VID: A Quite Serious Thematic Analysis of the Works of David Cronenberg

[jetpack_monkey]

Title: A Quite Serious Thematic Analysis of the Works of David Cronenberg
Source: The films of David Cronenberg
Song: Justin Timberlake feat. Timbaland - SexyBack
Warnings: NSFW nudity. Gun violence with muzzle flash. Strobing lights. Violence, sexualized violence, body trauma, gore... pretty much everything, to be perfectly frank.

Summary: Visceral sexuality in cinema.

Password: shapeofrage

Watch on Vimeo

File download: 25.9MB MP4 (right/ctrl-click and "Save link as...")

Premiered in the Glitterguts show at Vividcon 2013.

To give some background: David Cronenberg is a Canadian-born director who used to be known for a peculiar genre known as "venereal horror". There were a couple different threads running throughout his work, starting with his experimental films in the late 1960s/early 1970s and running through eXistenZ in 1999. They occasionally still pop up in his newer films, but much subdued.

What themes? Let's see... the revolt of the body against the mind, the melding of man and technology, the line between attraction and revulsion, transformation as a form of death, and, most importantly, how to put sexual organs in places they should not be.

Cronenberg's a wonderful case study when you're a budding film critic trying to get some ideas on how movies work put together, because he's basically a massive proof for auteur theory. Even in films he didn't write, like The Dead Zone, his themes come out very clearly.

I use pretty much every horror, science fiction, and fantasy film in Cronenberg's commercial oeuvre in this vid. Here's a complete list of sources:

Shivers (1975)
Rabid (1977)
The Brood (1979)
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Naked Lunch (1991)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

I did also consider including A Dangerous Method and Spider, but couldn't find enough material in either film to justify their inclusion.

I would say that Shivers, Rabid, Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, and Crash are my primary sources, and then I sort of filtered in supporting material from the rest of the sources.

Thanks to sweetestdrain  and absolutedestiny  for beta work and cheerleading.

Comments

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

I love how these director study vids bring out all sorts of terrifying parallels in the sources. They're utterly captivating visuals and they're made even more so apparent when placed together and intercut by your editing.

LOVES IT.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

That means a hell of a lot coming from you! *high fives*

Thanks, GLAMF.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

LOL, I'm watching this again, then Seven (the David Lynch one). Too bad there's not more of these to make a vidshow. Vidders need to get on that for me.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Right? I love these directorial breakdowns. With the right inspiration, I might do one every year or two.