The Cronenberg Thread

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Definitely.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

A lot of his short stories would translate well into films. As would probably his last three novels. Cocaine Nights and Super Cannes expecially, seeing as they paint such a good visual image throughout.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

And I reckon Cronenberg would be the best director for his stuff.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

i like him so much i will be a bit upset if someone says he sucks. 'rabid' was kind of shit tho

― franken-vader, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

i think that crash is brilliant--a conflation of machine and flesh that continues and expands his themes (which are the themes of all of us--it takes the la of five ecologies and turns it on), that is isolating, slick, beautiful, erotic, well versed and morally complicated.

i think it is the best film formally he has made

― anthony, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ugh Cocaine Nights is terrible. No one should direct that.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

xpost
Did you really find it erotic, though?

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

Formally, yes. Sexually, no.

― Just Kidding (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

actually thats a perfect answer

― anthony, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

I don't know what "formally erotic" means, but I do understand why it's the perfect answer. May also explain my disconnect from the movie.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ebart: "Cronenberg has made a movie that is pornographic in form, but not in result. Take out the cars, the scars, the crutches and scabs and wounds, and substitute the usual props of sex films, and you'd have a porno movie."

So, yes. Ebert liked it way more than I did, though.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

I thought Spider was a total z. At least Crash was unintentionally funny. I find the stuff really entertaining but I think the 80s were his peak - charismatic leads help make his style a little less starchy.

POV:
Dead Ringers
Dead Zone
Scanners
Videodrome
The Fly

I really want to see Shivers.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:54 (7 years ago) Permalink

That should be I find the early stuff

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:54 (7 years ago) Permalink

shivers is great, like if romero directed an orgy flick

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:58 (7 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and Howard Shore music scores for Videodrome, Crash & Scanners... FUCKING CLASSIC.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

yeah I saw a lot of clips of Shivers on an IFC documentary about horror films back in 2000 (I turned 21 that October, freaked out and spent every weekend eating pizza and watching tons of Craven, Romero and Cronenberg films on the station - all hosted by Tom Savini!) and it looked terrific.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

charismatic leads help make his style a little less starchy

Not that I find his style starchy -- more like gooey (ha) -- but as the Star Wars threads (and esp. movies) have reminded me, it doesn't just take a good actor to be a good actor. It takes a relatively decent filmmaker as well. Th fact that Cronenberg consistently gets such good actors and such good stuff out of them is a testament to his ability to work with actors, and that's a laudable talent. Makes the movies better for all of us. A round of applause, please, for Goldblum in The Fly and Irons in Dead Ringers and even Jude Law in eXistenZ. Cronenberg doesn't always give these guys top-shelf material to work with, I won't argue that, but he apparently gives them the room to actually *act* in movies that are not perfect, and that's good direction.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

apparently cronenberg's gonna make a movie out of london fields - i'm quite curious about this!

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

You're kidding. I need a link.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404207/ - admittedly just 'announced', with no status update for over a year so, hmmm, maybe not so likely to happen. i'd see that movie for sure though.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

Oh, I could have looked that up myself. I was hoping for an article.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:31 (7 years ago) Permalink

Holy shit a DC London Fields would be NICE.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

Yes. Yes it would.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

I can't tell if its a shame or not that he never got to do Basic Instinct 2. It almost happened!

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

If he'd done the first one, it would have been a great movie. It almost was anyway, but it lacked any subtext whatsoever.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

TS: verhoeven vs. cronenberg

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:47 (7 years ago) Permalink

Holy shit a DC London Fields would be NICE.

It COULD be, depending on many, many things. At least the very thought doesn't make me want to die like pretty much any other director on this shit would.

― box of socks, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

I love every Cronenberg movie I've seen but The Brood is my favorite. I made my girlfriend watch it and not only was she totally creeped out and disturbed but shortly after that she became pregnant. We have a good laugh about that now and then.

