David Cronenberg knows the human body from the inside. For six decades he enjoyed transforming it, so much so that experts called him “the king of body horror.” What does the director of “Crimes of the Future” think?
Wherever you see horror, David Cronenberg sees only beauty. During his nearly sixty-year career, the director has gained a reputation as an author fascinated by the human body. The human body, the deformation and transformation of which takes pleasure beyond the bounds of the imagination, even if it involves the creation of fear and disgust.
A scientist who metamorphoses into a disgusting fly, a head that explodes into a thousand parts, a mother that gives birth to mutant children … These are the images that run through people’s minds when the name of a film director is mentioned during a conversation.
Many of his films belong to a subgenre called The horror of the body – Terrible body in French. The term originated in the early eighties and describes works in which the body is damaged. Simply put: what should be inside often ends outside. David Kronenberg was a master of this field.
AlloCiné went to the 75th Cannes Film Festival to meet him at the official competition for the Future Crimes, to meet him at the 6th arrondissement hotel in Paris. A unique opportunity to ask him what he really thinks about this subgenre and to give him this title “King of Body Horror“.
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“I have never used an expression The horror of the body To describe somethingBegins the director. Someone used it in my films, whether a critic or a film historian, then people chose it and now it has become a genre in itself.. ” When David Cronenberg started filming, there was no horror in the body. “By the way, I do not even consider it terribleHe corrects before drawing a smile.
“I have no problem with this genre, but I do not think this is the essence of my business.“For the father of La Mush and Videodrome, it is first and foremost about inner beauty. He asserts:I do not think what I am showing is terrible. Perhaps this is the problem.”
The most cult scene from David Cronenberg’s “Scanners”, released in 1981.
In Crimes of the future, In his twenty-second feature film, he respects this inner beauty. It tells the story of Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), an artist of extreme performances. With the help of Revolutionary Machines and his partner Caprice (Lea Seidu), he had his organs removed in front of a voyeuristic and rebellious public.
One of the film’s most beautiful sequences reveals a unique character: Klinek, a man with a sewn mouth and eyes. That’s not all: there are several ears embedded in every part of the body. A faithful charming creature of the director’s style who can always make the incredible possible.
A man with ears in the “crimes of the future.”
“I wanted to express the opinion that we talk and think too muchdetails David Cronenberg. We need to listen more to others, to the world and what it says. And I wanted to create an artist who could change and transform his body in a different way than a character played by Viggo Mortensen. As for me, my hearing is not very good, so that was my way of talking. ”
This man with ears joins the impressive gallery of visual anomalies that runs through his cinema. Looking back, David Cronenberg says that his most difficult creation was still the creation of the fly – for his most famous 1986 film. A transformation that requires five hours, sometimes more, of working on Jeff Goldblum’s body.
Jeff Goldblum is no longer in the last scene of “La Mouche” released in 1986. His body gives way to the creature in its final form.
“There were no digital effects then. Everything was done with practical effects. Things are easier now. In Crimes of the futureMost of it is physical, and part of it is made in computer graphics“, He reveals.
The surgical arms of the machines were particularly manipulated by the team like dolls, but in some scenes they are entirely CGI. “Bet that you can not tell the difference between the twoLaughs the director. That’s how technology has changed. ”
If his fantasies continue to shake people’s minds, David Cronenberg Never had the desire to shock the public. Nevertheless, he appreciates the strong reactions and passionate debate that arise around his stories. “I prefer this to indifferenceHe concludes. The worst thing that can happen to your film is that no one cares. ”
Interview by Thomas Desrosch, Paris, 29 April 2022.
Crimes of the futureIn cinemas on May 25, 2022.
Source: allocine
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