RE: DAVID CRONENBERG

Master of Metamorphosis, and Dissector of the Human Condition

CHAIR: DAVID HUGHES

PUNCHDRUNK, EMPIRE FORUM POST
One of the few directors that you can't say 'I preferred his earlier work', because it flows together so well.

David Cronenberg certainly wears his obsessions on his sleeve. In early works like Shivers, Rabid and The Brood he explores the physiological manifestation of psychological phenomena; in Scanners and The Dead Zone he seems to wonder what the human mind might be capable of as it continues to evolve; The Fly and Dead Ringers are concerned with physical transformation in the name of science; working on Naked Lunch, M Butterfly and Crash, he analyses sexual transgression (homosexuality, transsexuality, fetishism) as dispassionately as a scientist dissecting a laboratory rat; Videodrom and eXistenZ are both prescient explorations of the dissolving boundaries between existence and entertainment. His most recent films, Spider and A History of Violence, concern themselves with the nature of identity, and the way (violence in) one's past can be suppressed or sublimated, consciously or unconsciously � even from oneself.

MOTH, EMPIRE FORUM POST
Unlike most traditional horror movies, Cronenberg doesn't seem bothered with the normal human characters in his films, preferring to take the viewpoint of the mutated/infected character.

An excellent point, Moth! And by doing so, lets the audience tap into a far deeper understanding than a more objective perspective would allow. So we understand, even sympathise with, the rationale of the monster� Jeff Goldblum urging Geena Davis to "dive into the plasma pool� in The Fly, Jeremy Irons explaining the rationale behind his gynaecological instrument designs in Dead Ringers ("There's nothing the matter with the instrument! It's the body � the woman's body is all wrong!�) -- even though we know they're insane and must be stopped.

COMPANERO, EMPIRE FORUM POST
Cronenberg has never committed himself to a project for anything less than a deep-rooted love for its material. He's always remained true to his artistic integrity.

How true, Companero � which is why we never saw his version of Total Recall. "My version would have been like 'Spider Goes to Mars' as opposed to 'Raiders of the Lost Ark Goes to Mars,'� he says, referring to the way both Spider and Philip K Dick's original story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale� are both about the nature of memory and identity. Cronenberg walked away, promising to make a film with producer Dino De Laurentiis at some future time (he did: Dead Ringers). David Lynch had his Dune, but there is no 'sellout' film on Cronenberg's C.V. � The Fly, his most successful film, is more transgressive than most other 'commercial' horror films -- and even when he signed on to direct Basic Instinct 2, it was because, "It was a very perverse, dark, complex script� � and, one suspects, because he knew the best way to subvert audience's expectations would be to direct a film like Basic Instinct 2.

BRUNDLESFLIES, EMPIRE FORUM POST
Cronenberg has developed a core group of collaborators who work on the majority of his films.

Perhaps Cronenberg's integrity extends to his loyalty to regular collaborators like production designer Carol Spier, composer Howard Shore, editor Ronald Sanders and cinematographer Peter Suschitsky. (Cronenberg was deeply hurt when Mark Irwin, cinematographer on his early films, was unable to commit to Dead Ringers, and never worked with him again.)

FLASH!, EMPIRE FORUM POST
Most (OK all) of his films have better releases in Region 1 land. Don't touch the Region 2 Dead Zone!

Not even with Empire's own Kim Newman on the commentary track? Hmm� Okay, so we don't get the extras-laden Criterion edition of Videodrome or Dead Ringers, but the best bits of Criterion's Naked Lunch (the 50-minute 'making of' and Cronenberg commentary) are on the UK edition, and the extras on A History of Violence and Cinema Reserve's recent edition of The Fly are equivalent to those of Region 1. And as for eXistenZ, the UK edition boasts a Cronenberg commentary and a host of other features absent from the US equivalent.

DJSMOKINGJAM, EMPIRE FORUM POST
Cronenberg is probably the best director working today at combining the cerebral and the visceral.

Yes, and it's interesting to see how, although still concerned with exploring the human condition ("What I really want to do his dissect�), in recent years his focus has shifted from 'body horror' (intelligent diseases, exploding heads, a woman who grows sex organs under her arm, gynaecological deformity and physiological transformation) to the less tangible, but no less terrifying, horrors of the human mind, from psychosomatic illness to psychotic impulse.

So where will Cronenberg's intellectual quest take him next? Many critics misjudged A History of Violence as Cronenberg's attempt at 'going mainstream', clearly missing the many subversive levels on which the film operates. "Cronenberg's aversion to US culture certainly reaches its apeothosis in A History of Violence,� suggests Empire forum poster djsmokingjam, "turning an average graphic novel into a deconstructionist contemporary Western that dares to have a dialogue with its audience about its hero worship of violent figures. (The title isn't just referring to Tom's history, of course, but America's.)� Adds Matty B, "When Tom fights back against the school bully, the predictable response would be to cheer him on, but Cronenberg goes somewhere deeper and darker than that. Without it ever being a limp-wristed liberal sop, A History of Violence asks if any violence, anywhere, at any time, can be justified. The fact that its final scene suggests 'yes' is unsettling, and not victorious.�

PETER A QUINN, EMPIRE FORUM POST
eXistenZ was the thinking man's Matrix.

Amen, brother, amen.