OLR: Naked Lunch (1991)

I feel like I understand this film less and less the more I watch it; I'd better get around to finishing the book someday. (7/10)

d. David Cronenberg

OLR: eXistenZ (1999)

The way it's shot, the way the actors read their lines, the locations, the lighting: there's a subtle off-ness to all of this that makes this movie fascinating to watch. (9/10)

d. David Cronenberg

OLR: A History of Violence (2005)

I realized watching this again that Cronenberg is still making body horror pictures, except they're outside-in. (9/10)

d. David Cronenberg

OLR: Eastern Promises (2007)

Though I enjoyed the performances and the cronenbergian character moments, there wasn't nearly as much depth in this film in comparison to recent Cronenberg efforts. (8/10)

d. David Cronenberg

OLR: Rabid (1976)

Drive-in fare to be sure, but with a nice layer of delicious Cronenbergian sauce to sweeten. (7/10)

d. David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg (1943 -)

1. 1967 - From the Drain
1. 1969 - Stereo
2. 1970 - Crimes of the Future
3. 1975 - Shivers
2. 1975 - Peep Show: "The Lie Chair"
3. 1976 - Teleplay: "The Italian Machine"
4. 1976 - Rabid
5. 1978 - Fast Company
6. 1979 - The Brood
7. 1980 - Scanners
8. 1982 - Videodrome
9. 1983 - The Dead Zone
10. 1986 - The Fly
4. 1987 - Friday the 13th: The Series: "Faith Healer"
11. 1988 - Dead Ringers
5. 1990 - The Scales of Justice: "Regina vs Logan"
6. 1990 - The Scales of Justice: "Regina vs Horvath"
12. 1991 - Naked Lunch
13. 1993 - M. Butterfly
14. 1996 - Crash
15. 1999 - eXistenZ
7. 2000 - Camera
16. 2002 - Spider
17. 2005 - A History of Violence
8. 2007 - Chacun son cinéma: "At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World"
18. 2007 - Eastern Promises

The David Cronenberg Chronocinethon
21 Jun 2004 - 13 Aug 2004
(originally posted at IMDb)

1967-1969 - From the Drain, Stereo
1970-1975 - Crimes of the Future, Shivers
1975-1976 - The Lie Chair, The Italian Machine, Rabid
1978-1979 - Fast Company, The Brood
1980-1982 - Scanners, Videodrome
1983-1987 - The Dead Zone, The Fly, Faith Healer
1988-1991 - Dead Ringers, Regina vs Logan, Regina vs Horvath, Naked Lunch
addendum - The Fly II (Chris Walas)
1993-1996 - M. Butterfly, Crash
1999-2002 - eXistenZ, Camera, Spider

Prev: Clint Eastwood (Westerns)
Next: John Carpenter

Cronenberg (1999-2002)

1999 - eXistenZ - Virtual reality infused with a dose of Cronenbergian surrealism -- that's the future of gaming I want to see. A human teeth-shooting gun made from the amalgamated bones of mutant amphibians taken from a dinner special in a restaurant is just about the coolest idea ever. The movie makes much more sense to me now that I've read a bit on existentialism.

2000 - Camera - Cute commentary on aging in the movie biz. From the eyes of an old actor, the energetic crew on a set must, indeed, look like children. Apparently, Cronenberg worries about aging these days.

2002 - Spider - Very, very subtle. Typically, a movie like this would be an energetic mind-screwer, bouncing from one point of view to another. Instead, it took me a beat to notice when Mrs. Wilkinson changed into Spider's mother, and a very long time to notice that his mother and the tart were played by the same actress. An incredibly interesting portrayal of schizophrenia from Cronenberg and Fiennes.

That's it! All finished. I'm now positive that Cronenberg is my all-time favorite director. I can definitely see a progression in his skill at his craft over the years. I'll be very interested to see what he does with A History of Violence. The comic was a good read, but I cannot imagine it as a Cronenberg movie. I wonder how his personality will shine through?

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Cronenberg (1993-1996)

1993 - M. Butterfly - I'm not sure if this was an attempt to capture that ole Dead Ringers magic, but this film wasn't up to snuff. There are some interesting ideas in the movie concerning relationships worth pondering. And, I enjoyed the laying of reversals at the end of the film, but the journey there was uneven.

1996 - Crash - Going through the transformative process of a violent auto accident makes people with piercings and tattoos look like giant pussies. Cronenberg is at the top of his game again; he imbues even a minor piece of auto-culture like picking idly at a windshield sticker with brewing sexuality.

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Cronenberg (addendum)

1989 - The Fly II (directed by Chris Walas) - Man, what an awful film. It was on the flip side of The Fly DVD, so I decided to watch it. It adds absolutely nothing to the first film, and spends most of its time treading over ground already covered. The last 20 minutes are nothing more than a boring Alien / Jason Vorhees riff in which people hunt the monster and the monster kills the people.

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Cronenberg (1988-1991)

1988 - Dead Ringers - Maybe the most subtle of Cronenberg's film. Beverly is actually the stronger of the two after all. It is he who finally attempts to free himself of the "Mantle Brothers" mono-identity by latching onto Claire. Despite his addiction problem, it nearly works out when Claire returns, only for the weaker Elliot to take them both down by becoming an addict himself.

