The Anti-Politics of Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama

Abstract

With Nocturama (2016), Bertrand Bonello sought to capture a zeitgeist – the affective structure of France in the 2010s. He wrote a script about ten young people orchestrating a series of bombings in Paris, the film conveying the sense that something decisive could soon occur. Then, decisive things did happen: terror attacks at Charlie Hebdo (2015), Stade de France (2015), the Bataclan (2015), and in the city of Nice (2016). The release of Nocturama was consequently delayed.
Drawing on an eclectic range of writings by Lauren Berlant, Étienne de La Boétie, Jean-François Lyotard, and the Comité invisible, this article analyses Nocturama in view of understanding the French zeitgeist of the 2010s and the precariousness embodied by the film’s young protagonists. Particular attention is given to the ways in which the film’s abstraction and formalism shape our experience of violence and terror. The article argues that the film gives itself over to the ambiguities of our time, occupying a provocative position that can be called “anti-political”.