Chronic

Writer-director Michel Franco's 'End Of Life porno' doesn't shy away from showing us the human body in all its sweating, vomiting, defecating ugliness during the final gasps of people who have been ravaged by illness.

Tim Roth is quite excellent as the quietly spoken, polite, diligent nurse who abuses with loving, suffocating care

Right from the get go David showers a dying patient with an uncomfortable thoroughness that borders on the obscene.

Not wanting to let his viewers off easily, the camera lingers on this awkward moment, instantly pricking our eyes up about this strange and devoted man's behaviour and motivations.

I went to see this movie because of the Cannes Film Festival best screenplay award that the film had won. It was indeed a good film, with good acting by Tim Roth.

The screenplay is good but it has liberally borrowed ideas, without acknowledging it, from Uberto Pasolini's 2013 film,"Still Life," a winner at theVenice film festival. All the director/screenplay writerhas done is that he transformed a bachelor bureaucrat to a divorced male nurse and passed it off as "original" writing.

And to think this plagiarism leads to a Cannes top award! Shame on the director! It also brings down the prestige of Cannes' awards. Recently another Cannes Jury conferred the Golden Palm to Haneke's "Amour,"which in turn had copied chunks of sequences/ideas from Runnarson's 2011 Icelandic film "Volcano."

Obviously, the Cannes jury had never seen "Still Life." The jury could instead have conferred the best actor award to Tim Roth-who would have deserved it. It underscores the lack of knowledge of current cinema by juries at Cannes in recent years.

For those who have not viewed either, please view "Still Life" first.

Chronic stars Tim Roth and its the story of a nurse that takes care of multiple patients. I really liked this film. The cinematography in this film is one of the best I have ever seen. The way the camera moves and the long and eerie takes throughout the film really gave this film more realism. The color grading is perfect as well. The performances are great and the characters are magnificent. The storytelling in this film is phenomenal. You can tell what will happen (sometimes) and it can be predictable, but its the way its executed that really makes this film special. The direction is top notch and there are a lot of ballsy decisions made in the ending that literally made my jaw drop. There are some problems though. The pacing is really slow and there are a lot of unnecessary scenes. I understand that the director is trying to set up a mood, but it really makes this film really long, even though its only 1 hour and 30 minutes. The structure is also troubling since the first part is a completely different movie than the second and third part. Overall, this is a depressing, bleak, gloomy, great film that really makes you feel weak when the credits roll. 8.5/10

Chronic. Tim Roth loses himself in his role - as does the character he plays - a palliative care nurse. The antithesis of the usual Hollywoodisation of terminal illness. Almost unbearable to watch yet, at times, strangely uplifting and beautiful and human. A career best performance by Roth. A film that I think will and indeed should stay with you. 9 out of ten

This film has a European feel to it, taking a slow and methodical approach to unveiling both the story-line as well as the main character, David. At first I, too, was thinking "why are some parts so drawn out and slow" but then it dawned on me that these characteristics perfectly denote the life of the terminally ill, and ironically, David's life as he struggles with past issues.

Don't expect a happy, Hollywood ending - how can that be when dealing with end of life issues? No, this film is gritty and real and as close to reality as one can get. Having filmed movies myself - especially filming difficult, emotional scenes, I stand in awe of the cinematographer's stamina and excellent positioning. Unlike most movies these days, where the camera has to be right on top of each and every scene, in a voyeuristic way, instead what we have is demonstrated decency to give privacy to that which should be private (no spoiler here; you will understand my words when you come to that particular scene).

The portrayal of David, the main character, is spot on the mark. Throughout the film I wanted to jump into the frame and give him a long, loving hug. He stole my heart with his compassion while life showed precious little to him.

Truly one of my all time favorites now. The kind of film that one can pull new meaning from each time they watch it. Deep and significant: my heart is still aching, woke up several times during the night to reflect on the scenes. Wish I could personally thank the writer, the director and cast. Bravo!