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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.

While a veteran actor (Leslie Carlson) laments the state of film and film acting, a group of young children sneak a Panavision camera into the apartment where the actor resides and decide to make a film with it.

While I understand that the inspiration for this film comes from a childhood dream that Cronenberg had, I am not at all clear on why he apparently made it much later in life and threw it on as an extra for "Videodrome". But it is interesting to note that Cronenberg in 2000 is not the man he was in, say, 1980. He has increasingly moved away from experimental film and is today (2013) largely mainstream. This same film made in 1980 would have likely had a very different -- perhaps surgical -- feel to it.

What is the message (if there is one)? Hard to say. Clearly it is about youth, aging, death, and the world of film and photography. But how does the camera affect aging? The common belief seems to be that photos keep us young forever, but the man in this film says almost the exact opposite...

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+

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 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.

I saw this short on youtube and have watched it twice and probably will watch it again. Camera deals with an aging actor that has passed his prime, both in life and career vise. The old man talks to the screen about life, acting and the effects a camera that ,,the children" brought home will have on them all. He speaks about the camera as it were a curse that would destroy them all as the children make the camera and other film equipment ready to film the old man.

In over six minutes Cronenberg manages smoothly to summon up the most common human flaw: fear, and its effect. As soon as the old man finishes talking about the terrible effect the camera will have on them and the children start filming the old man starts lying and the short film changes from being realistic to being a fraud.

After watching this film I finally ,,discovered" Cronenberg and what it is that he has been trying to say with pretty much all of his films. Cronenberg has dedicated his career into revealing the ugliness behind mechanism by connecting it with monstrous things such as the scientist who becomes a fly, the victims of a car crash who become perverse, the TV producer who becomes illusional, computer game players who can't separate the game from reality, the exterminator who starts sniffing bug spray and also becomes illusional and can't separate truth from imagination, and most of his other work like in Dead Ringers, Scanners and The Dead Zone and probably in his older work that I have yet not reviewed. They are all trying to examine the horrifying side of machinery and the cause it will have on us in the end. Camera is the piece of film that made me realise the genius of David Cronenberg, even though I had loved most of the films I have seen by him I now have a more profound respect for him and I'm going to watch all of his work that I can get my hands into.

Camera - 10 out of 10.

I just recently watched camera for the first time (there showing it on www.lovefilm.com for free).

What i gathered that this film somewhere along the line parallels with cronenberg's life (just speculation). Les carlson (the old man) seems to talk about the anxieties of not working and that the thoughts/dreams or physicality of the film world keeps him motivated and feeling less anxious. we also see the kids (these are the secondary subject, or maybe the primary)as they plod along setting up the camera but not in a childlike or juvenile way, they rig, set up the mixing boards, set the lights and rig the camera completely. Some thoughts on this subject made me think of the new generation of filmmakers Cronenberg has to encounter (he also could be calling new filmmakers 'Kids', but this illustrates a more profound answer - maybe they are not, and they are taking over). I mainly state this as the solution to the old man talking as the kids are setting everything up around him - he doesn't notice whats going on, he's to busy talking about his own problems and the fact that he is a retired actor.

you really have to watch the film to get what I mean.

It could also just be a fragment of cronenbergs sense of humour.

I hope more people watch this short film and offer their thoughts as to its subtext and maybe even symbolism.

Camera is a loving exercise to the magic of movie-making as the subjects are an aged man who became that way while watching a movie in a theater (based a dream Cronenberg really had), and a bunch of kids who have a 35mm camera and sound equipment and are getting ready for a shot. "They just figured it out," says the old man on how they're able to operate film equipment. It's a moment like that which puts a genuine smile on my face- Cronenberg does love cinema, and not simply for the reasons that could be taken from his most notorious work (i.e. Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Crash). The only times when one feels the old Canadian maverick kicking in is when we see the video camera moving in on the man's face (Leslie Carlson as the actor, who has a great, unique face for long, lingering hand-held close ups). This is contrasted with the straightforward, innocent shots of the kids setting up the equipment. And then that final shot, where it becomes like a moment out of the best theater, if only for a moment. It's a nifty little piece that is a good accessory to see as a Cronenberg fan- the big pyshcological dramatic points are lessened for the sake of an intro to a film festival.

An old man sits in his home and tells how his group of children found an old camera and brought it home with them. He dreads the action of the camera but prepares himself to be filmed by it with an air of inevitability.

As I watched this I found it quite difficult to get into and struggled to understand what was going on. As I watched this I found this to be a weakness however afterwards I realised that it's strength is that it forces you to analyse it after you have finished watching it as you search for understanding. The film is essentially driven by a good performance by the man who practically gives a one man show (asides from the children). His fears over the effect of film are voiced well albeit without an abundance of explanation or clarity.

I don't know why the subject interested Cronenberg but he has made an interesting short regardless. The idea of film capturing the moment has always been a good thing to me – I never thought that it might be hard to know that the moment it captured is now gone forever and is not just another second of your life – it is more a finished chapter. Of course I may be just chattering here because I am still not 100% sure what it was getting at – but that is the reason I enjoyed it.

At times the direction seems a little clichéd, mostly notably when the old man is shot with a very close focus on his lower face, however this was only the odd shot. For the most part it is a clever mix of shots, all of which are held together by a well written and well delivered narrative.

Far from his most interesting work but this is still worth seeing as it is quite thought provoking and interesting. The downside for me was that, although thought provoking – I am still leave without good answers as to what it was actually getting at beyond my own interpretation.

This is Canadian director David Cronenberg's first short film since his early days as a film-maker. It has an elderly man sit at home and tell us that today a group of children found a movie camera and brought it home; he waits, knowing he will soon be filmed by them with it, this inevitability causes him some trepidation.

Clocking in at six minutes, there really isn't much time for this to achieve anything too much and I can't say I came away from it very impressed or enlightened. Short films, especially when they are this short, are something that have limited appeal for me in that they rarely make an impact; this one is no different for me. The actor talks about the function of the camera being to capture the death of the moment and to expand on this he tells of a dream he had where he sat in a cinema and watched a film in which he was being filmed and this led him to rapidly age, causing him a feeling of terror. So the film has something negative to say about the process of being filmed. But this one ultimately is very much for Cronenberg diehards, although I would say it is of limited interest even then.

Camera (2000)

*** (out of 4)

An elderly actor (Leslie Carlson) is discussing cinema when some children enter his apartment with an old movie camera.

This six-minute short from David Cronenberg isn't the greatest thing that the director ever did but it is an interesting piece to his filmmography. I honestly can't say I know what the director was going for but it's got a rather surreal nature to where you're watching it, not knowing what it's trying to do yet when it's over you find yourself thinking more about it. Obviously morality is something I think plays a role in the film. The elderly man talks about getting old and how he once had a dream about growing older due to a camera. The lead performance by Carlson is very good and there's no question that he draws you into the material.