Chain
Directed by Jem Cohen
Reviewed by Catherine MacLennan
Jem Cohen's film Chain seamlessly mixes documentary footage with the scenes involving his fictional characters to create a world of stuck lives and disposable lives in a hideously man-made, corporate-made setting. The landscape is a familiar, ugly one - strip malls, motels, garish signs and advertising - all the unpleasant stuff you see on the highways, on your way to somewhere else. The main characters are a Japanese businesswoman and a homeless American woman. The businesswoman is eager to learn English, the language of business: "Thank you for considering our business plan" she says to herself, practicing. The homeless person finds a camera in the mall near the abandoned building she lives in and "films" her surroundings as well as recording a diary in the dark with the eerie glow of the camera's light. She says she might send the film to her sister, though it seems they are not really in contact with each other. These characters are seen in scenes, scenes edited with the "real life" scenes of shoppers walking dazed in shopping malls and amusement parks, consuming what is on offer.
A radio advertisement talks about credit card debt, a sign on an ugly store is called Dress to Impress. The images of ugly, crude capitalism are never-ending - a giant plastic beer bottle, numerous discarded buildings, a sign for Donuts and Dentistry. There is even a shot of a graveyard beside a mall.
Constantly told what at free, exciting life capitalism offers, Chain reveals the side we know is there and is often ignored, not glossiness but ugliness, not freedom but being stuck - the Japanese woman in the hotel waiting for instructions from the company, people not alive but turned into shopping zombies, and the homeless woman, trapped and struggling for the basics of life - food, a home, a job.
The Lamp, October 2004