The Cronenberg Thread

Halfway through Cronenberg's screenplay Elias Koteas crashes into Packer's limousine and starts furiously humping the armrests.

Yeah, no doubt whatever that turns out to be, it won't be Delillo. Maybe he liked the idea of it because it's one of those "plots" that you can hang anything off of, and of course Cronenberg shows up at every party with a big aged oak cask of his own neuroses.

so are you saying it's gonna be a kegger?

You know it.

He has mellowed out in his middle years, to be fair. He no longer holds your feet up and screams at you to chug.

Am I forgetting something, or was Rabid the only film he made with a female lead?

eXistenZ, kind of?

I FINALLY watched A History of Violence. I've seen Eastern Promises three times but I have no excuse for not watching this like four years ago.

I also finally watched A History of Violence last night! And then read through most of the comments about it that were posted or linked upthread, many of which are frustratingly wrong-headed -- "well jeeze david, of course violence is terrible and icky and doesn't solve anything, we all know that already! also just FYI you sort of accidentally showed violence solving some things in your movie, you might want to fix that before the DVD comes out."

also, I didn't see anyone comment on one of the elements I found most interesting: the fact that Tom/Joey almost never intimidates people. he doesn't use violence as a threat, he just remains calm as long as possible, then flips the switch and kills everyone as quickly and efficiently as possible (highly significant exception: when he slaps his son for talking back). this isn't necessarily a good thing, though, and it's not portrayed as one; there are good and bad people on both sides of the intimidation/violence divide (Tom/Joey, his son, and the serial killers vs. the mafia, the police, and the bullies). in some cases, the movie seems to suggest, a telegraphed show or threat of violence, unpleasant though it may be, can defuse a situation before it goes too far. the whole bullying subplot illustrates this pretty well -- the bully isn't really a violent guy, he's just a prick who gets a kick out of going through this bullshit macho posturing ritual with kids who are lower on the totem pole. the son's response is 'violent' in the sense that it breaks the rules of this game -- in fact, this is kinda the film's thesis: violence is something that always appears excessive and uncalled-for. even if it's not explicitly pro-intimidation, it certainly calls into question the morality of the archetypal "good man who's been pushed to the breaking point".

basically I think this film is operating beyond the simplistic "hey guess what, there is VIOLENCE in the heart of EVERY MAN!!!" analysis that people are accusing it of; it takes that as a starting premise and asks, okay, now that we all agree on this, does that knowledge entail any moral obligations for us, either as individuals or as a society?

Just saw Naked Lunch again. Has he ever used a supporting cast this well (Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands, etc).

dont think i posted abt it, but 'shivers' is pretty great

xp - I think the supporting cast in Naked Lunch was probably the best of all of his, usually there are only one or two standouts.

Eastern Promises is the first Cronenberg in a while that I've really loved. I think Viggo Mortensen gave one of the best performences I've ever seen.

So funny this got revived. We just finished watching Videodrome 10 minutes ago.

He is apparently re-remaking the Fly. After already adapting it into an Opera.

This is either depressing or Next Level Shit on the order of Herzog doing a Bad Lietennant movie with Nic Cage.

the fly is def one of those movies where there's no way the CGI fx are gonna be nearly as gruesome and effective as the old-school latex and karo syrup gore was.

for sure. though i doubt senor c-bergo would over-rely on cgi.

i don't know if it's gonna be a straight-up remake or some other new thing. a cinematic adaptation of the opera would be kind of hilarious.

Just like Michael Mann and Miami Vice, I guess.

flyami vice

Where's that JBR names thread.

Watching 'The Brood' now. Saw 'The Dead Zone' and 'eXistenZ' two days ago.

Thoughts?

Also, I didn't know Oliver Reed was in this.

Long long time but I used to love The Brood. It feels like a big step towards his Dead Ringers mature ease-up-on-the-splatter phase. Which is not a wholly good thing but in the case of this movie it works big time. Thinking back on it now it occurs to me that he's quoting The Birds during that whole big lab full of babies bit?

Had you seen The Dead Zone before? That is a great film, easily one of C'berg's best I reckon.

I'd never actually seen it, except for the later SNL parody of it, and that I always remember early-80s Walken from seeing 'Brainstorm' too many times on HBO growing up.

It's been part of my recent effort to view every single Stephen King adaption I can find for my 'Stephen King's Cavalcade of Terribleness' movie night that I'm planning. So far, I only have Sleepwalkers & Pet Sematary, and I need one more...

tommyknockers

Dead Zone is the second best King adaptation by a country mile, probly the best straight King adaptation.

kingfish what did you think of existenz?

I liked it. I remember when it was playing on campus the same summer that the Matrix came out and plenty of reviewers drew explicit comparisons between the two.

It reminded me of Cronenberg's standard weird-shaped-flesh-fetish from the bits of Naked Lunch I'd seen, along with the Fly and Dead Ringers.

xpost - Not Cronenberg but The Mist is the most surprisingly good King adaptation in a long long time. Maximum Overdrive and Creepshow are great too.

Tommyknockers is way too long to watch with two other movies, and it's only kinda enh rather than outright hilariously horrid.

Also, the melodramatic strings soundtrack to The Brood really does remind me of peak-era Hitchcock

Hey, I didn't know this, from his wiki:

Since 1988's Dead Ringers, Cronenberg has worked with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky on each of his films (see List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations). Suschitzky was the director of photography for The Empire Strikes Back, and Cronenberg has repeatedly said that Suschitzky's work in that film made it the most beautiful sci-fi film he had ever seen, which was a motivating factor to work with him on Dead Ringers.

wow david crononberg don't watch much sci fi huh

Well, I'm trying to think of other 1980-or-before sci-fi flicks that the dude would find that striking. Kubrick's stuff? Solaris? Alien? Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind?

Blade Runner

not pre-80 but certainly pre 88

Star Wars duh

i seem to make some connection btwn star wars and empire strikes back but i may be rong

Yeah but SW isn't as visually striking as Empire can be.

And Blade Runner was the first thing I'd thought of, except the year's wrong

SW can be pretty striking - the opening scene for one but imo every shot is a work of art. Does have more limited environments though, just desert or spaceships.

Also

shivers is great, like if romero directed an orgy flick

haaaaa I wish Blount was still around.

I watched Empire again quite recently and was surprised by how well shot it is. Thinking especially of the stuff on Dagobah and almost everything on Bespin - the final battle between Luke and Vader is so atmospheric and powerful, esp the shadows, smoke and neon opening in the carbonite chamber.

Apropos of nothing, the 1980 Oscar nominees for cinematography:

The Blue Lagoon (1980) - Néstor Almendros
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) - Ralf D. Bode
The Formula (1980) - James Crabe
Raging Bull (1980) - Michael Chapman (I)
Tess (1979) - Geoffrey Unsworth; Ghislain Cloquet

(Sort of retrospectively shocking that The Shining was snubbed in favor of those first three nods, but I guess the movie's stature wasn't particularly high back in 1980.)

yeah, seems amazing that it would miss out, especially to tat like The Blue Lagoon.

Apparently, the cinematography branch in the '70s was possibly the most insular of all academy branches, hence repeated nominations for, say, Owen Roizman for generally ruddy-looking movies.

Ghislain Cloquet, btw, lensed Bresson films AND Woody Allen's Love and Death.

The Shining just utilized late Kubrick's usual, what is the word? Glare.

that's a challop for the ages...

In fact, I think it was his first (and least) glare movie.
The challops in 1980 was that The Shining didn't fucking suck.

so Croney doesn't have a new project ready to go?