With his reputation before him, David Cronenberg’s desire to create an impressionistic statement of William S. Burrough’s novel as a marriage of his improvizational beat writing with the Baron of Blood’s trademarke body horror aesthetic remains one of the most memorable notches on Cronenberg’s impressive filmography.
Showing posts with label David Cronenberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Cronenberg. Show all posts
Friday, 10 May 2013
Saturday, 10 December 2011
The Dead Zone
The Dead Zone (1983) dir. David Cronenberg
Starring Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen
***1/2
By Alan Bacchus
The Dead Zone was Cronenberg’s first venture into mainstream films. After a series of uniquely gruesome horror films (The Brood, Shivers, Scanners), in 1983 Cronenberg took on Stephen King’s bestseller.
Despite the auspicious pairing of King and Cronenberg, the film is more cerebral and brooding than the gorefest one might expect. Bloodletting is kept to a minimum, and instead the psychological impact of predicting someone’s own death keeps up the intensity.
Christopher Walken plays Johnny Smith (one of cinema’s lamest screen names), a school teacher with a good career and a burgeoning relationship with his girlfriend. Suddenly all that topples down when he’s involved in a near fatal car accident. He wakes up from a coma to discover that not only has he been under for five years and his girlfriend is remarried, he’s also developed an extra sensory perception. When Johnny physically touches someone he’s able to see their future, past and darkest secrets.
Johnny’s ability is more a curse than a gift. Not only does he see other people's secrets, he also experiences them. Therefore, his premonitions are painful and utterly frightening for him. Johnny knows he will never be the same person he was before – he will forever be exploited, abused and misunderstood. And he can never have a true relationship with another woman. The physical intimacy would be a little frightening for him.
So Johnny’s new life progresses toward a selfless act of sacrifice he chooses to make in order to save the world. The ending is tragic considering the investment the audience makes in this unique hero.
The Dead Zone features one of Christopher Walken’s definitive roles. His twitches, pauses and voice cadence are in peak form. And this is before he became a parody of himself, so it’s a job to see Walken in a serious role. Cronenberg gets great emotion and intensity from him in this film. Rumours have it that Cronenberg would actually fire a pistol during some of his lines to keep Walken on edge. Also, watch for Martin Sheen’s comically over-the-top performance as the southern Republican Senate candidate, Greg Stillson.
Cronenberg tells the story plainly without his trademark sex and flesh. It’s a simple progression of scenes and events that lead up to Johnny’s fateful decision at the end. If it means anything, apparently it’s Stephen King’s favourite adaptation of his novels. Enjoy.
Sunday, 27 March 2011
eXistenZ
Starring: Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Don McKellar, Willem Dafoe
**
By Alan Bacchus
This is an honourable failure for David Cronenberg. Coming after the curiosity-seeking art houser Crash, at a glance eXistenZ appeared to have been a mainstream antidote to the niche audience of that other film. It comes from an original script from Cronenberg, his first since Videodrome (1983) and we indeed get all of the kooky bio horror we expect from the Baron of Blood, but excessively-loopy plotting and some truly oddball and inconsistent performances results in an unevenness which fails the film.
Set in the future, Allegra Gellar (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a new age game designer – virtual reality-type games played via the organic processes of the body. She is demonstrating a new version of her game to a test group. Allegra’s new gaming techniques have made her a celebrity, but she has also created a legion of radical dissidents called “Realists”, who disapprove of the unethical aspects of the game. The “Realists” infiltrate the test and manage to kill off a few of the gamers, but Allegra and her PR man, Ted Pikul (Jude Law), manage to escape. While on the run, Allegra and Ted enter the game to try and recover lost data from the disruption (I think).
The design of the game system is classic Cronenberg – organic materials made from body parts of other animals. Repairs to the game pod are performed like surgery by doctors. The connection between mind and body and the sensory experience of the game is a thought-provoking and somewhat plausible scenario. These are just the peripherals to the story though; the actual narrative plot of the film feels terribly recycled and uneventful.
