The Cronenberg Thread

i think it is the best film formally he has made

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

POV:
Dead Ringers
Dead Zone
Scanners
Videodrome
The Fly

I really want to see Shivers.

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.

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.

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.

Really? Unintentionally?

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).

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.

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.

* 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.

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.

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

I'll get right on that.

I also thought it was funny on purpose at several moments.

The scene with Kristen Stewart chasing Viggo around the office was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time.

yes

The scene with Kristen Stewart chasing Viggo around the office was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time.

Yes, that was really good, and Viggo's "Sorry; I'm not very good at the old sex" after the world's most off-putting kiss was a great punch line.

I think Cosmopolis has become my favorite of his movies

Or Crash ... one of those two, for sure

don't think I'm alone in missing films because I don't know if or when it's coming around here. There's never enough films I want to see to keep up with the weekly local cinema listings.

🤔

huh, Crimes is on hulu now. hope that there are some fun online “what the hell was that?” responses

I still convulse & uncontrollably shudder to myself when remembering Keira Knightley's performance in A Dangerous Method

just feel lucky it was her and not ornaldo bloomps

I really like the dialogue in Crimes, I wish more taken this approach

Just saw that Caitlin (daughter of David) Cronenberg has her debut on its way.

“'Humane' takes place over a single day months after a global environmental collapse has forced world leaders to take extreme measures to reduce the earth’s population. In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman invites his four grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”

I liked his son Brandon's recent one. Sure, give me more Cronenbergs!

long live the new flesh indeed

Crimes was good and I enjoyed it well enough, but the final shot is what stuck with me. I love a movie that ends at the climax.

I finished processing the plot about five minutes after the end of Crimes

at which point I was thinking "ooh, that was good"

I missed the news that Amazon is making a tv series of Dead Ringers starring Rachel Weisz as Beverly and Elliot:

https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/14130930/DDRG_S1_FG_106_00505514_Still001.jpg

More pictures here

Every David Cronenberg film summarised by dril

— ☭ Daydream of Hell 🏳️‍⚧️ (@hellsdaydream) May 21, 2023

they're on private, looks like :(

Saw a preview announcement last night for Humane: "From the mind of Caitlin Cronenberg." That seems very premature for her first feature film--you have to make at least three or four ponderous vanity films before you've earned a "from the mind of." Must be genetic.

I think that's too judgy, and that the last name is enough of a CV.

Shows sufficient humility by not characterising said mind as twisted imo.

going to provisionally allow it based on her family's name

Brandon's gotten pretty good at this movie thing. I'm willing to check it out

I think that's too judgy, and that the last name is enough of a CV.

"From the nepo baby of David Cronenberg"

nepo brood

From the bowels of

"From the nepo baby of David Cronenberg"

absolutely, I'll see that movie (when it hits streaming)

Looking forward to the new Cronenberg…mind you really looked forward to his last one and that was a major disappointment