French autuers so white

Nocturama (d. Bertrand Bonello)

Pretty dumb for a wanna be smart ass movie. So hey, you know about French auteur-ist cinema? where white Parisians, usually hetero, talk, fight, make love, philosophize in chic Parisian apartments? Well this is one of those, except that we’ve got a multicultural cast. Finally! It aims to reflect the diversity of Paris and France, something you don’t see at all in those other movies. But wait! These teenagers…turn out to be wannabe terrorists? What I’m saying is this: finally you’ve got a multi-ethnic cast but they’re fucking criminals? Seriously? And what does one of the ethnically Arab teen say? He believes that he’s gonna go to Paradise after death? What? So he’s a radical Muslim too?!? But there are white teens in the gang thus the film couldn’t possibly be racist. Even there, film cannot but help privilege the white straight male protagonist. First, everyone’s death is shown, coldly. The white dude? His death is offscreen. We get to his slumped body, but not his face, unlike girl, whose face we can gaze at. Clearly the director is in love with her, she got more sympathetic screen time than the other girl, who may be of Magrebhian descent. The most sympathetic and earnest character, the youngest in the group, who is of African descent, gets shot right before us. Next, of all the kids, the white dude gets to say goodbye to his mom! Aww! (In a quizzical move, same character invites homeless into their capitalist fantasy playground hideout—as a sign of his humanity. Huh!?! He also found time to a) wander about the city when his pals were holed up in their hideout and b) had time to make love, oh la la!) What I’m saying is that the white protagonist is accorded a humanity that isn’t extended to the other characters which is why this film, pretending to be saying something politically, is nothing but the same tired mainstream way of thinking about youth, rebellion and race. There’s an extended lip synching scene in the movie: the movie isn’t the real thing but a carefully practiced rendition of received and stale ideas. Naturally, the movie also ranked high in the 2017 film polls.

#2019 #28