Allegra and Ted’s journey takes them through a “Grand Theft Auto”-like world of smarmy villains and double-agents. Together they must navigate their way through the game and back into reality. Sufficient jeopardy and stakes for Ted and Allegra are never there because we know they’re in the game, and despite all the manufactured rules, we know they can always get out of the gaming world.
The timing wasn't good for Cronenberg. After The Matrix and Dark City, the concept is not as progressive as it may have sounded in development. We can clearly see how the film will end and predict the twists. The climax, which involves a badly staged and acted confrontation with Callum Keith Rennie, Jude Law and Ian Holm, feels as if the filmmakers were rushing to shoot the scene and get all the information wrapped up that one night. And, of course, the film makes a left turn in the final moments, which is supposed to surprise us, but instead becomes predictable in its unpredictability.
And despite one erotic scene, we don’t even get to see Jennifer Jason Leigh get it on with Jude Law. Considering Cronenberg’s track record, that was the only unexpected twist – no kinky sex.
Thursday, 27 December 2007
EASTERN PROMISES
Eastern Promises (2007) dir. David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent Cassel
****
On DVD this week is the thoroughly satisfying 'gangster' film “Eastern Promises”, though it's difficult to place the film in a genre. It's a Cronenberg film, much like his previous success, "A History of Violence", another difficult film to categorize. For good reason it made a stir at TIFF this year. It’s a tight story about the intriguing milieu of Eastern European gangsters in London. The unique collection of global talent – Canadian, British, Aussie, German, French result in familiar story executed with an unfamiliar tone. It’s a terrific film.
Naomi Watts plays Anna, a British midwife, who works in a London hospital. She’s recently separated from her boyfriend, miscarried a child and has moved back home with her mother. Fate lands on Anna when she performs an emergency delivery of an unknown 14-year-old pregnant Russian girl. The girl dies in labour, but the baby survives. The only form of identification on her is her tattered diary written in Russian. Anna is compelled to search out the identity of the girl and find the true family of the young infant.
This search leads her to the head of the Russian mob in London – Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). In her dealings with Semyon, she befriends one of his new mob soldiers, Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who takes orders from Seymon’s firecracker son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel). A subplot about a murdered Chechnyan runs the same course as Anna’s journey. The two collide resulting in an unlikely union between Nikolai and Anna.
“Eastern Promises” keeps a steady pace, slowly revealing to us a complex tale of family, culture, broken dreams, loyalty and sacrifice. The film is told from Watts’ point of view. Her relationship with her old world conservative Uncle speaks to all audiences who’s had to reconcile old familial traditions with new world liberalism. Uncle Stepan knows the dangerous world of the Russian mob from his youth in Communist Russia. But his conceited attempts to protect Anna only results in her further alienation.
The power of the film is in Viggo Mortensen’s quiet but commanding Oscar-worthy performance. Nikolai is an intelligent and internally calculating mob soldier. He starts out as a lowly driver for the hot headed Kirill, but his courage and loyalty sees him promoted - similar to ‘being made” in the Italian mob. The prison tattoos etched on Nikolai’s body tells his life story. Prison time is a rite of passage for the Russians and the ultimate test of true loyalty to this way of life. And Nikolai’s body reads like a Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”.
Production Designer Carol Spier and her design team create a dirty elegance to this shadowy world. Viggo’s hairstyle, sunglasses and costume tell us exactly who Nikolai is without the need for expository character-establishing banal dialogue. Viggo’s accent and mannerisms are pitch-perfect for the character. And a few key silent glances outside of his steely demeanour and some carefully chosen camera angles tell us there’s more to Nikolai than just an ordinary thug.
