The Cronenberg Thread

yeah Calendar just kills me.

hardly
-- kyle (akmonda...), October 4th, 2005."

Kyle, name another mainstream film that has such unrepentantly gory, generally unstylized (a'la not "Sin City") violence. I'm genuinely curious - "Irreversible" had that vicious fire-extinguisher-to-the-face scene, but I can't think of anything else that had me that truly shocked.

Also, why was Viggo's ass so shiny in the stairs scene? It seemed almost buffed and waxed. I was prepared to notify the Gaffe Squad if I caught a glimpse of Cronenberg in the reflection somewhere.

yeah the rest of the film was just a daisy-strewn waltz through the fucking park

I thought of one - the "American History X" curbing scene... that was tough to watch.

(x-post: Of course "Irreversible" is brutal non-stop - and it fits the criteria being discussed, in that it is definitely about brutal violence with real consequences - but it's definitely arthouse fare. "A History of Violence" is out in wide-release.)

Something.. the construct was intensely weird, and I can't put my finger on exactly what was off about it. Right away it was this feeling about that family, "you're not from around here, are you.." I don't know, the pulp genre elements and sort of uncomfortable interaction were obvious but in a way, it make sense because.. if there's this underlying tension or unresolved problem, people still tend to act as if everything is A-OK. Especially in small town America.

Funny about Egoyan, I was fascinated by his early stuff esp. Speaking Parts (Family Viewing is good too) but thought Sweet Hereafter and Exotica were unfortunately v obvious and not as good!

eXistenZ is a treat. It's kind of about Jude Law being a bad actor.. And there is nothing cyberpunk about it at all, which adds some extra comedy - the video game world is just gritty and run down, and all the weird gadgets and things are organic, and they end up going where in this crazy futuristic video game world? A Chinese restaurant and a trout farm. Willem Dafoe as Gas = totally classic. I don't know, maybe there's this issue one could have with the film pointing at Big Philosophical Problems and taking those problems quite seriously, but doing so in a way that's very funny and requires extra splattery props and effects. I don't mind this at all.

otm!

These are the only two I've seen except for maybe some early short thing with some sort of video gimmick that I saw in school. So if I'm missing out on Egoyan's brilliance, so be it. I still say he can't touch Cronenberg.

Egoyan eats dinner with my friend sometimes because they are relatives. He got my friend to do a little graphic of some traditional armenian design thingy that was on a wall in the background of ararat somewhere.

Alex, READ MY POSTS! I never said anything about Cronenberg not being diverse.

Anyway, I think Cronenberg and Egoyan and Lodge Kerrigan are all great. It's CANADA that's the problem!

I read your post! I was just responding to a question which wasn't asked! The same way you did! ;)

i think what cronenberg always tries to acheieve is an unsettled mood. he's not aiming to be naturalistic and criticising scenes for being cliched (esp the cheerleader scene) implies that they were played straight when they were riddled with discomfort.

the sex and violence shots linger too long on purpose - very self-referentially saying 'here's something you don't normally see which i'm going to show you'.

rambling, but i just think cronenbeg's expert at unsettling an audience in a way few other directors can. return to the form of dead ringers, for me.

DING DING!!

Really though it's not as if anything in this film is even vaguely controversial. I mean every single man on the planet WISHES his secret, hidden problem that he tries to keep secret from his family was that he has an incredible knack for brutally sending evil gangsters to oblivion. "Baby, I have to tell you something about myself. It might be hard to understand and if you want to leave me after I tell you this I can't blame you. I spent my formative years as The Punisher." Oh yeah FACE THE MUSIC MOTHERFUCKER. YOU GANGSTER-MURDERING... JERKFACE, I can't BELIEVE you would just have this QUASI-SUPERNATURAL ABILITY to just y'know KILL BADGUYS with near impunity and not TELL YOUR FAMILY?!?!?

During the vaguely unnecessary staircase fuck, I actually thought for a minute "She smells the killer gene!" etc. etc. obv badguy slayers give off a pheromone which is irresistable to ladies who never wash their hair.

Actually I think a lot of things in this movie could be described as "vaguely unnecessary" but you could say that about Kung-Fu Hustle, too, and that's the best film I've seen this year.

Haha, it's strange, everyone in Canada I've spoken to loves Cronenberg, but tend to think Egoyan's movies are overrated and sucky.

But History of Violence: it's not very good, is it? If it's a Dahl-type genre thriller, it's not really exciting enough; if it's a Hitchcockian identity movie, there's no real mystery; and if it's an examination of suburban mores (yawn), it has absolutely nothing to say that wasn't said (better) in the first series if Six Feet Under (and a MILLION other movies.)

As it is, it's this weird kind of halfway house, with a silly-as-hell noir copout ending. Hurt's performance is terrific, but it's wrong for the movie.

That said, "(adopts wiseguy voice)I shoulda killed yew in Philly" is my new catchphrase.

"Unbreakable" was honestly more interesting by a long shot, too. Except I much prefer the son shooting Ed Harris in the back with a double-barrelled shotgun than I do the son pointing a revolver at his own pops followed by painfully awful dialogue for five neverending minutes.

I'm glad I saw this movie and I thought it was entertaining, but not entertaining enough to excuse the lack of anything really gripping on offer. I will be purchasing "I, Robot" and "The Island" on DVD long before I ever think of purchasing this. But you all already knew that.

(I think Kung Fu Hustle was my favorite movie this year too!)

(Should I join the military and marry Ally?)

Apparently the new Egoyan movie is TERRIBLE.

There's still time to delete this whole thread.

I found AHOV kind of...ok. That's about it. It was kind of OK. I don't even remember it being gory or shockingly violent at all!! I mean I had to think pretty hard, when Tom said "destroyed faces," to remember that there was those scenes were people got punched and their noses disappeared. I don't really remember much of this movie.

my film geek red telephone ran in the middle of night.

when william hurt's standing there in the door frame, a woman sitting up behind me starts going "kill him! KILL HIM!" -- and every time we wanted that, we got it .. with the kid in the high school .. with everyone who crosses viggo.. and every time, it's like YEAH!!! URK!!!!!!

i really like the things madchen noticed. they're things that i either didn't notice, or didn't noticed that i noticed.

All references to Joey mention how he was crazy or angry. Tom's unsettlingly sane and calm! Even in sex, he shows some motivation but never agression. There are as many people like this as there are superhuman hyper-violent people like Joey. You've got this unbelievable character, with the approximation of a real person stuck somewhere in-between. There's this visual tic that showed up on Mortensen's face in the transitions. There's an outright denial that there's a multiple personality situation in play, which is kind of true: everything that constituted Joey dropped off the face of the planet when Tom came into being, and it's a conscious effort to bring Joey back. It's Joey that slaps her on the staircase, etc.

Videodrome/eXistenZ are about people who are "normal" but are pursuing something they think is deviant or subversive for sexual pleasure. Lately, Cronenberg is kind of on a roll lately with characters that deny part of their pasts. With Spider you ended up with a man who was insane, but with AHOV you end up with a walking caricature of all that's good and right that contrasts with the "evil" past...

Weird audience reaction when I saw it as well. Some people walking out trying to puzzle out something about the plot, others going "OMG that was awful," others kind of stunned. Nervous laughter as well as laughter with the movie (more of that toward the end).