I always feel compelled to compare Cronenberg to David Lynch and as much as I admire Lynch, I think Cronenberg is much more successful at doing the same types of things Lynch attempts. For example while Lynch flirts with bad acting, camp, b-movie conventions, and general awkwardness, Cronenberg seems to operate in that territory quite naturally. He kind of skirts a thin line between the arthouse and schlocky failure that I find very exciting. Where other directors working in a similar vein might come across as too clever and knowing, Cronenberg manages to make movies that can be truly confounding and get the most intense reactions out of people.

So anyway, I think he's very underrated. Crash and Naked Lunch in particular are quite underrated. Total classic.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

I forgot to mention: search his appearance in the film Last Night.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

At least Crash was unintentionally funny.

Really? Unintentionally?

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

Doesn't matter if you're describing Crash as "funny" or "unintentionally funny," you're still missing the point.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 06:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

Here I am again, defending a movie I don't even like.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 06:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

I've never read the book so I'll admit I'm probably missing the point. Still, it's a great film on its own merits.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 06:17 (7 years ago) Permalink

Don't taunt me like that. It's own merits are not great, so... you can grok the rest of my arguments from there.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 06:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

What is your argument exactly? Crash is not great because you didn't like it and people who enjoyed it are missing the point? Finding humor in the movie is wrong because... why exactly? If the humor was intentional it betrayed the source material? Or if was unintentional then it's not worth enjoying? I'm not trying to taunt you but I'm curious what someone who otherwise likes Cronenberg would have against Crash (other than deviation from the source).

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 06:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

Now you've really lost me. You though it was supposed to be funny?

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 07:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

I mean, if you thought it was intentionally funny you did not see hte same movie as I did. If you though it was unintentionally funny ... well, I don't quite know what to think about that.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 07:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

POV Cronenberg:

Shivers
Naked Lunch
Videodrome
ExistenZ
Dead Ringers

I like Crash and The Fly, too, and Scanners (although I was anticipating the head-blowing-up scene too much to really appreciate much else of the film).

― emil.y (emil.y), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 10:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Best Cronenberg moment ever might be in Scanners when the main character is ambushed in the artist's barn-studio and his psychic counter-attack is portrayed as the most ridiculously hammy head swing and grimace into the camera. It looks like a castmember of Fame playing "tough".

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 10:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

Crash and Fight Club are amazing fetish movies.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 14:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

What, no mention of DC's star turn in Friday The 13th: Space Travel Sucks? FOR SHAME!

I'm not the biggest fan of Crash, but I think a lot of that has to do w/ the subject matter (and the portrayal of it) (the fierce unyielding atavistic obsession the characters have re: the fetish), so I'm thinking the movie worked really well. I'm thinking "atavistic obsession" could summarize DC's career succinctly.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 14:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

"last night"!

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:04 (7 years ago) Permalink

New DVD of Dead Ringers June 7.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

scanners
dead ringers
videodrome
dead zone
crash

the only other director who can finesse some of the same essence out of a scenario the way that he can is nicolas roeg. they're working in two different arenas, in general, but both are adept at channeling the anxiety of being an awkward fleshy thing with a brittle skeleton beneath, and i very much like the endings in their films. and the beginnings middles and rests too.

ok, strike the only out of that sentence. i hate that kinda talk.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

i already have the previous criterion edition of dead ringers, is this the same thing just reissued or a whole new DVD with new features?

― latebloomer: B Minus Time Traveler (latebloomer), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

anyway firstworlddude otm

― latebloomer: B Minus Time Traveler (latebloomer), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

DVD Features:

* Commentary by Jeremy Irons
* Behind-the-scenes featurette
* Cast/filmmaker interviews and filmographies
* Dead Ringers Psychological Profiler (menu-based quiz)
* Theatrical trailer

ok, i see. still im not gonna need to buy this. the criterion edition from a few years back has much better features.

― latebloomer: B Minus Time Traveler (latebloomer), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 17:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

Dead Ringers
eXistenZ
Videodrome
Crash
Scanners

I'm going to shock everyone by saying that Existenz is probably the one I enjoy the most.

I adore eXistenZ, it's incredibly funny! Poor Jude Law's excessive uptightness really makes it.