As expected “Eastern Promises” is gory and tough. The violence is sudden and shocking, and sometimes, in its extremity, morbidly funny. Nikolai and Kirill’s disposal of the Chechnyan body is a prime example. I grinned at Viggo’s line to another less-callous mobster as he’s about to prepare the body for disposal, “You may want to leave the room now.” Nikolai’s workmanlike technique is disgusting but also funny.
Writer Steven Knight, who also wrote another ethnic-influenced London mob film, “Dirty Pretty Things”, writes with a confident command of the screenwriting formula. But he and Cronenberg keep the tone and dramatic reveals in check to prevent it from over-emoting and overstating itself. Cronenberg and Wright foreshadow the events in the third act with the deft touch master filmmakers.
There are a lot of big-picture themes simmering throughout the film. Though not explicitly stated, the film is essentially about the broken dreams, or “promises” made to young Eastern European girls who come to the West in search of a better life, and the young girl who died giving birth symbolizes this. Anna, as a second generation immigrant, knows this which makes her journey the compelling through line that elevates the film over and above a salacious body count 'gangster' film. Enjoy.
"Eastern Promises" is available on DVD now from Alliance Films. Buy it here: Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition)
Sunday, 30 September 2007
EASTERN PROMISES
Eastern Promises (2007) dir. David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent Cassel
****
“Eastern Promises” is Cronenberg’s second consecutive success in what currently is his ‘mainstream years’. For good reason it made a stir at TIFF this year. It’s a tight story about the intriguing milieu of Eastern European gangsters in London. The unique collection of global talent – Canadian, British, Aussie, German, French result in familiar story executed with an unfamiliar tone. It’s a terrific film.
Naomi Watts plays Anna, a British midwife, who works in a London hospital. She’s recently separated from her boyfriend, miscarried a child and has moved back home with her mother. Fate lands on Anna when she performs an emergency delivery of an unknown 14-year-old pregnant Russian girl. The girl dies in labour, but the baby survives. The only form of identification on her is her tattered diary written in Russian. Anna is compelled to search out the identity of the girl and find the true family of the young infant.
This search leads her to the head of the Russian mob in London – Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). In her dealings with Semyon, she befriends one of his new mob soldiers, Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who takes orders from Seymon’s firecracker son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel). A subplot about a murdered Chechnyan runs the same course as Anna’s journey. The two collide resulting in an unlikely union between Nikolai and Anna.
“Eastern Promises” keeps a steady pace, slowly revealing to us a complex tale of family, culture, broken dreams, loyalty and sacrifice. The film is told from Watts’ point of view. Her relationship with her old world conservative Uncle speaks to all audiences who’s had to reconcile old familial traditions with new world liberalism. Uncle Stepan knows the dangerous world of the Russian mob from his youth in Communist Russia. But his conceited attempts to protect Anna only results in her further alienation.
The power of the film is in Viggo Mortensen’s quiet but commanding Oscar-worthy performance. Nikolai is an intelligent and internally calculating mob soldier. He starts out as a lowly driver for the hot headed Kirill, but his courage and loyalty sees him promoted - similar to ‘being made” in the Italian mob. The prison tattoos etched on Nikolai’s body tells his life story. Prison time is a rite of passage for the Russians and the ultimate test of true loyalty to this way of life. And Nikolai’s body reads like a Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”.
Production Designer Carol Spier and her design team create a dirty elegance to this shadowy world. Viggo’s hairstyle, sunglasses and costume tell us exactly who Nikolai is without the need for expository character-establishing banal dialogue. Viggo’s accent and mannerisms are pitch-perfect for the character. And a few key silent glances outside of his steely demeanour and some carefully chosen camera angles tell us there’s more to Nikolai than just an ordinary thug.
As expected “Eastern Promises” is gory and tough. The violence is sudden and shocking, and sometimes, in its extremity, morbidly funny. Nikolai and Kirill’s disposal of the Chechnyan body is a prime example. I grinned at Viggo’s line to another less-callous mobster as he’s about to prepare the body for disposal, “You may want to leave the room now.” Nikolai’s workmanlike technique is disgusting but also funny.
