David Cronenberg
With over thirty years and a dozen films, David Cronenberg has brought us to the extremities of the future to ask the burning questions about the present. He has managed to carve a unique niche for himself as the premiere purveyor of biological horror films. He describes himself as an amateur scientist; his films although often disturbing and scary, are also usually funny and involve some semblance of human chemistry going very awry, with phantasmagorical results for his often, very unfortunate characters. Born on March 15, 1943, in Toronto, Canada to a journalist father and musician mother—his sister, Denise Cronenberg is one of the film industry’s top costume designers—his filmmaking adventures began in university. At the University of Toronto, David Cronenberg formed the metal detector Toronto Film Co-op with fellow enthusiast Ivan Reitman—who ended up in Hollywood as well as a director (Ghostbusters) and as a producer (most recently, the Natalie Portman-Ashton Kutcher movie, No Strings Attached). David Cronenberg made a number of short films in the following years, some for Canadian television. Then, in 1975, he finally made his film debut with Shivers (a.k.a. They Came From Within), a prescient microdermabrasion machine thriller about a residential condominium complex full of swinging singles, where a strange parasite turns them into sexually rapacious and violent creatures. He followed this up with 1977’s equally shocking Rabid which explored similar themes. Conenberg tried for a change of pace in 1979 with the stop snoring cult hit Fast Company, a film about itinerant drag racers. In the same year, he also had what many consider to be his most disturbing film, The Brood, which starred Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar. Written at the time the filmmaker was going through a long-drawn-out and painful divorce, it was the first of his films to receive the abhorred stamp of an X rating from the MPAA; it had to be trimmed for its doggie wheelchair American release. In the eighties, David Cronenberg became something of a household name. With Films like Scanners in 1981 and Videodrome in 1983 continuously pushing the envelope in the way they presented thought-provoking storylines and metaphors, not to mention the stomach-turning violence—although Cronenberg’s fans will insist that he rarely, if at all, was ever gratuitous in his depictions. He successfully adapted Stephen King’s novel The Dead Zone onto the screen, it was a box office and critical hit in 1983. It proved that he could deliver a Hollywood studio picture and still keep his own unique sensibilities. And in 1986, with the remake of The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum as the memorable brilliant scientist whose DNA is accidentally crossed with the “bug”-eyed household pest, he proved that he was not a one time or one hit wonder. Dead Ringers featured a tour-de-force performance from Jeremy Irons in dual roles as twin gynecologists with dark impulses. This film was Cronenberg’s most lauded film to date; it swept Canada’s Genie awards; and landed in many American critics’ “Best of” lists. 2005, however has brought the filmmaker’s most acclaimed work since Dead Ringers. There were murmurs that perhaps, Canada’s auteur of the dark will finally get the long-overdue Oscar nod for his work. All the talk came in the wake of the release of A History of Violence. It starred an actor who was also mostly known for his work and not for being a “celebrity,” Viggo Mortensen who delivered a wonderfully strong yet quiet performance. So did the other members of the cast, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, and William Hurt—who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his less than 10 minutes in the film. While his style seems to have evolved, David Cronenberg continues to make films that demand work on the part of the viewer; it provokes thought. Unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, it’s not his style to make movies you can just sit back and relax to. The movies he makes are the kind that engages you and requires the participation of your mind. As your eyes flit through the screen to follow the action, your mind races to process the information. It’s not a bad way to spend 90 minutes or so.