Film Analysis Notes

Tom Ford creates a visual masterpiece with “Nocturnal Animals” that masterfully blurs the lines between reality and fiction. The film’s narrative structure operates on three levels: Susan’s present reality, her memories of Edward, and the brutal world of the novel she’s reading[3]. Ford uses a deliberately exaggerated aesthetic and pompous imagery that particularly stands out in the vast Texas landscape, creating a hall of mirrors of motifs and references between art and reality.

The parallel narrative threads reveal Ford’s expertise as a fashion designer: he stages the glittering art world with its conventions as a counterpoint to the raw violence of the novel. This isn’t about the “mendacity” of an industry as a “worn-out trope,” but about a Freudian underworld that attacks the viewer’s nerve endings. Amy Adams’ casting as a contrasting figure resembles Colin Firth in Ford’s debut “A Single Man” – the disturbance is beautifully contrasted with the polished facade.