“The Body Is Real”: Canadian Filmmaker David Cronenberg on Mortality and Film Making – National

For almost the entire career, David Cronenberg has been considered a pioneer in the “body horror” subgenre. The reason is easy to understand.

The famous Canadian filmmaker is behind the scanner, videodrome and the 1986 fly remake. Much of the film focuses on graphic violations that are bothering the human body.

However, the 82-year-old Trontonian only reluctantly accepted the title, allowing others to tie the phrase “body horror” into his film.

“I have never used that term to describe my work,” Cronenberg said in an interview with Global National's Eric Sorensen. “But it's stuck and I'm stuck with it.”

Human contacts

For the average movie fan, Cronenberg's latest film, Shroud, doesn't necessarily help him defend. The film is about a high-tech entrepreneur inventing a machine that monitors corpses while disassembled inside a tomb.

But it is one of Cronerg's most personal films and has been inspired by the death of his wife in 2017 and the sadness that followed.

The film itself doesn't keep that a secret. Like Cronenberg, the morbid invention of the film's protagonist is the product of his own longing for his late spouse. In previous interviews, Cronenberg explained his fierce urge to join his wife during the burial. This is also mentioned in the film.

“My wife's death was the instigator of this film. I would never have made this film. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have written it. But I think you can overstress the idea of ​​the personal aspect of it because you think all the art is somehow personal,” says Cronenberg.

“Because it's your life that you can understand what your characters are, who they are, and how people relate to each other.”

For beginners, it raises questions about what inspires the disturbing visions that exist in other Cronenberg films, such as the sexual fetish of men for a deadly car crash in a crash, or the tragic human mutations driven by technology in future crime.

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David Cronenberg speaks of the new film “The Shrouds” and reflects the legacy of “Body Horror”

But for Cronenberg, we have long been fascinated by the human body, and these extremes simply reflect how intense our anxiety about changes in our bodies and mortality is.

“It's time for a child to know that a child won't live forever… It's pretty difficult. It's a big turning point in human life,” he says.

“The body is reality. Starting with that, and thinking that death is inevitable, if you are an atheist like me, you think death is forgetful. That is your end. You disappear.

Being faithful to Canada

When Cronenberg began making the film more than 50 years ago, it never meant to make this a destructive one. The son of a musician and writer, he was creative, attracted by the possibilities of the medium for expressing his ideas. It was good at what he cared about at the time, as he had no short films and no formal training.

“It was not even an idea of ​​the subject that was considered, the ability to become a technical filmmaker,” he says.

“At first I thought, 'Oh my god, I don't think I can do this. The face on my head is the wrong size of the frame. The angle is not correct. Two shots actually don't work.' And I thought maybe I'd really not have any sensibility. ”

Kronerg was also unsure whether his career as a filmmaker would thrive in Canada. Motivated in part by better financial incentives in the American film industry, he first pitched his first feature, Shivers, to Hollywood executives. He also considered moving to the United States forever, as he has a personal bond south of the border through his American father. He decided to stay only when he secured funding from the Canadian Film Development Corporation, now in Canada.

He likes it anyway and still does.

“I really felt that my sensibility was Canadian and was different from the US,” he says. “I don't imagine Canadians being different in the US, but when I went to America I really got to feel how different it was.”

Typically Cronenberg…and Canadians

After decades of international acclaim, the eccentricity of Cronenberg's films is now considered a typical Canadian film. His influence and beyond are representative of how Canadian filmmakers do their best when they aren't trying to imitate mainstream Hollywood.

Cronenberg was not without success there either, nor did he direct star-studded dramas like the history of violence and Eastern promises. He was initially approached to tackling the joys of the crowds like Top Gun, Star Wars and his confused.

“I thought I would have probably somehow managed to destroy that film (the Flashdance),” admits Cronenberg. “(But) I took it as a positive evaluation of my skills as a director.”

It is clear that Cronenberg's unique work will continue to fascinate audiences and aspiring filmmakers, much after he was gone. Even if that means his name will forever be associated with the “body horror” genre.

But faithful to his beliefs, he is not too worried about legacy.

“I'm not worried about that,” he says. “Once you die, it's not a problem.”