1990 - The Scales of Justice: "Regina vs Logan" - Boring and amateurish. Shockingly bad entry in the Cronenberg oeuvre. I can only hope this was made while he was distracted by his acting duties in Nightbreed. [Thanks to snoother for these two episodes.]

1990 - The Scales of Justice: "Regina vs Horvath" - Much improved over the first episode. The lighting and framing of the shots is much better this time. This story of "true Canadian crime" is more interesting due to a matricidal, deranged teenager and some philosophical discussion on hypnosis used in interrogation.

1991 - Naked Lunch - Stylish and surreal. The deeply buried story seems to me to be of a man coming to terms with his homosexuality while his friends allow him to wallow in addiction so he'll finish his novel. The repetition in Lee's hallucinations are fun to look and listen for: centipedes, "ambivalence," etc.

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Cronenberg (1983-1987)

1983 - The Dead Zone – Stephen King's personality nearly overpowers Cronenberg's in this film. Still, Cronenberg shines with the brilliant casting of Christopher Walken and the eliciting of some damn-fine subtle performances. I never noticed before that Johnny was intended as a Christ-figure, but it's incredibly blatant during the climax.

1986 - The Fly – Some criticize this film as "too commercial." Whatever its popularity at the box office, this is a classic Cronenberg movie concerned with flesh, machines, and their interactions in the future of human development. This also has to be one of the gorier movies ever released by a major Hollywood studio.

1987 - Friday the 13th: The Series: "Faith Healer" – Investigating the disease theme once again, this is a rare Cronenberg story in which the corruptive force is magic, rather than science/technology/biology. I was pleased to see Cronenberg regular Robert A. Silverman in a starring role. It was great to see the focus on the guest stars instead of the main characters; I could almost feel Cronenberg's boredom when we were forced to check in with youngsters Micki and Ryan for the sake of the series.

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Cronenberg (1980-1982)

1980 - Scanners – It's cool to see the theory discussed in Stereo actually get applied in real situations. I've seen this movie a number of times, but this is the first time that it occurred to me that Cameron is not "the good guy." He's the strongest scanner in the world, yet only bothers to prevent himself and his girlfriend from getting shot; everyone else dies. I don't think he really cares about anyone but himself, even if he doesn't realize this consciously.

1982 - Videodrome – Probably the quintessential Cronenberg movie. What's amazing, also, is that this film could be translated into the Internet era and work just as well. One minor example that struck me was when Brian O'Blivion mentioned that everyone in the future will have a television identity -- and we do, online. I can't wait to listen to Cronenberg's commentary on the up-coming Criterion release.

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Cronenberg (1978-1979)

1978 - Fast Company – A perfectly sturdy exploitation/drive-in movie that captures the world of drag racing in great detail. I'll be damned if I can detect any of Cronenberg's personality in this movie... other than his love of cars, of course. A continuation of "The Italian Machine," I think.

1979 - The Brood – Psychoplasmics: expunging mental rage through your own flesh. There's only one director who would ever create such a film. As well, it's not easy to make children seem scary, but Cronenberg more than handles the challenge.

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Cronenberg (1975-1976)

1975 - Peep Show: "The Lie Chair" – I have a feeling this was just a paycheck. A bad Twilight Zone story married with some pretty bad lighting. There were a few specks of gold, like the random fascination with safe-cracking.

1976 - Teleplay: "The Italian Machine" – This didn't feel like a complete story; I wish it were longer. It had some great, great characters in it. There are hints of Cronenberg's machine-flesh obsession as well, particularly in the art collector's taste in art.

1976 - Rabid – This is probably the world's first stem cell horror movie. I like how subtle the cause for the disease was. There's no big revelatory scene near the end of the movie where the protagonist figures it all out; the audience has to put the pieces together themselves. Plus, a porn star raping people with a combined penis-anus in her armpit is always an interesting idea to throw in a movie.

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Cronenberg (1970-1975)

1970 - Crimes of the Future – Same vein as Stereo, but this time focusing on the body instead of the mind. You can see the "King of Venereal Horror" being born on screen before your eyes as Adrian Tripod licks the foam from an infected man's ears. The man who continuously grew strange, new organs with no discernable purpose was a sort of throw-away idea in the film I wish was explored more.

1975 - Shivers – The venereal disease theme continues in Cronenberg's version of a zombie movie. Visceral horror with a shallow-buried social-sexual commentary is always a treat. Sadly, it's very clear from numerous abrupt edits that this film was chopped to hell in order to achieve an "R" rating for the States.

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Cronenberg (1967-1969)

Last night, I started my Cronenberg Chrono-Marathon: I’m going to watch all of his movies in chronological order during the next few months. Of course, I don’t have everything (as far as I can tell, most of those 70s Canadian TV shows are unobtainable), but I’ll work with what I got. Mini-reviews for what I’ve watched:

1967 - From the Drain – Nearly unwatchable copy courtesy of the now-defunct Cahiers du Cinema website. Typical college short with a goofball flair Cronenberg doesn’t let show too often. Due to my copy, I couldn’t tell if that was a closet full of shoes at the end. If so, the film has the standard sci-fi ending of "this is all part of a terrible cycle."

1969 - Stereo – I can see how it would bore some people to tears, but I found the social science textbook-style dialog to be fascinating, especially considering it was all about a made-up subject. This is also clearly a proto-Scanners: telepathy as a connection of nervous systems, drilling a hole in your head to relieve psychic pressure, a secret company training/studying the telepaths...

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