Into the Abyss With Jonathan Glazer’s Feral Short: The Fall

Reviewed by Alci Rengifo

Jonathan Glazer emerges every so often with work that above all is constructed by a powerful aesthetic. More than narratives, what Glazer crafts are images combined with soundscapes which immerse the viewer in moments of dread, hallucination and discovery. Moments which could have the feel of a common day action suddenly take on a dreamlike ambiance. In Glazer’s underrated 2004 film, Birth, Nicole Kidman plays an upper class New Yorker confronted with the possibility that a young boy is her reincarnated husband. His 2013 Under the Skin finds a silent woman played by Scarlett Johansson, an extraterrestrial in human form, drives through grey streets seeking male prospects for the purpose of consuming their physical essence for an unclear plan. In both films familiar settings, whether upscale dinner parties or gritty alleyways, are touched by extreme possibilities. But how does the artist respond to the world when it actually does become extreme?

Glazer’s latest work is an unnerving short film titled The Fall, which at only 7 minutes functions as a visceral piece of near-surrealism. In a darkened wood a group of people wearing masks with tense rictuses, almost of rage, shake a tree. At the top of the tree another figure, wearing a mask expressing a look of near resignation holds on but eventually falls to the ground. The others, snarling and shouting an incomprehensible chorus of sound, grab their victim and tie a noose around his neck before letting him drop…