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david cronenberg
by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - March 18, 2001
If there is a filmmaker who has accurately captured the pathological undercurrents of late 20th Century terminal life: institutionalised disaster areas, deviant sexual impulses spinning out of control and the rise of a Dark Culture, it is truly Canadian David Cronenberg.

Cronenberg established a strong following with his early theatrical films Shivers (1975), Rabid (1976) and The Brood (1979). Like Dario Argento, George A. Romero, John Carpenter and David Lynch, Cronenberg has used familiar 'visceral horror' film motifs like urban alienation and body mutation to reach art-house audiences. But he has never seen himself as a strictly horor director, and has viewed his films as highly personal meditations. Cronenberg's influence is often unacknowledged: for example, elements of his early films clearly inspired parts of Ridley Scott's Alien (1979).

It was the pre-cog mutant hero of Scanners (1980) which really signalled that Cronenberg was daring to intelligently explore realms that others left unventured. Cronenberg used 1950s pulp SF themes in a thinly veiled allegory hinting at the Thalidomide tragedies and contemporary pharmaceutical experimentation. Videodrome (1981) upped oft-quoted Canadian theorist Marshall McLuhan's media theories by literally exploring the New Flesh. Panned on release, Videodrome presciently captured the underground interest in body scarification/modification and pirate cable TV long before cyberculture became fashionable, and is regularly cited by film aficionados. Its mediation on the body/technology dichotomy hinted at coming 'meatspace' flashpoints like Heaven's Gate.

Much of Cronenberg's 1980s output occupied the twilight-zone between art-house auteur and mainstream cross-over. His version of Stephen King's Dead Zone (1983) re-shaped a rambling story into a Reagan-era apocalyptic mindscape, while The Fly (1986) foreshadowed the Human Genome Project in its controversial depiction of human sexuality. Dead Ringers (1988) is regarded by many as Cronenberg's finest project to date: a subtle and unsettling psychological exploration of cojoint twins and identity swapping. For Night Breed (1990), Cronenberg teamed up with acclaimed horror author Clive Barker to explore a society of shape-shifting misfits. The ironic twist was that Barker wrote and directed the film, and Cronenberg starred as the nefarious Dr. Philip Decker.

Controversy surrounds Cronenberg's adaption of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1991), as Cronenberg mixed biographical elements with an exploration of Interzone. Some purists felt that the film was confusing, and that the original cut-up novel was unfilmable. However others felt that Cronenberg was the best director for the job. M. Butterfly (1993) and Blood and Donuts (1995) both received mixed reviews, as some critics felt that Cronenberg was trying too hard to achieve mainstream success.

But no reservations could be made about Crash (1996), a stunning adaption of J.G. Ballard's controversial 1973 novel that explored auto-crash fetishes, deviant sexuality and the rise of the automobile as an arbiter of the contemporary psyche. New Line Cinema owner Ted Turner found the film so controversial that he shelved it for months. After dominating the Cannes Film Festival (where it was awarded the Special Jury Prize), Crash received strong worldwide reviews and pro-active support from Ballard.

With eXistenZ (1999), Cronenberg returned to writing and directing, creating an unusual exploration of bio-engineered video-games that was decidedly different from The Matrix (1999) and other virtual reality thrillers. The pro-life extremists became suddenly very real during the video-game/violence debates after the Littleton and Columbine shootings.

Having established himself as a formidable force, David Cronenberg continues an independent course into the twilight visions of his own atavistic primal mindscape.

 
 
more information  
 

The New Flesh Directory
Mammoth collection of news, reviews, interviews, filmography and other notable items relating to David Cronenberg's career and productions. The image archives and production information are top-notch.

Crash: The Official Site
A high-profile site developed to promote David Cronenberg's film Crash (1997), by Fine Line Features. Includes information on body modification, celebrity car crashes, Ballrd/Cronenberg interviews, storyboards, production information and much more. An excellent site that captures the feel of this unique film.

