Competition review - CHRONIC by Michel Franco

Michel Franco, with his English feature directorial debut Chronic, quietly criticises its audience and the way in which it deals with death. The film was presented in competition at the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Chronic is Michel Franco's English language feature debut and one of many films that have looked at the theme of death, or impending death, at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It does so by focusing the life of a man approaching middle age who deals with it in his daily life. He is a nurse and personal carer for the terminally ill. He is so apparently good at his job, and so caring, that others around him and us as the viewers too begin to question whether or not he may have other sinister motives in mind. 

Tim Roth stars as the leading character, with an imposing quietness and by providing a type of performance that seems to ignore the camera rather than seduce it. Together with a lack of a manipulative musical soundtrack, and with a seriousness in tone underlined by the stillness of the camera work and the often cold lighting, Chronic plays with the ambiguity of the character.

Nevertheless, perhaps in a more rewardingly provocative way, Michel Franco dares to play with the theme of death and the lack of ability of people to face up to it. This is true of the family and friends of the patients, who simply can't help but treat their loved ones with awkwardness or, even worse, by being overtly fussy. 

It is also true of us, the viewers, as we are subjected to scenes of the nursing and caring that are cinematically unappealing and therefore very uncomfortable to watch. Which, considering the developments of the film, is an ingenious challenge with which Michel Franco tricks his audience through Chronic, and the element that also ultimately has the greatest long lasting and haunting effect.