Writer Steven Knight, who also wrote another ethnic-influenced London mob film, “Dirty Pretty Things”, writes with a confident command of the screenwriting formula. But he and Cronenberg keep the tone and dramatic reveals in check to prevent it from over-emoting and overstating itself. Cronenberg and Wright foreshadow the events in the third act with the deft touch master filmmakers.
There are a lot of big-picture themes simmering throughout the film. Though not explicitly stated, the film is essentially about the broken dreams, or “promises” made to young Eastern European girls who come to the West in search of a better life, and the young girl who died giving birth symbolizes this. Anna, as a second generation immigrant, knows this which makes her journey the compelling through line that elevates the film over and above a salacious body count gangster film. Enjoy.
Monday, 17 September 2007
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
A History of Violence (2005) dir. David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt
***
Ok, when “A History of Violence” came out, I intensely disliked the film. There was a tone that I just didn’t get. Everything from the acting, to the music, the editing, the plot confounded me and drove me bonkers. But I was in the very small minority. Did I miss something? It was universally acclaimed and one of the best reviewed films of the year. Upon second viewing, it’s finally sunk in and I've been able to enjoy the film. Though it still doesn’t rise to the quality of “The Fly”, or “Dead Ringers” it’s a quality mainstream effort from the Canadian master.
The film opens with a piece of misdirection. We watch the slow movements of two psychotic killers who have just murdered a motel owner. They walk around the outside of the motel, slowly get into their car, light their cigarettes and discuss their movements of the day. Cronenberg lingers on them for so long and gives them so much screen time we expect them to be main characters for the rest of the film. Then we meet Americana personified Tom Stall, who lives the quiet life of a diner-owner in a small Indiana town, with his wife Edie (Maria Bello), teenage son Jack (Ashton Holmes) and daughter Sarah. The psychotics collide with Stall when they attempt to rob and pillage his diner. Tom fights back and shoots both killers dead with expert skill. Tom becomes the hero of the town and makes the news all around the country.
Back to the misdirection of the opening scene...on my first viewing I couldn’t reconcile importance of the lengthy and carefully directed opening with the psychotics’ sudden disappearance from the story. In fact, I still don’t understand Cronenberg’s motivation here, but it irks me less the second time ‘round.
Back to the story…one day some more nefarious bad men show up at the diner, one of whom is Carl Fogarty, a creepy and intimidating Ed Harris. Fogarty thinks Tom is a gangster from Philly named Joey Kusak. Tom denies it all, but Fogarty is persistent and follow him and his family around the town until he’s forced to confront Tom directly with threats of violence. When faced with the threat on his family Tom fights back and again beats down the mobsters like a rapid dog unleashed and unmuzzled. Tom comes clean with his family about his sordid past as a ruthless gangster. In order to continue his new life with his family he must confront his past and face off against his brother Richie (William Hurt) who now runs a crime family in Philadelphia.
Cronenberg executes the mainstream elements of the story well. The plot is simple and uncomplicated. It’s about a man looking to go straight, cleanse his soul, and atone for past sins. The film is a statement about the attraction and simplicity of violence. It’s an easy way out of confrontations. Tom’s son experiences the same feelings as his father has. He is pushed around by a student and one day lashes out and beats down the taunting bully. Tom’s wife is at first shocked by the revelations of her husband’s past, but then gives in to its carnal attractions in a domestic fight turned sex scene on the stairs.
Cronenberg leaves us wondering about his back story though. Not even the brotherly bond of love can quell the violence between Tom and Richie. So what could have caused such an irreparable rift? Why, at the first sign of his brother, does Richie suddenly want him dead? There’s some deep emotional issues that needed to be mined in order for “A History of Violence” to be truly profound and rise above just a mainstream film.
Perhaps this is why I initially disliked the film. I expect so much more psychological complexities to Cronenberg’s characters. In “A History of Violence” everything is up front, in your face and simple.
