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Any reccomendations of what films of his to get? I've seen Existenz and Spider, both great but are his earlier films better? |
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I have seen Existenz, it was ok. I also recommend Scanners, The Fly, The Dead Zone, Videodrome, Dead Ringers (although it's a little slow) and he puts in a pretty good performance in Nightbreed. Rabid is supposed to be pretty good too. |
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I think eXistenZ is the only movie I've seen by him, but it's one of my favorite movies of all time.. Wish I could help you mate. |
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I've seen the Fly, my favoirite out of the ones i've seen so far. |
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not a fan as a generral rrule |
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your avatar rules! |
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mine's betterr |
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best cronenberg films (imo): videodrome crash naked lunch dead ringers the fly videodrome is about televised violence, one of his earlier films but in what i consider to be his top 3 crash, based on the novel by j.g. ballard, explores new frontiers of human sexuality created by car crashes. received an nc-17 rating and a special jury prize for originality, daring and audacity at the 1996 cannes film festival. naked lunch is an 'adaptation' of the william s burroughs novel, although it's more about the writing of the novel than a literal interpretation of the novel itself. the criterion collection just released a great 2-disc DVD of this. dead ringers is about identical twin gynecologists, both played by jeremy irons. not a traditional cronenberg piece except for a few parts in the end, but more of a character piece about the two brothers. his remake of the classic sci-fi film, the fly stars jeff goldblum and geena davis. a really great take on the original, with an emphasis on the gradual transformation between man and man-fly i consider his top 3 films to be crash, videodrome and dead ringers |
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but thats Kermit and... erm... what is that poor thing underneath him?? |
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did a quick bit of research and it seems Videodrome is regarded as his best, might try and get it off ebay. |
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"i consider his top 3 films to be crash, videodrome and dead ringers" thanks, i'll check those out first then |
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Naked lunch. It has got a lot of elements from "junky" as well. Kick ass book... kick ass movie. |
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Burroughs is one of the hardest authors to adapt imo. |
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hehehe, thanks :) And speculation amongst this board has deemed that it's a stuffed bunny he's humping.. (I guess the ears are under the hat?) |
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there need to be more films based on burroughs's work (tho i dunno if the world could handle them) best quote about naked lunch is cronenberg discussing how a direct adaptation would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would be banned in every country in the world |
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You might find videodrome a bit silly by todays standards.... |
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Yeah the part in the book about a huge orgy with boys from all over the world would be really commercial.... |
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i dunno, the bit where the main character pulls out that gun from his abdomen gets me every time. cronenberg has such an original voice and style, he's like a demented terry gilliam (who would also be great for adapting something burroughs) |
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most cronenberg beyond his first few features is awesome... my faves are probably Crash, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch (gotta love an adaptation that's about as different as an afx remix of a song) |
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Yeah it has got some pretty fucked up freudian stuff in it but the main plot point is a bit weak and dated... |
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the imdb doesn't give his films great ratings, is this because his films aren't mainstream? |
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i don't think so... i think Videodrome is as cool today as it ever was... what it might lack in polished film realism (ie: effects that look a bit off), the film more than makes up for in its willingness to pose difficult questions that most sci-fi film won't touch... cronenberg is a maverick |
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don't trust imdb's film rating system, it means absolutely nothing... films that are controversial will always get crappy reviews from normal people who love crappy films... |
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his films are definitely not mainstream |
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You shouldn't really care about the ratings.... that kind of films appeals to a specific kind of people. Anyway most of the people on imdb are cunts. |
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I disagree there deadeight... i rather think that cronenberg aproaches the whole issue in a geeky - sci-fi way... he doesnt go deeper , he doesnt generate more questions. Anyway it was a good chance for a display of some s&m and freudian nightmares. |
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his films fit too well together to be just an excuse for a freudian outlet... having just gone through a course in Canadian film in which the professor was the man who has (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0802035698/q id=1075065542//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i15_xgl14/104-7595950-0211105 written the most on Cronenberg of anyone in the world ?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)... i was kind of made aware of some of the themes that come into play in Cronenberg's work (not that one requires an expert to bring certain themes to the surface... but it helped)... ironically the link i've provided has one 5 star review of my professor's book and one 1 star review... so you can decide whether i'm just some full-of-shit snob who doesn't know what's what... but, short of me going on forever about what i do feel can be found in cronenberg's work... you might want to check this or some other critical readings on him... it isn't necessary for enjoyment, but it doesn't hurt your enjoyment either... |
