The Cronenberg Thread

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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

I'm not so hot on The Dead Zone as a movie, but there are some scenes (THE OFFICER IN THE BATHROOM WITH THE SCISSORS) that are beyond amazing (in the worst possible way).

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think Guillermo del Toro (on a Bravo special about the 100 scariest movies of all time - co-produced by some Fangoria people, I think) called DC a "poet of disgust" (or something equally pithy), and said, w/ respect and awe, in regards to that scene from The Dead Zone I mention (and I paraphrase) - "well, yeah, of course CRONENBERG'S gonna do that; who else would?"

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 19:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

What is in the Dead Ringers psychological profiler? This is going to be some kind of idée fixe until I find out, dammit.

― daria g (daria g), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

ANSWER: YOU ARE A PERVERT

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:31 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hah! All paths lead to U R FUCKED UP OK THX

― daria g (daria g), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

What do people think of M. Butterfly? I thought it was a terrible film, really disappointing. but I haven't seen it since it came out.

Dead Ringers, the Dead Zone, Scanners, videodrome: all great. I LOVE his Naked Lunch adaptation; again, adapting this was a thankless job and he got a lot of flak for not doing the book (like he could really film the book) and instead focusing on Burroughs biography, but I think he made a real masterpiece here, his best and most emotional film.

I liked the fish gun in Existenz and that was all.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

oh, I this Crash is pretty good. I'm sure it's better than the movie Crash that just came out that everyone hates.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

I thought M Butterfly was interesting and I didn't dislike it at the time, but I saw it about seven years ago. It wasn't supposed to be about what the play was about, but everyone expected that it would be, and that was a problem. I don't think Cronenberg and David Hwang saw eye to eye at all.

― daria g (daria g), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 22:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

is it not about what the play is about? I never read or saw the play.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 22:31 (7 years ago) Permalink

My understanding was that the play was highly interested in, hmm.. Orientalism, to use the theory term, and Cronenberg didn't care about that angle. I am certain I read an interview where Cronenberg says he'd talked to Hwang about how he thought certain stuff in the play was weak and such.. this might be in that Cahiers de Cinema book on Cronenberg, I'll see if I can find it.

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 00:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Cronenberg On Cronenberg is a pretty fun read. It's part of a interview book series and probably my favorite that I've seen of them.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 01:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

so cronenberg's crash was on uk tv last night. anyone watch it? i just did. rather a lot of fucking. and music that sounds suspiciously like the work of thurston moore. not sure i really liked it much, although some of the ideas are...interesting.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

fuck channel 4 they cut out the best scene

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:26 (7 years ago) Permalink

i missed it, no tv guide. i like it, anyway. what scene did they cut?

― N_RQ, Friday, 23 September 2005 08:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

where they have a threesome on the backseat, they cut to ads strangely just as it started but wierdly the channel 4 logo came up with some other logo as if the film had ended (no stella artois link).

i think anyway, i switched over in protest at this botch up.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

the stella artois bit: so apt for 'crash'.

― N_RQ, Friday, 23 September 2005 08:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

1664 bad year for directing

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

why would stella promote cronenberg etc.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

"and music that sounds suspiciously like the work of thurston moore"

what made you say that? it was howard shore, btw.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

vintage stuff ken!

― N_RQ, Friday, 23 September 2005 08:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

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

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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