Camera

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+

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 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.

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!

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.