Canadian director David Cronenberg has been digging into bodies and souls for half a century in cathartic films shot like nightmares, which reveal suppressed violence perpetrated by deviant sexuality and devouring technology.
This Monday, he is in Cannes to present Future Crimes (The crimes of the future) with Léa Seydoux and Viggo Mortensen, her new film after an eight -year hiatus. Faithful to the celebration, in 1996 he won a special jury prize for Fallenan erotic-metallic thriller that shocked, but pushed him as jury president in 1999.
Hair salt and pepper, a phlegmatic look and intense kindness: behind this high forehead pierced by two aquatic eyes hides a wild imagination. I have an incredibly non-violent life, he defends himself. I’ve never fought in a bar, even war, I’ve never been hit.
king of bloody visceral, the director of The fly (Fly) is a filmmaker who draws his inspiration from the psyche. Horror comes from within and is contained in bodies that are pierced, expelled and transformed by it.
There is an old Jewish tradition to examine the dark forces, otherwise they are the ones approaching youhe said in a book of interviews Cronenberg to Cronenberg in 1996.
If you give the devil what he deserves and think of the scariest things, it may not happen. That’s what I do with my movies: shut the horror off the screen so it doesn’t happen in my life.
His artistic origins
The grandson of Jews from Lithuania, David Cronenberg was born on March 15, 1943 in Toronto in the home of a journalist and a professional pianist. As a child, fascinated with insects, he thought of himself as a novelist.
However, in the 1950s, he was attracted to cinematographic technique and the New York scene. underground by Andy Warhol. Before I knew it, I found myself writing screenplays instead of novels.he explained in 2016 on the occasion of the release of Exhaustedhis first novel published by Gallird.
His beginnings, when he was a fresh graduate in literature and science, were hardly promising: his first evil films, Stereo in 1969, Future Crimes in 1970, was made by houses that specialize in pornography.
A genre of horror movies
Self -taught, this classical and rock guitarist displays an iconoclastic talent. Sa Trembling (Trembling) in 1975, with a lightning epidemic of obscenity descending like a virus in a city, this film appears as the manifesto of “physical horror“, a genre in which he became the master.
Sa Rabid (Angry) in 1977 and The Brood (Chromosome 3) in 1979, he showed that everything that lives inside can be seen on the outside. The body becomes psychoanalytical matter, stretched uncontrollably unconsciously.
His first commercial success, Scanners in 1981, was confirmed by his brilliant adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, The Dead Zone (Dead Zone) in 1983.
International success is linked to the story of a scientist’s disgusting transformation into an insect. Fly. Sa Videodrome in 1982, eXistenz in 1999, his cinema was involved: in these games of illusions, he presented the dangers of uncontrollable technology and virtual realities. The image engulfs the mind and body.
” Art is cathartic: this is especially true for horror films, because horror is a major emotion that evokes our existential terror. “
For him, however, it is no less surprising than dealing with our intense fear of the flesh. It’s about A History of Violence (A history of violence) and of Map of the Stars (The star map) in 2014, two films moving away from the horror genre, but still addressing the monster within us.
David Cronenberg is the father of three children, including Brandon Cronenberg, a director like him of disturbing works, especially Owner (Owner).
Source: Radio-Canada
