Camera

A great short, one of the two best created by Canadian auteurs to serve as Preludes for the 25th Anniversary of the Toronto Film Festival. (The other MUST-see from the group is Guy Maddin's "Heart of the World".)

It is not a two-character piece (as misstated elsewhere), but a somewhat rambling, splendidly written monologue "filmed" by an intriguing on-screen crew of unlikely film makers. Warm, funny, ironic and profound (not qualities normally associated with Cronenberg), yet a wee bit little creepy (and with this director, could it be anything else?), it will haunt your memories. Inspired by a dream, it captures the irrational clarity and lurking unease of the dream state in a way that may remind you of Altman's "Three Women" or Lynch's "Eraserhead". This feeling of lucid drifting is a feat that many films attempt but few achieve.

All in all, "Camera" is a splendid few minutes of film, not easy to find, but well worth seeking out.

This is an extraordinary fable about aging and about film-making.

This old actor, unhappy with the route of his career is also the symbol of the great problem faced by the elder ones: looking back and not finding something to be proud about.

However youth comes to rescue him, giving him a chance to always be remembered by spectators and to feel useful to a new generation.

Especially well achieve by Cronenberg is the camera motion and positioning, which seems that of a child discovering all the potential of the found camera.

Pure brilliance!

Camera is a surreal, at times impenetrable film following the attempt of a group of young children to make a short film with an elderly actor using an antique camera. In the process, they examine many of Cronenberg's typical themes, all without the use of body horror.

Or is it? In the end, the film deals with the ultimate transformation of the body, death. The actor's monologue deals with his aging and mortality, and the way that the camera catches past moments. In some respects, this is the ultimate body horror, a very real threat to all people.

Simultaneously, this short deals with some of Cronenberg's past themes regarding technology and in particular the visual image. To a certain extent, the film is a meditation on how cinema captures chunks of the past. This visual focus makes it a good complement to Videodrome. (Indeed, it is included on the Criterion Collection DVD of said film.)

As some reviewers have stated, this film does not really have a narrative and can be difficult to decipher. However, I think most people who are actually willing to seek this film out will be able to appreciate it.

A man with an expressive face sits in a chair and laments his aging. While he is there, a group of elementary aged kids bring a big, professional movie camera into the house. He is to be the subject. He talks about how his life is coming to an end and he doesn't seem to have the desire to do much about it. Meanwhile, those kids literally put that camera to its appropriate use. An unusual but thoughtful film.

This 6 minute short film directed by David Cronenberg, which can be viewed on the Criterion Collection 2-disc DVD of "Videodrome" has an elder actor (Genre great Leslie Carlson) coming to terms with his own waning mortality after a group of young children find an old Panavision camera and wish to film him with it. He goes into a monologue about how he distrusts this camera equating it with death. For some reason I felt it was Cronenberg himself trying to express his thoughts and fears. The short itself is a tad impenetrable and difficult to derive any specific meaning from and although I did think it was good. it's not one of his better works. Despite (or maybe because of) this short being so introspective) or perhaps I just wasn't used to this kind of work to come from David.

My Grade: C+