Buy it here: A History of Violence (New Line Platinum Series)
Here's the opening:
Saturday, 23 June 2007
EXISTENZ
eXistenZ (1999) dir. David Cronenberg
Starring: Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Don McKellar, Willem Dafoe
**
“eXistenZ” is one of the rare failures for David Cronenberg. Though I didn’t like “Crash” I think it succeeded as a controversial conversation starter, and all around kinky mood-piece. But “eXistenZ,” which appears to have been made to be a more mainstream and accessible film, unfortunately fails on most levels.
Set in the future Allegra Gellar (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a new age game designer – virtual reality-type games played via the organic processes of the body. She is demonstrating a new version of her game to a test group. Allegra’s new gaming techniques have made her a celebrity, but she has also created a legion of radical dissidents, called “Realists” who disapprove of the unethical aspects of the game. The “Realists” infiltrate the test and manage to kill off a few of the gamers, but Allegra and her PR man, Ted Pikul (Jude Law) manage to escape. While on the run Allegra and Ted enter the game to try and recover lost data from the disruption (I think).
The design of the game system is classic Cronenberg – organic materials made from body parts of other animals. Repairs to the game pod are performed like surgery by doctors. The connection between mind and body and the sensory experience of the game is a thought-provoking and somewhat plausible scenario. These are just the peripherals to the story though; the actual narrative plot of the film feels terribly recycled and uneventful.
Allegra and Ted’s journey takes them through a “Grand Theft Auto”-like world of smarmy villains, and double-agents. Together they must navigate their way through the game and back into reality. Sufficient jeopardy and stakes for Ted and Allegra are never there because we know they’re in the game, and despite all the manufactured rules, I know they can always get out of the gaming world.
Essentially it’s a pale comparison of “Total Recall”, “The Matrix” and “Dark City”. Because the concept is old news, we can clearly see how the film will end, and predict the twists. The climax which involves a badly staged and acted confrontation with Callum Keith Rennie, Jude Law and Ian Holm, feels as if the filmmakers were rushing to shoot the scene and get all the information wrapped up that one night. And, of course, the film makes a left turn in the final moments which is supposed to surprise us, but instead becomes predictable in its unpredictability.
And despite one erotic scene, we don’t even get to see Jennifer Jason Leigh get it on with Jude Law. Considering Cronenberg’s track record, that was the only unexpected twist – no kinky sex.
Buy it here: eXistenZ
Beware: SPOILERS in this clips:
Thursday, 5 April 2007
DEAD RINGERS
Dead Ringers (1988) dir. David Cronenberg
Starring: Jeremy Irons, Genevieve Bujold
***1/2
“Dead Ringers” is a disturbing horror film that masquerades as mainstream. Cronenberg keeps the gore to a minimum, as compared to say, "Scanners", or "The Fly" and much of it happens off screen. But the film is the most disturbing of the Cronenberg’s oeuvre. It’s disgusting and horrific yet fascinating - like a tapeworm.
It’s the story of twin gynecologists, Beverly (a man) and Elliot Mantle (creepy names too). They are brilliant, but utterly maniacal and disturbed. They are both played by Jeremy Irons in, arguably, his finest role(s). Beverly is the shy, introverted and more responsible of the two, Elliot is the showman, the speechmaker and the Don Juan. Despite the closeness in genes, Elliot dominates Beverly, and coyly refers to him as his “baby brother. But together they make a perfect team both professionally and socially. They cruelly date the same women by posing as the same person. Elliot, with his charm and charisma, breaks the ice, and Beverly takes the seconds, which allows him to get laid without much effort. Professionally they are known as twins, but Beverly does the hard work and Elliot receives the accolades. They seem to have a functional system that has gotten them ahead in the world.