David Cronenberg's eXistenZ: The Official Site
Beautiful information loaded site developed to promote eXistenZ (1999), the moody and complex cyber-thriller that recalls Cronenberg's early 1980s films. Includes production credits, official merchandise, video-clips, screensaver, trailer and more!

Set for Collision
Excellent interplay between David Cronenberg and J.G. Ballard about Crash (1996), captured by Index Online magazine. The interview covers issues relating to censorship, film criticism and the values-systems of the film industry. Great reading!

David Cronenberg: Di Profilo
A David Cronenberg profile and filmography in Italian.

eXistenZ: David Cronenberg Plays The Game
David D'Arcy chronicles the production and story of eXistenZ (1999), and includes an interview with director David Cronenberg. D'Arcy's fears of the spread of game metaphors is worth noting in post-Columbine America.

Film Review: The Brood (1979)
Jacksonville Film Journal scholar Chuck Dowling deconstructs critic Leonard Maltin whilst reviewing the vintage David Cronenberg film The Brood (1979). Dowling honestly writes: "Very rarely does reading a bad review inspire me to watch a movie. Usually it's the other way around. A bad review would normally convince me that I have no desire to see the particular film. But in the case of David Cronenberg's "The Brood", I just had to see it after reading Leonard Maltin's review of it in his film guide."

Film Scouts: Projection
Massive collection of Quicktime Video interviews with film industry personnel, including six samples from David Cronenberg. Hear from the master himself!

You Can Never Read Too Much Into It!
This Salon interview of David Cronenberg (April 29, 1999), conducted by Alan E. Rapp, focuses on eXistenZ (1999) and modernist filmmaking.

Fright Site: Crash (1996) Film Review
Insightful film review and analysis by Adam Groves: "What is the best film of 1996? For my money, it's David Cronenberg's Crash . . . Crash is unrivaled, even in Cronenberg's already unique filmography . . . [it's] most disconcerting quality: it deals with fantasies we've already had."

AsYlem: An Interview With David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg on 'Crash' (1996), Cannes film festivals, his personal lifestyle and how he almost directed 'Alien 4'.

Sex Machine
RU Sirius, in this stunning Wired magazine article (May 1997), interviews David Cronenberg about Crash (1996). One of Cronenberg's most revealing and insightful interviews.

Film Scouts People: David Cronenberg
Trio of Quicktime video-clips taken from Cannes Film Festival (1996) featuring David Cronenberg's eloquent thoughts on filmmaking, Virtual Cannes, and early critical reception of Crash (1996).

Play The Game I
This review of eXistenZ (1999) by Ziauddin Sardar for the UK's New Statesman magazine considers the film's connection with Sufi mystics and spiritual hyper-realities.

Bringing Crash to The Screen
Excellent five-part interview and analysis of the film Crash (1996) from Chaos Control archives, an interactive digizine experience. The interview was written in a non-linear style that suits hypertext. Very detailed and atmospheric!

Technology's Body: Cronenberg, Genre, and the Canadian Ethos
Bart Testa (Department of Cinema Studies, Innis College, University of Toronto), originally wrote this complex, theory heavy essay for Post/Script (Fall 1995). This essay deconstructs the oppositions Nature/Culture, Normal/Monstrous and instinctual/repressed represented in Cronenberg's early films, and examines how Canada's national identity has affected his imagery, status and career.

Doom Patrols: David Cronenberg
Steven Shaviro offers a postmodern reading of David Cronenberg's films in the light of the Human Genome Project and similar advances in biology: "Entomology is far less essentialistic, far more open to difference and change, far more attentive to the body, than is, say, cultural critique grounded in Frankfurt School post-Marxism or in Lacanian psychoanalysis. It's still common in well-meaning academic humanist circles to loathe and despise sociobiology. But this isn't just a matter of disputing some rather dubious claims about particular aspects of human behavior. What these critics really can't forgive is sociobiology's insistence upon biological embodiment itself."

