The Cronenberg Thread

in other news, virus-laden apple does not fall far from tree

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/first-pictures-from-brandon-cronenbergs-cannes-entry-antiviral/

never read the book (which a trusted friend said is one of the author's worst), but this could be great if Cronenberg's feeling up to it (based on trailer I'm hopeful).

I'm reading the book now. It's basically a piss-take on Ulysses, and it doesn't really add up to much, but DeLillo can always put a sentence together. Anyway, I don't think it matters -- remember, Cronenberg made a movie of Naked Lunch, which can only be called a book because it's available in a bound and printed format. I think he could do something brilliant with this material.

can only be called a book because it's available in a bound and printed format

excessively challopsy

Well, it's certainly not filmable as-is, you have to give me that.

I am one of the few people who really liked Cosmopolis and if this lives up to the potential of the book/director pairing I will be thrilled

Few books are filmable as is, and the only one I can think of that works brilliantly as virtual Cliff Notes is The Maltese Falcon.

First Cosmopolis clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbhW4U9dGFA

i feel like cronenberg has this masterpiece theatre/white elephant mode that kind of lurks around some of his films and that intruded a little too uncomfortably on dangerous method. i worry that it'll come to the fore here.

otm. I feel like those moments really only work when they're juxtaposed against scenes that render them somewhat unreal. A Dangerous Method never really had that and it ended up very much masterpiece theatrey

the spanking scene was pure pbs

I didn't feel like it was that edgy, compared to other Cronenberg films! May as well have been PBS

public bondage system

never been crazy about Farbert's taxnomoy tbh

*Farber

^yeah every time i hear "white elephant" used to describe a movie i just kind of tune out

unless the movie is literally about elephants that are white

would watch a movie made by termites, though

not crazy abt Farber's taxidermy on white elephants

u ppl just don't like PERIOD CUSTUMES

i like them!

is this about that photo shoot in vice magazine

I liked the movie's courage in reproducing how two prodigies wrote and spoke to each other; it assumed the audience would Get It.

exactly

oh i liked the movie fine i just feel like there was some airless fussiness hovering around.

for me, dangerous method was cronenberg's least interesting - and entertaining - film to date (not seen m. butterfly, or fast company come to that), and am afraid i'll agree w/ this cosmopolis review, in time:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/may/25/cosmopolis-review?newsfeed=true

Simon Abrams strongly disagrees

Kohn a little more tepid

cronenbergesque typo

trades barbs with his scowling body guard (Kevin Durand), while making vein attempts to ignore the Occupy-like protestors

I find the sum of these reactions encouraging

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-cannes-2012-david-cronenbergs-cosmopolis/

As do I. Aren't we all getting tired of Cronenberg movies that everybody likes by now?

(Not sarcasm, in case that was unclear.)

No. I will never be tired of The Fly. It's sort of got that "gets better with age" thing built in that way.

Ok, ok... I have to give you that one. The more time I see The Fly, the more I'm convinced that it's almost perfect. The first 15 minutes alone, with twitchy Goldblum hitting on silky Gena, are worth the whole movie.

coming in 2013/14, a TIFF-created touring exhibition, plus a "multi-platform augmented reality game."

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/05/david-cronenberg-to-infect-toronto-in-new-travelling-exhibition.php

watched the brood last night. almost barfed at the demon womb sac.

so 1997

xpost

coming in 2013/14, a TIFF-created touring exhibition, plus a "multi-platform augmented reality game."

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/05/david-cronenberg-to-infect-toronto-in-new-travelling-exhibition.php

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, May 29, 2012 10:22 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the conservative gov't here slashed film production massively and put a shit ton of money into this video game

Through the presentation of artifacts, props, documentation and audio-visual interviews, as well as reconstructed set-pieces from Cronenberg's films, the exhibition parallels his growth as a filmmaker with his ongoing examination and interpretation of human evolutionary possibilities, tracing his work from a focus on biological change towards examinations of shifting psychological states. A parallel art project based on the same themes will be announced at a later date.

this all sounds very excessive, self-regarding, and absurd.

tbh i have no problem with them doing a cronie exhibit (makes way more sense than the tim burton one they launched the lightbox with) but this is getting ridic

tracing his work from a focus on biological change towards examinations of shifting psychological states

somehow framing it this systematically/schematic and making it the linchpin of a museum exhibit is just kind of embarrassing.

could just be the way the exhibit was written up, these kinds of things usually sound terrible

Ah, I get it now.

being young = being afraid of your body deteriorating
being old = being afraid of your mind deteriorating

actually both of those are really "being old"

I revise:

being young = loving movies about being afraid of your body deteriorating
being old = loving movies about being afraid of your mind deteriorating

being somewhere in between = writing program notes for museum exhibitions

press releases ain't program notes (we hope).

DC is as much about mutation as deterioration, no?

yeah, long live the new flesh and all that

I do often think of him when a smartphone with a selfish asshole attached is blocking the subway stairs.

iirc 'the smartphone with a selfish asshole' was one of the skits cut from naked lunch

watched cosmopolis at the w/end - never seen so many people walk out of a film, seriously. it is exceptionally boring, but somehow more Cronenbergian than the pallid heritage cinema of 'Dangerous Method'

hah

nooooooo

lol @ "exceptionally boring"

That's become my baseline expectation of new Cronenberg movies