Cronenberg

I'm at a loss to come up with a suitable title, except to say: If David Cronenberg played hockey he'd be my favorite Canadian! I guess he'll have to settle for 2nd or 3rd. I always pictured him as being something akin to the weird, villainous character he plays in Clive Barker's "Nightbreed." He's pretty much the opposite. He's sensitive, erudite and a consummate professional. If you watch movies at all, you're familiar with his work even if you don't recognize his name.

He's been called the "Master of the cinema extreme"; the "Barron of Blood" and the "Creator of Venereal (body) Horror." I call him the King of the Bizarre Avant Garde. His body of work spans decades. He is an actor, director, author, screen writer and a combination of all. Some of his movies are:
Shivers (his first)
Scanners
The Fly (remake)
Videodrome
Crash
A Dangerous Method
Tron
Scanners
Eastern Promises
The Dead Zone (written by Stephen King)
Naked Lunch (in collaboration with William S. Burroughs)
A History of Violence
Existenz

These are just a few.

Cronenberg was born in Toronto in 1943 (at last somebody older than me). He became interested in movies the same way many of us in that era did... it was the only available entertainment on Saturdays. Like most of us he was fascinated by westerns and similar fare of the day. He says one day as he came out of the theater people exiting the cinema across the street were weeping. He went to investigate... it was Fellini's La Strada. It was then that he realized the immense power of film- as an art form. It's easy to categorize many of his films as merely horror, but every one contains social commentary. One theme prevalent in almost all of his films is that technology is merely an extension of ourselves.

He has a very different style of directing than most... He views it as a collaboration, rather than some exercise in autocracy. His filmmaking is not restricted to any one genre. When asked, "what is a Cronenberg film?" He responded, "I don't know, just one I want to make." He says that when people go to movies, they care about the story and actors. It's only critics that care about style, genre, etc.. Of censors he wrote: "Censors do only what psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion."

In all of his movies no matter the genre, he asks the questions: Who are we? Who are we as a species? How do we see ourselves as individuals? What is our role in this reality? What, for that matter, is reality? One other interesting point is that none of his movies are filmed in Hollywood, all are filmed in Canada. This is an interview that he did with German television where he explains his filmmaking techniques and, basically, what makes him tick. It is thoroughly entertaining to spend an hour or so inside his head!