CANNES, France (AP) – Death is something we’d all like to avoid. But director Michel Franco thinks a reluctance to look at the end of life is unhealthy.
The Mexican filmmaker’s Cannes Film Festival entry “Chronic” stars Tim Roth as a homecare nurse to the dying. It’s an unflinching film – no music, sparse dialogue – that plants the camera in bathrooms and bedrooms where Roth’s character, David, shares his patients’ most intimate moments.
“When I watch a film, the minute I sense that I am being manipulated, I step back,” Franco said at a Cannes hotel poolside. “I was avoiding (trying) to manipulate the audience. You just show it. I think that’s the most powerful, the purest, way to approach this material.”
Many reviews of the film have included the word “challenging.” Variety noted that the film asks “audiences to do the heavy lifting required to arrive at a meaningful emotional response.”
Not everyone will embrace the film, but 35-year-old Franco has the firm loyalty of his crew. Sarah Sutherland, who plays the estranged daughter of Roth’s character, said she knew from her first audition that this would not be a run-of-the-mill job.