Programme
David Cronenberg, The Master of Body Horror
With the passage of time, the films of David Cronenberg seem increasingly prophetic: our digital world of smartphones, Big Tech, virtual reality and the metaverse in which interfacing with technology has become an indispensable part of our lives. Uncannily anticipated in his masterpieces of body horror, Cronenberg addresses our contemporary anxieties in the process of relentless mutations in mind and body, exploring the dysfunctional utopia created by human beings.
Deeply impacted by the changes in cultural values brought about by the sexual revolution, Cronenberg posed a philosophical question that would come to define his oeuvre: what happens to man's primal instincts for sex and violence in an age of pills, computers, and machines run by big businesses? In his daunting exploration of these themes through bursts of imaginative savagery, he has remained obsessed with bringing his nightmarish visions to life.
Cronenberg's preferred genre of sci-fi horror experienced a renaissance in the post-sixties era of New Hollywood, when directors such as John Carpenter, John Landis and films like Alien explored similar themes. Different from other types of horror, the auteur's thrillers play with human's own conceptions of the body by showcasing it pushed to its limits. It is the disturbance of bodily interior that distinguishes him as the master of body horror. Along with his philosophical bearings, Cronenberg sets himself apart from Hollywood by remaining steadfastly a Canadian filmmaker, owning more to arthouse films than popular entertainment.
Its personal nature and originality notwithstanding, Cronenberg's work has always relied on the strengths of his regular collaborators such as composer Howard Shore or cinematographers Mark Irwin and Peter Suschitzky. Although from Naked Lunch onwards, the sophisticated filmmaker has become increasingly recognised as a master of adaptation working with challenging literary material that - however faithful to the originals - he manages almost invariably to make his own.
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