Nocturnal Animals: a tasty combination between fashion and cinema

The other day I had the pleasure to see "Nocturnal Animals", designer Tom Ford's Opera Prima. I was mostly curious to see if his cinema was as elegant, sophisticated and stunning as his suits. Personally I like his designs very much. They are original, yet stark and classical, not too extravagant but still somehow with a unique vision.


 


Well, "Nocturnal Animals" is no exception.
First of all I would like to say that I really enjoyed the story of the film. However, since it is based on a novel I think its originality, which resides in the combination reality-fiction and life-novel, can be more related to the author of the book ("Tony and Susan" by Austin Wright).
Nonetheless, Ford is able to adapt a complicated storyline and a clearly literary narration to the big screen with a visual power that can only be done with a large background in art and fashion. The movie starts with a stunning, detailed and visually immaculate montage. After that delightful introduction we have the story, whose driving force is not the dialogue but the actual pulsing scenes, combined and selected in a very specific way so the spectator can both understand and admire the tale. Just like his designs, the setting of those scenes is serious, with a lot of color and light contrast. The fictional storyline and the real storyline are incredibly well separated, also by visual factors such as color, light, clothing, transitions, photography...
I also think that the cast was very well selected: red sets of hair and melancholic looks... apart from the obvious talent, of course.







It is possible to adapt a literary narration to the cinema using visual elements to do so, images in motion can be great story-tellers, and art, whether it is fashion, cinema, literature..., can still be mixed, mingled and agitated for everybody to enjoy. This film is an example of this.


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