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Sorry my english is quite bad for this type of conversation. I didn't imply or didn't mean to anyway, that cronenbergs obsessions were more important than the plot in videodrome. What i meant was that I can ignore a hollow or naive (imo always) plot if i like the pictures and the sounds and so on. The whole video tape-tv-illusions plot device seems a little tired now to me at least... too many filmmakers have commented on it through their work and i can say i have many aesthetic objections (a large part of the movie looked and sounded like a typical sci-fi b-movie). What makes the film flawed for me though is the way the story goes in the last half hour of the film. It really reminds me of Phillip K. Dick's short stories for whom I don't have the biggest respect. What i mean is that the social commentary are put aside and it just turns out to be another run of the mill sci-fi thingie. I also disagree philosophically with some aspects of the whole concept.... |
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no i think i understand what you're saying... and i totally agree with you, that if i were to watch a cronenberg for the first time tomorrow and see the thematic use of video/tv as a mediating device, i'd probably think it was dated too... but imo it's not just their presence, bu thow their used as an extension of the repressive rational half of cronenberg's universe... (in this regard Cronenbergs treatment of media devices is similar to fellow Canadian Atom Egoyan)... i apologize if this is difficult for your english abilities... i've always felt really bad about how english-centric this (and most of the internet is)... i mean, i guess it's necessary to an extent to have a single language... but it doesn't help us anglos with our arrogance issues... that's why i have to move to europe, so i can perfect my french, and russian... as well as learn new languages that i know nothing of... ... it's funny cause i actually love Philip K. Dick too :) (different strokes for different folks) |
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As I was watching the movie it became clear to me that it focused on the way that the media control peoples lives. I reckon that the above was the main point the movie made for the first 3/4 anyway. The fact that the main character was attracted to violence was just a plot device... he was more qualified for videodrome that way. The underlying perversion and some very powerful images (ie the gun merging with the hand) make this movie worthwhile for me anyway. But the visuals where a bit too 80's for a large part of it. That's why I enjoyed the "naked lunch" so much - it was a depiction of a hallucinogenic trip filled with innermost disease...it was not reffering to society and not restrained by its rules but to a mind where the border between consciousness and the subconscious is being defied... a universe where a totally different logic aplies... i know i'm rambling now!!! It really is hard for me to write down my thoughts in english firstly because my mother language is quite different and secondly because i don't talk much with people on the internet... i'm mostly reading what they write... Anyway globalisation is probably an inevitability for the western world and many other people will have to try harder to adjust so i'm not complaining... |
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dead ringers was too out there for me. although i like Peter Weller, so naked lunch is probably my fav movie... was William S Burroughs in Drugstore Cowboys? |
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I'm not sure...but he was the tv announcer in ministry's "just one fix" video. |
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spider was by him wannit? that was ok ... tho naked lunch is the mugwormgism dat fo sho |
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oops. ignore that .. :) |
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his voice fucking creeps me out |
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all above mentioned are good, but one of his more recents, "Crash" was sort of disappointing. I mean, there was good acting, and the story was fairly original, but at a point it just quickly becomes softcore pornography with quality directing. |
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The whole concept was about sexuality... |
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yes... he was... he was had a small role in Van Sant's (director of Drugstore Cowboy) "To Die For" .... i feel like the use of media devices (TV, Video) is but an extension of a larger beast... the western desire force reality into terms it can understand, dissect, etc. in cronenberg films the dominating male character experiences a slight rupture in his rationalized world, through a natural invasion (an encounter with ones own repressed sexual desires, a relationship with a female), and the rupture eventually leads to the protagonists destruction at the hands of these powerful natural forces which defy rationality... i could ramble on forever (and it's been fun, up to this point...) but probably no one really cares (not to be a snob... but rather to point out that no one gives a damn about what i have to say and that i obsess over things that are of no value to anyone...) |
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I wish i had a clearer memory of the finer details of the film in order to argue further. I'm afraid that in the end we would come to define the meaning of reality. I asure you we would be argueing for ages... |
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i wouldn't mind... so long as we're enjoing it :) |
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Like you said I dont think anybody else would... |
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But what i find cool in some of cronenbergs movies is the way he uses symbolism: through grotesque fleshy abominations or joining of machinery-plastic and flesh. I'm mostly referring to the visual part... He's fucked in the head any way you see it. |
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there's a million different points of entry into his film... that's what makes him so cool |
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FINALLY Cronenberg's first films "Stereo" and "Crimes of the future" have been released in the "Fast Company" dvd-set, "Fast Company" being another older Cronenberg (about racing) that hadn't been available before. I've been waiting to see these for such a long time. yay. |
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what about the other two? - (From the Drain and Transfer) |
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no word about those two, as of yet. |
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