Machine Dreams: A Review of Crash (1996)
Harvey Roy Greenberg MD., offers an incredibly insightful psychiatric reading of David Cronenberg's film Crash (1996) and its character's motivations. After reading this clinical assessment, you will truly appreciate what Cronenberg and Ballard have created: "Vaughn leads his post-traumatic collective in an odyssey to heal catastrophic injury by actively seeking to harness the machine's dark creative potential, rather than enduring its assaults as a passive victim. Accident is transmuted into eroticized performance art; the wounding of celebrities restaged in aid of mastery, thereby also endowing one's own wounds with a narcissistic shimmer. In an ultimate identification with the aggressor, Vaughn, then James go forth as automotive marauders, steering wheels tatooed into their bodies, harbingers of the death both have narrowly escaped. Inevitably they are drawn back into its embrace."

Trash City: David Cronenberg
Excellent essay exploring the nature of Bodily-Kinesthetic mutation in David Cronenberg's films, which the author divides into 'self-induced psychological' and 'artificially-induced physical' schemas. The analyses of The Dead Zone (1983) and Videodrome (1982) explore the mutant-as-hero meme.

Judy Davis Interview on Naked Lunch (1991)
Australian actress Judy Davis shares her thoughts via Quicktime video interviews on filming Naked Lunch (1991). Originally filmed for the BBC's South Bank Show.

eXistenZ: Play Or Be Played
Collection of links to Canadian based reviews, profiles and articles regarding eXistenZ (1999). Interesting insights not found elsewhere.

Spliced Online: David Cronenberg Interview (1999)
In this interview with Rob Blackwelder, David Cronenberg explodes some myths about eXistenZ (1999), his creative process, and his career. Blackwelder describes Cronenberg as: "a cheerful, deep-thinking, mild-mannered college professor type. Go figure that."

David Cronenberg: The Director
A David Cronenberg filmography more in-depth than most: it contains not just theatrical film information, but also television commercials, film roles, Canadian television programs, short films, documentary appearances and more!

The Hot Spot Q&A: David Cronenberg
Michael Kurcfeld gets David Cronenberg's thoughts on Crash (1996), his passion for car-racing, how he works with actors, recurring suicide motifs, 1950s sexual politics and how Cronenberg's personal unconscious is refracted through his films.

Butterfly Trouble
An in-depth essay charting the geneology of sex/gender politics and obsession from John Luther Long's novella to David Cronenberg's film M. Butterfly (1993). Includes background on Japanese society and postmodern/feminist readings.

Ecran Noir: Interview with David Cronenberg
Interview in French with David Cronenberg regarding the film Crash (1996).

Play Or Be Played
Says 13 year-old reviewer John Sylva of eXistenZ (1999): "The film overall is just a whole lot of fun, doing everything that was necessary to get you caught up in it in just a ninety seven minute running time. David Cronenberg certainly made the best possible use of this time as he could."

David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg resources in Italian, including incredibly extensive filmography, interviews and essays.

David Cronenberg's Sequel to JFK
This GettingIt article (September 10, 1999), by M.I. Blue, is a very amusing satire about what a David Cronenberg-penned sequel to Oliver Stone's conspiratology classic film JFK (1991) would resemble.

Film Scouts Interview: David Cronenberg
Brief interview conducted by Harlan Jacobson captures early critical responses at the Cannes film festival to David Cronenberg's film Crash (1996).

Format: Videodrome
Strange synch experiments merging David Cronenberg's classic Videodrome (1980) with Pink Floyd music. Part of the mindblowing Kubrick/Pink Floyd synchronicity tracking site.

TNT's Rough Cut: David Cronenberg Talks Transcript
David Cronenberg offers his thoughts on eXistenZ (1999), directing James Woods, the resurgance of stalk and slasher films, his use of the Internet, sports and more.

CBC Infoculture: David Cronenberg at Cannes
Interviews and film-clips of David Cronenberg discussing his role as president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival (1999). This time, Cronenberg created controversy by awarding prizes to non-actors and obscure films: a triumph of independent film-makers over the usual Hollywood-style glitz.

