The Cronenberg Thread

His best? I dunno. Discuss.

I bet he did say that. I love the romance angle of The Fly as well.

shivers
videodrome
scanners
fast company
dead ringers

Existenz
Naked Lunch
The Fly
Scanners/Brood (tied)
Spider
Dead Zone
Rabid
Shivers
Dead Ringers
Crash

Never seen Fast Company so that's excluded. Crash is the only actual real bad movie of the lot, but he's also never made a truly great film either.

Thank you. Not to mention the storyline is just a re-hash of Videodrome.

Scanners is his best, and Crash is underrated. Okay, so it's not a great film, but I can't think of any better way for the translation from the book.

Dead Ringers -- has its probnlems, sure, but also has Jeremy Irons.
Naked Lunch -- it's a rare horror/sci-fi director that gets the kind of performances from his actors that he gets out of Peter Weller in this. Spot-on, funny, and... just fuckin' great.
The Fly -- See above.
The Dead Zone -- Walken!
Spider -- I loved this movie. Also had the pleasure of seeing it in a theater with a fussy five-year-old, upon which others in the theater started shouting at the mother. "This is not a movie for kids!" Beautiful.

Agreed. You know what would make a great movie? War Fever.

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?

Watched CRIMES OF THE FUTURE last night (it's on Hulu). It's pretty much a note-perfect parody of a David Cronenberg movie. If only it was funny. (OK, the guy with ears all over his body dancing to shitty techno was a little funny.) But the more I think about it this morning, the more it feels like an empty, hollow rehash. So many things are lifted from previous Cronenberg movies, from Mortensen's character being an undercover cop (EASTERN PROMISES) to the insectile surgical instruments (DEAD RINGERS) to Lea Seydoux having Judy Davis's haircut from NAKED LUNCH. And every line of dialogue sounded like the characters were reading it off a sign on an art gallery wall. Really disappointing. I'm having a REPO MAN-ish "I can't believe I used to like this guy" moment.

That was my feeling when I saw Existenz.

“Hey Cronenberg, you need to make a Cronenberg movie.”

“But all of my movies are Cronenberg movies?”

“No no, you need to make more movies with the gross weird stuff.”

“Fine, let’s do it.”

I thought Existenz was pretty self-aware, almost to the point of parody, but as I remember it it paid off. Crimes of the Future (which I enjoyed) was almost like a Cronenberg stage production. I suppose a lot of whatever enjoyment one gets out of it boils down to whether one feels it is funny/ridiculous on purpose or funny/ridiculous inadvertently. It's so ridiculous (and sometimes funny) that I lean the former.

Coincidence re: Existenz, I believe Crimes is the first of his films to feature an original screenplay by Cronenberg that was not an adaptation since Existenz.

it's a synthesis of ideas he's been turning over for his whole career but doesn't feel exactly like any of them. and it is hilarious

We watched Crimes of the Future last night too, but we all basically liked it and/or were fascinated by it. It was the kids' first Cronenberg so they were just kind of amazed that this existed as a movie. And the philosophical explorations were broken up frequently enough by weird gross stuff that they didn't get bored. I also thought it was funny on purpose at several moments. I wouldn't call it so much a rehash as kind of a summing up of a lot of his core obsessions. (That he recycled the title from his first film adds to that impression.)

I also had the thought that if you showed this at a Qanon movie night (if Qanon people have movie nights) as a Hollywood insider's knowing nod to child mutilation rituals, it go over big.

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

Some late style clunkiness aside, The Shrouds is a typically excellent and thought provoking Cronenberg movie.

It was possibly my favorite film last year that wasn't a documentary. Not perfect and it may not be among his very best, but it was wonderful all the same.

Should add, I saw it at a festival. It opens in mid-April in NY and LA then expands the following week.

all the real cronenberg heads who haven't made it to a festival are in envy right now

Gonna watch it in an hour.

this is ilxor so no doubt everyone but me DID in fact already know this but here goes: is it widely known that "help me", the themetune for THE FLY (1986), is sung by bryan ferry? i was startled to learn this (it's right there in the end credits)

no it's not used in the film (or i think it is, but only briefly in the background, on the jukebox during the arm-wrestling bar scene): it was commissioned, BF recorded it, cronenberg didn't hate it per se but didn't think it fitted the mood, they tried a cut with it over the end credits but everyone agreed it didn't work, so it was relegated to right at the back of the cupboard

it's really not ferry's best work lol (= he doesn't do the voice when he says "help me") (i mean he does his own normal voice, not a little human fly's voice: missed opportunity all round)

He's in love with his bangs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-Yte9X1go

Can see Scott Walker having a go at the 'help me' voice.

Main thing that really stuck with me from Shrouds was wondering if conspiracy theories are a real fetish, can't find anything about it, would be really something if some of the famous conspiracy theorists were like this. I used to assume car crashes was not a real turn-on but it actually seems to be and I recently read accounts about Ballard that suggested he was genuinely into vehicle crashes.

Found these fascinating paragraphs! Won't link it but I'm sure anyone can find it if they want
"Edward Smith told his story in The Telegraph over ten years ago, shocking the world by proclaiming his promiscuity: he admitted to sex with over 1000 cars. He felt attracted to them for as long as he could recall, had sex with a car the first time at age fifteen, and didn’t feel sexual attraction at all to women or to men.

Men who love cars the way Ed loves cars have relationships with them as well as flings, and feel specific attractions to certain cars—the cars are not interchangeable. It’s mostly guys who report this strange kind of love, but a similar attractions to bridges, walls, and towers is often reported by women."

"Object Sexuality, or: the humans who fall in love with buildings" By Nicholas Korody has an interview with such a woman.

Back to the film: I thought it was very interesting but wasn't happy with the avatar character, just looked so much like something from a 3d animated family film. The very end scene totally whooshed over my head.

fucking looooved the shrouds. it had so much on its mind

but not in its body.

This one slipped completely from memory.

idk that the dream sequences with his wife will slip from my memory. leaving the room only to return eaten-away-at. such a stirring meditation on the howling unknown beyond death and trying/failing to reincarnate what you've lost to it in the here and now through imagination, technology, and conspiracy

also: really ugly. also: hilarious

so many shots of decaying bodies/skeletons and the most haunting image remains the memoji AI chatbot version of his wife in her koala skin

I liked it. But, completely contradictory to my Cronenberg love, I fell asleep in the theater during it! It was the day after my birthday and I was mildly hungover, but I’d popped an allergy pill and then had exactly one beer at the theater.

Oddly, the only other people in the theater were two in an extended friend group. I know I fell asleep because the guy loudly said my name at me, imagine “EMMM HAITCH” being intoned loudly during the quiet end of the second third. I was snoring!

I’ll watch it again, probably multiple times since it’s my lane. But I think it was the car auto driving bit.

Boy, does "Videodrome" get more prophetic by the year.