I like just about everything Cronenberg's ever done, including Crash. When I lived in Paris the Cahiers du Cinema people did a big retrospective, they screened all his films and brought Cronenberg there to give a few talks & such. He is super nice and seemed rather surprised by all the attention from that realm, i.e. the film scholar/auteur worshipping contingent instead of, you know, Fangoria. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

As part of the retrospective they had an exhibition of various props and plans and things from his films.. This turned out to be extremely hilarious, because on the ground floor of the same building there happened to be an exhibition of a century's worth of advertising art for Lu, the dessert company. So you'd walk in and it was all bright sunlight and cheery vintage Art Nouveau posters and candy and cookies, and then you got to go downstairs to this gloomy, dark basement (really!) and look at tools for operating on mutant women. I wonder if Cronenberg ever made it over there to see what they'd done, I think he would have been amused.

xpost
Holy shit, "psychological profiler"? That's messed up. Awesome.

― daria g (daria g), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 17:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

'Shivers' is great. Remove the parasites and you have almost an adaptation of Ballard's 'High Rise.'

― robertw, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

There might not be a contemporary director whose fans vary so widely on what his best and worst work is. I even know some people who would call Dead Ringers his great sellout.

Personally, I think I like Crash and The Dead Zone the best.

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 824 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Dead Zone, the one time I saw it, was super.

A superhero movie, by definition, you know, it's comic book. It's for kids. It's adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying Dark Knight Rises is 'supreme cinema art,' I don't think they know what the fuck they're talking about.

http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/robert-pattinson-david-cronenberg-cosmopolis-interview/

― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 August 2012 00:22 (9 months ago) Permalink

As an actor, I would play Batman.

― Number None, Thursday, 16 August 2012 00:41 (9 months ago) Permalink

hell, who wouldn't? but with Adam West's rhythms.

― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 August 2012 00:47 (9 months ago) Permalink

with Heath Ledger's rhythms

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 August 2012 00:49 (9 months ago) Permalink

^also adolescent in its core

― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 August 2012 01:01 (9 months ago) Permalink

checked Cosmopolis out of the library; it reads like a script.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 August 2012 01:13 (9 months ago) Permalink

Some dick is remaking Videodrome.

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/08/videodrome-remake-cronenberg-berg.php

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 20:35 (8 months ago) Permalink

script by the guy who wrote the Transformers movies.

― dan selzer, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 20:54 (8 months ago) Permalink

They are the new flesh.

― Eric H., Wednesday, 22 August 2012 20:55 (8 months ago) Permalink

it's not even just that semi-talented people are remaking once-untouchable movies now, it's also that they're remaking movies to look more like video games, yet we can't even play our way through the emotionally bereft slickness, so, seriously, they should just fuck off with this

― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:09 (8 months ago) Permalink

if there's no market for a Total Recall remake and I don't see why anyone would think there would be one for Videodrome.

Still: Who is today's Debbie Harry equivalent that they should cast for the role?

― Legendary General Cypher Raige (Gukbe), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:12 (8 months ago) Permalink

I would play a Videodrome point and click adventure

― Number None, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:12 (8 months ago) Permalink

point and squick

― contenderizer, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

if there's no market for a Total Recall remake and I don't see why anyone would think there would be one for Videodrome.

― Legendary General Cypher Raige (Gukbe), Wednesday, August 22, 2012 5:12 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark

there sort of is a market for a total recall remake... just not a $200 million one.

― WheatusVEVO (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:48 (8 months ago) Permalink

They'd probably swap Debbie Harry for Lady Gaga or Nicki Minaj or other misc pop singer that likes to give crazy wide eyes in front of fish eye lenses.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 24 August 2012 21:35 (8 months ago) Permalink

saw Cosmopolis today, and may have been too tired and distracted to really get into it, but it was certainly compelling at points. I felt like the claustrophobic style was obviously motivated but it sure was exhausting and even a little boring. I was even spacing off during the final bit before the credits! (again that's probably my fault)

I did like the sense that it was about a guy having a total mental/life breakdown and keeping this odd composure through it all. I liked the dialogues...i liked how they portrayed how people talk when they are over-consuming information. they sorta talk AT each other.