The armour starts to crack when Elliot beds one of their clients, an actress, Claire (a riveting performance from Genevieve Bujold). As before, they both date and sleep with her, but Claire catches on and confronts them about their misogynistic behaviour. They admit to defeat and Elliot has no problem letting her go, but Beverly has developed a deep love for her. Beverly decides to keep Claire for himself and not share her with Elliot. As their relationship develops so does a nasty mutual drug habit. Beverly is clever enough to think that he’s being exploiting for drugs (amphetamines and morphine), but he doesn’t mind.
Beverly slowly falls to pieces. Elliot soon succumbs to the trappings as well, and they both become addicts. Somehow they manage to maintain their careers during these tumultuous times. At Beverly’s most warped stage of his mind, he constructs a series of grotesque surgical instruments designed to operate on the bodies of mutated women (did I mention, this is not a date movie?). The design of the instruments is classic Cronenberg, a mixture of metal and organic body forms, part alien, part insect, part human. What they do with the instruments is truly horrifying and more disturbing than anything Cronenberg has done then or since. As I mentioned before, it all happens off camera, but the mere glimpse of the instruments conjures up every detail without showing it.
The film is about the insular world the twins live in and how their psychotic disorders combine to make them greater than the sum of their parts. Individually they could be regular people but together they are a nightmare. The final image is brilliant, two brothers lying together, the light and positioning of their bodies appear to have them intertwined or fused together like Siamese Twins - which is exactly what they wanted to be all along.
Like the tapeworm analogy, the film slowly and hypnotically seeps into your system before you realize you’re completely disgusted by it and when the film is over, even though you want it out of your system, it will linger and remain with you for a long time.
Buy it here: Dead Ringers - Criterion Collection
Unfortunately only one youtube clip exists. It’s in French:
Thursday, 8 March 2007
THE DEAD ZONE
The Dead Zone (1983) dir. David Cronenberg
Starring Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen
***
“The Dead Zone” was Cronenberg’s first venture into mainstream films. After a series of uniquely gruesome horror films (“The Brood,” “Shivers,” “Scanners”), in 1983 Cronenberg took on Stephen King’s bestseller.
Despite the auspicious pairing of King and Cronenberg, the film is cerebral and brooding as opposed to a gorefest which one might expect. Bloodletting is kept to a minimum, instead the psychological impact of predicting someone’s own death keeps up the intensity.
Christopher Walken plays Johnny Smith (one’s cinema’s lamest screen names), plays a schoolteacher, with a good career, and burgeoning relationship with his girlfriend, when suddenly all that topples down when he’s involved in a near fatal car accident. He wakes up from a coma to discover, not only has been under for 5 years and his girlfriend remarried, but he’s developed an extra sensory perception. When Johnny physically touches someone he’s able to see their future, pasts and darkest secrets.
Johnny’s ability is more a curse than a gift. Not only does he see their secrets, he also experiences it. Therefore his premonitions are painful and utterly frightening for him. Johnny knows he will never be the same person he was before – he will forever be exploited, abused and misunderstood. And he can never have a true relationship with another woman. The physical intimacy would be a little frightening for him.
So Johnny’s new life progresses toward an selfless act of sacrifice he chooses to make in order to save the world. The ending is tragic considering the investment the audience makes in this unique hero.
“The Dead Zone” is one of Christopher Walken’s definitive roles. His twitches, pauses and voice cadence are in peak form. And this is before he became a parody of himself, and so it’s a job to see Walken in a serious role. Cronenberg gets great emotion and intensity from him in this film. Rumours have it that Cronenberg would actually fire a pistol during some of his lines to keep Walken on edge. Also watch for Martin Sheen’s comically over-the-top performance as the southern Republican Senate candidate, Greg Stillson.
Cronenberg tells the story plainly without his trademark sex and flesh. It’s a simple progression of scenes and events that lead up to Johnny’s fateful decision at the end. If it means anything, apparently it’s Stephen King’s favourite adaptation of his novels. Enjoy.
Buy it here: The Dead Zone
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