:: Metropolis Tokyo :: IN PERSON - Guru of gore
David Cronenberg has been called many things by movie writers: Dave Deprave, Baron of Blood or King of Venereal Horror. Usually populated by sexually dysfunctional oddballs and full of gut-churning images, his movies often defy comprehension. To Cronenbergs fans, his films are visionary. To others, they are just plain weird. But the 60-year-old Canadian director looks at his films philosophically. To him, they are a dramatic voyage of discovery.
I love all my films; they are like children to me, he said during a recent visit to Japan, where his work has attained cult status over the years. In fact, HMV Japan lists two of Cronenbergs filmsThe Fly and The Naked Lunchas its top two most popular-selling DVDs. Im fascinated with the questions of human existence and identity, and I hope that as I get older and continue to develop, my films get better.
Cronenbergs latest film, Spider, while less gory than his other work, nevertheless sticks to his favorite theme of identity confusion. A London man (Ralph Fiennes) tries to make sense of his life after being released prematurely from an asylum. He sets out to discover the truth about his past and the death of his mother (Miranda Richardson), who gave him the nickname of Spider. He is the classic existential figure, struggling with the question of who he is, said Cronenberg. Ralph is the right character to play him. He is one of those rare actors who can take an intellectual concept and embody it in his acting. He would wear the same coat as the character, not wash his hair for days, and carry his case around town all the time just to get the right feeling for Spider.
Its been 20 years since Cronenberg was last in Japan to promote The Dead Zone, one of the few of his films that he hasnt written himself (and one of his least gory, considering that its a Stephen King story). Based in Toronto, Cronenberg did some writing himself at university. He had several horror stories published and also made some short films, but didnt really put himself on the map until his major directorial debut in 1975 with They Came from Within. He quickly established his reputation as a guru of gore with such gross-out films as Brood (1979) and the head-exploding Scanners (1981). He finally started to gain mainstream attention with subsequent efforts such as The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988), The Naked Lunch (1991), M. Butterfly (1993), Crash (1996) and eXistenZ (1999). He even made a brief appearance as a hit man hired to take care of Nicole Kidman in Gus Van Sants To Die For (1995), and from time to time pops up in cameos in made-for-TV movies.
Cronenberg has said his goal in making movies is to show the unshowable and to speak the unspeakable. But one cant help wondering if he has ever been to a good therapist or should go to one. No, I have never had therapy, he said with a grin. I never needed it. Im the most stable person I know. But when you are like that, you become interested in delving into the natures of others, and that leads to a deeper understanding of yourself and how you got that way. Anyone interested in dramatic artscertainly actors and directorsis eventually led to deal with the basic existential questions, especially identity.
In Cronenbergs films, characters go back and forth between reality and illusion. There are no rules in his worlds. What is reality anyway? the director asked. Everything we sense about the outside world is mediated by our brain and senses. Its not verifiable. Reality is created this way. Maintaining that requires a lot of effort over a long period of time. When we wake up each morning, we spend a lot of energy remembering who we are, where we are and what language we speak. Thats how I felt when I woke up this morning in my hotel room in Tokyo. Memory is a volatile, slippery thing. I am very aware that my memory is constantly being rewritten and re-edited as I get older.
Fellow bizarre film director David Lynch tried something normal a couple of years ago with The Straight Story, but Cronenberg isnt interested in going down that path. I find it more revealing to get to the basics of life and death. Sure, I could make a film where everything is sweet and wonderful, but it would be boring. The best stories deal with people struggling. Ive actually seen comedies and come out depressed, whereas I have come out of a dark film and felt exhilarated.