Aneurysm

With watching short films it is sometimes important not to expect everything to be what you expect it to be, or to assume that some of them are not going to be pitches or projects. In the case of Aneurysm this is additionally important as it comes from photographer Jason Arber and lists the actresses as "models" rather than characters. What we get are a series of models standing individually or sometimes in pairs, each of them stares at the camera early on but quickly something appears to happen to each, blood starts to flow from their noses which they react to as it gets worse before they ultimately succumb and collapse.

As a narrative there is not too much here and really this short is a series of stills – but it just happens to be around 24 of them per second. The models really do not move too much and the film seems to be mostly about the contrast and the harshness of these women with the thick red blood. Visually it is certainly arresting to see and did make me a little uncomfortable but I didn't take much more than that from it. There were aspects of it that stuck in my head and made me wonder "why". So for example, all of the models appear to be of Asian descent (although the surnames listed suggest they are from a range within that broad category), I wasn't sure if this was deliberate and if so why. I also wondered why some of the shots were played in reverse, with blood slowly retreating up the faces. Finally, considering it was such a visual piece, I also wondered why the images were so brutally harsh – I guess it was part of the point of the film to go past that, because the models here I have seen elsewhere are generally stunning but the harsh light and close camera really work against that.

The performances are variable but they have not much to work with; direction appears to have been in several stages – stare, make your eyes roll back, small blood, more blood, collapse. If they transitioned between these then the film doesn't show that as it breaks it down into segments. Only really one actress has a convincing moment of mopping at her face and reacting, the rest are very static and engaged me less (although visually still striking). This short is very much an arty piece from a photographer who is not known for easy family portraits and, as such, those that follow his work will find Aneurysm to be a good extension of that, but for the casual viewer I really don't think there is much to it beyond the impact of the images.