Nocturnal Animals

Tom Ford’s film opens not on its lead’s face but on the work hanging in her gallery. The first minutes are nude, heavy bodied women dancing in slow motion under a Hitchcockian orchestra, with nothing said about how it connects. Only later is it revealed as a video installation at the opening curated by Susan, played by Amy Adams. The performers needed nudity riders in their contracts; one remarked that nobody would expect a sixty year old grandmother to need such a clause. The first image of the film is the character’s taste rather than her face. The source is Austin Wright’s 1993 novel Tony and Susan, produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov. American rights sold for twenty million dollars at the 2015 Cannes market, the big deal of that year. The film took the Grand Jury Prize at Venice, Aaron Taylor-Johnson won the Golden Globe for supporting actor, and nine BAFTA nominations followed. The closing Japanese restaurant scene was shot at Yamashiro in Los Angeles. Across one hundred and sixteen minutes the two lines run in separate visual registers: the novel like a thriller, the present like a gallery. A good fit if you accept a character introduced by what she chooses to exhibit. Not for you if an uncontextualised nude dance running for minutes will be unbearable.