Box Office Magazine: A Fine Feeling for Film
An industry profile of Fine Line Features executive Ruth Vitale, who secured Crash (1996) an NC-17 rating. Gives a glimpse of the film industry politics surrounding typical Cronenberg projects.

On Screen Crash
Ines Watson on the M-Net screening of David Cronenberg's Crash (1996): "It's one of South Africa's stranger phenomenons that we have gone from being one of the most censored societies in the world to an almost free for all. "

The Films of David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg enters the DVD era with stunning results: three DVDs, three reviews. Check them out!

News Times Review: Crash (1996)
David Cronenberg: "It seems all you can say about a movie these days is I liked it or didn't like it, she was good, she wasn't good, she wasn't as good as the last time. My God, is that what it is? That's consumerism. So if here I'm making a movie that maybe I don't care if people like, from a book that maybe I don't like, that's an exciting project. It's so un-Hollywood, it's so un-mainstream, that even on its own that has some validity. Most movies today are like desperate puppies, they're desperate to be loved. Of course, if you're making a movie for $120 million, yeah, I guess you can't afford to offend anybody, and yeah, I guess you want to be loved, because if you're not loved you're in big trouble."

Identity Crisis
Discusses the problems of defining Canadian cultural identity and the effects on film funding. Reference to David Cronenberg: a useful article to understand the politics behind his films and common Toronto locations.

Toronto International Film Festival: Last Night (1998)
David Cronenberg on the state of Canadian cinema, and the anti-Hollywood end-of-the-world film Last Night (1998).

E! Online Fact-sheet: David Cronenberg
Filmography and brief reviews of David Cronenberg's theatrical film output.

Film Freak Central: Dead Ringers (1988)
Bill Chambers saw Dead Ringers (1988) in his youth after the Tom Hanks comedy Big (1988). A decade later he re-asseses an indelible childhood imprint.

Cronenberg Pleased with Cannes Jury Duty
Andrew Flynn gets David Cronenberg's thoughts on the politics of judging international film festivals.

Film Review: Night Breed (1990)
A brief film review of Night Breed (1990), featuring images and production information.

Cahiers du Cinema: Top Ten Lists 1957-1997
Whilst David Cronenberg films generally receive confused reviews from mainstream critics, this listing from the prestigious Cahiers du Cinema journal will set the historical record straight.

Film Review: Scanners (1980)
Says Jason of this David Cronenberg masterpiece: "Scanners pay a heavy price for this gift, as they are plagued by headaches constantly."

Film Review: The Fly (1986)
Kathy Amens shares her thoughts on The Fly (1986): "This movie is so repugnant visually that I can't flat-out recommend it, even though it is also very good. The characters are full-dimensional and sympathetic. The story is exciting, well written, provocative and even occasionally humorous. And the actors are superb, as is the technical end of the production." Few reviewers see through the gore-fest, but Amens is exacting with her assessment.

Combustible Celluloid
An anti-AFI 100 Film list: "I hope people will consider Edgar G. Ulmer and David Cronenberg as important--if not more so--than George Lucas and Milos Forman."

David Cronenberg: S-X 70 Polaroid Caricature by Michael Dare
Michael Dare is a photographer with emulsional problems who has created a gallery of Hollywood stars with his SX-70 camera. Make sure you check out his entire gallery at this site.

Film Review: 'M. Butterfly' (1993)
David Cronenberg's M. Butterfly (1993) met with confused and sometimes scathing reviews. This piece dissects the controversy and suggests where Cronenberg went wrong in making a good film that could have been a great one.

Movie Poster: Crash (1996)
"A car crash is a fertilizing rather than a destructive event."

Film Posters: Crash (1996)
Stunning S&M-style Japanese film promo posters for David Cronenberg's Crash (1996).

Great Quotes by David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg offers his thoughts on Knowledge and the Body.

 
 


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