]

The new film by Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, House of Pleasures) is a terrorism thriller like no other, recalling Robert Bresson’s The Devil, Probably as much as it does George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. We first follow a group of tense, shifty adolescents as they prowl the streets and subways of Paris, learning through carefully delineated sequences that they’re already well underway with a bombing plot. And then it becomes something familiar, yet altogether different, as these subversives tuck away inside a shopping mall and lose themselves in consumer culture — clothes, televisions, toys, and a stirring soundtrack that includes Blondie, Chief Keef, Shirley Bassey, Bonello’s menacing electronic score, and Willow Smith. Will they survive the unseen, encroaching authorities? Or, as the walls close in, will they even survive each other? Nocturama forgoes easy answers, making way for one of the 21st century’s most stunning cinematic experiences.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Two Short Films by Bertrand Bonello
– Sarah Winchester: Ghost Opera (2016, 24 min.)
– Cindy: The Doll is Mine, starring Asia Argento (2005, 15 min.)

• Interview with Bertrand Bonello (20 minutes)

• Theatrical Trailer

• Booklet featuring a director’s statement and an essay by critic/programmer Dennis Lim