― ryan, Friday, 24 August 2012 23:25 (8 months ago) Permalink

i was sorta hoping for a movie of impending doom and dread and pessimism, but for all that certainly being there i didn't feel it much. maybe that makes it that much more despairing?

― ryan, Friday, 24 August 2012 23:27 (8 months ago) Permalink

Crash is his last great movie, among the ones I've seen.

― Eric H., Tuesday, August 14, 2012 10:31 PM (1 week ago)

yah, up until crash I had seen all his films save m butterfly, and crash felt like the logical end to what he was doing - science fiction made not with technology but with actual human behavior. one of my favorite directors, and I practically ignored him after that, have only seen a history of violence. I'm glad he's been able to build a successful career making movies that would end the careers of others, tho.

― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Monday, 27 August 2012 18:45 (8 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

You're in a good spot, though, now. You're in the Woody Allen zone – you keep your budgets low, you get enough dough back in Europe, the people in the US that dig it dig it and then you make the next one.

That's true, and every time I've tried to play with the studios it's never worked out. I don't blame them or me, it's the mix of sensibilities is not there, we don't fit. Listen, I see some big movies and I think “Oh, it would be fun to make that, challenging.” Then reality sets in and it's not going to happen. Your estimation of where I'm at with filmmaking is pretty accurate....

I'm usually reluctant to include deleted scenes. They're deleted for a reason....

Have you seen the new High Frame Rate that Peter Jackson used for The Hobbit?

No, though you see it on television all the time. Sports shows are 60 frames. Those flawless slo-mo playbacks with no smearing. I haven't seen The Hobbit yet, but I do believe it would be nice to get away from 24 frames per second — even just to 30 frames per second. I don't have a nostalgic longing to stick with the smearing or strobing you get when you pan with a film camera. It's not nice. It comes from ancient technology that we don't need anymore. Even upping to 30 might get rid of that, I don't know why 48 as opposed to 50 or 60, frankly. In a weird way, 48, as double of 24, is still clinging to the old technology.

http://movieline.com/2012/12/31/david-cronenberg-talks-cosmopolis-high-frame-rates-and-bullshit-oscars/

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 16:53 (4 months ago) Permalink

OW! Oh, crap, the cat just jumped on me.

I like cats.

Yeah, he's adorable, but very heavy.

quality journalism here

― If I was a carpenter, and you were a douchebag (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 18:52 (4 months ago) Permalink

I like cats too

― CGI fridays (Edward III), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:15 (4 months ago) Permalink

it's so strange how journalism keeps getting worse as journalists' paychecks and job prospects keep getting smaller

― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:19 (4 months ago) Permalink

oh no... 3 senteneces about cats... journalisms dead... stfu

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:27 (4 months ago) Permalink

no... please DON'T stfu. i'm talkin to you, Poliopolice!

― Tome Cruise (Matt P), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:29 (4 months ago) Permalink

tell me more about the state of journalism in 2013, damn it!

― Tome Cruise (Matt P), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 21:30 (4 months ago) Permalink

so I hafta quit film threads for the year too, huh

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 January 2013 23:00 (4 months ago) Permalink

can't believe you guys hate cats like that

― CGI fridays (Edward III), Thursday, 3 January 2013 01:54 (4 months ago) Permalink

next one w/ Weisz, Viggo, Pattinson

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/rachel-weisz-joins-david-cronenbergs-maps-to-the-stars-with-robert-pattinson-viggo-mortensen-20121107

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 3 January 2013 16:05 (4 months ago) Permalink

so I hafta quit film threads for the year too, huh

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, January 2, 2013 6:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Don't get us excited if you don't mean really it

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Friday, 4 January 2013 04:27 (4 months ago) Permalink

try to get shakey to do it

― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Friday, 4 January 2013 04:28 (4 months ago) Permalink

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