Chimera

Chimera is a hard-hitting, immersive drama told from a very specific and challenging perspective. It’s incredibly inventive on numerous levels, but there’s a deeply serious topic of discussion at the heart of the film for Alzheimer's will always be the most sensitive of subjects for a lot of people. One which – when depicted in art – you hope is represented respectfully. The story is based around a family’s domestic life but with a focus on the older man who experiences the disease and takes us on an excruciating journey. Coming away from this new short, it’s difficult to reckon with what it’s trying to be in relation to the degenerative disease.

Since it impacts so many people and loved ones, it’s important it be depicted and discussed in fiction; however, when the piece of fiction in question chooses to simply represent the experience – not offering emotional context or resolution – should we admire its raw qualities or disapprove of its being turned into artistic spectacle? Only the individual viewer can truly answer that question, and I presume that the filmmakers either had first-hand experience with what’s being portrayed or conducted the appropriate research, thus I don’t doubt its core intentions. Having established the movie’s tricky territory, let’s explore the formal qualities of Chimera to see what we can extrapolate from its making as opposed to its content...

The absolute best thing about this particular work is the amount of vivid and interesting visual ideas at play – attributed both to the cinematography / direction as well as the set design. This film uses elemental, textural attributes in ways very few modern short films do: the fascinating incorporation of reflection, shape, shadow and artificial blurring is unique and evocative. There’s a pleasingly cyclical nature to the movie – starting and ending with the hypnotic but slightly chilling image of a ceiling fan. Mirrors are frequently composed beautifully within the frame, and terror is evoked through the isolation of a subject. You have to admire these innovative techniques -- uncommon since they’re not so much filmic techniques as they are ideas related to staging, blocking, and design. The overall sound design is quite stunning, but there’s a perplexing use of ADR which is jarring at first; however, it arguably suits the tone and premise of the film for being vaguely disjointed and unnerving, similar to some early scenes in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.

What this displays is a wonderful sense of ambition and deep thought about cinematic construction. But this doesn’t negate the fact that the viewer may feel uncomfortable for potentially the wrong reasons (or not, depending on said viewer) – there’s a viscera to some moments which I’d normally admire, but we pull back because we don’t know what the greater meaning is besides being in the character’s pained headspace. This is the conflict we have as the spectator. Many will not wish to watch Chimera due to its content, yet those who do I’m sure will admire some of its technical aspects. Undeniably immersive and unusually structured, the film is a most valiant, fascinating effort.