On this day in movie history – Cosmopolis (2012 movie & novel):

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Cosmopolis

directed and written by David Cronenberg,

based on the novel by Don DeLillo,

released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 25, 2012.

Music by Howard Shore.

Cast:

Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Durand, Abdul Ayoola, Juliette Binoche, Emily Hampshire, Bob Bainborough, Samantha Morton, Zeljko Kecojevic, Jay Baruchel, Philip Nozuka, Mathieu Amalric, Patricia McKenzie, Ryan Kelly, Nadeem Phillip/Umar-Khitab, Albert Gomez, Goûchy Boy, David Schaap, Warren Chow, George Touliatos, Jadyn Wong, K'Naan, Inessa Frantowski, Jonathan Seinen, Milton Barnes, John Batkis, Saad Siddiqui, Anna Hardwick, Maria Juan Garcias, Christopher Gross, Conor Loftus, Paulette Sinclair, Noah Wallach.

Recommended reading:

Cosmopolis

by Don DeLillo.

Filmed as Cosmopolis (2012), directed by David Cronenberg.

Published by Scribner.
First published 2003.

ISBN-10: 0743244257
ISBN-13: 978-0743244251

Description:
"Cosmopolis is a concise Ulysses for the new century." – The San Diego Union-Tribune.

It is an April day in the year 2000 and an era is about to end. The booming times of market optimism – when the culture boiled with money and corporations seemed more vital and influential than governments – are poised to crash. Eric Packer, a billionaire asset manager at age twenty-eight, emerges from his penthouse triplex and settles into his lavishly customized white stretch limousine. Today he is a man with two missions: to pursue a cataclysmic bet against the yen and to get a haircut across town. Stalled in traffic by a presidential motorcade, a music idol’s funeral and a violent political demonstration, Eric receives a string of visitors – experts on security, technology, currency, finance and a few sexual partners – as the limo sputters toward an increasingly uncertain future.

Cosmopolis, Don DeLillo’s thirteenth novel, is both intimate and global, a vivid and moving account of the spectacular downfall of one man, and of an era.

On this day in movie history - eXistenZ (1999)

eXistenZ

directed and written by David Cronenberg,

was released in the United States on April 23, 1999.

Music by Howard Shore.

Cast:

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Don McKellar, Callum Keith Rennie, Sarah Polley, Christopher Eccleston, Willem Dafoe, Robert A. Silverman, Oscar Hsu, Kris Lemche, Vik Sahay, Kirsten Johnson, James Kirchner, Balázs Koós, Stephanie Belding, Gerry Quigley.

On this day in movie and books history - Videodrome (1983 and 2008)

Videodrome

a.k.a. Zonekiller,

directed and written by David Cronenberg,

was released in the United States on February 4, 1983.

Music by Howard Shore.

Cast:

James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson, Jack Creley, Lynne Gorman, Julie Khaner, David Bolt, Reiner Schwarz, Lally Cadeau, King Cosmos, Kay Hawtrey, David Tsubouchi.

Recommended reading: 

 

Videodrome
Studies in the Horror Film

by Tim Lucas.

Published by Centipede Press.
First Edition.
Published 2008.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1933618280
ISBN-13: 978-1933618289

Description:

Released in 1983, David Cronenberg's Videodrome is one of his most original and provocative works, fusing social commentary with shocking elements of sex and violence. Crossing the boundary between science fiction, horror, and social criticism, Videodrome remains a unique and brilliant work in the oeuvre of cinema's greatest maverick.

Tim Lucas had behind-the-scenes access to every facet of production when Videodrome was filmed in 1981. His unique perspective provides interviews with cast and crew, including exclusive, never-before-published interviews with Cronenberg, commentary and analysis of the film, and over sixty black-and-white and color photographs, many never before seen.

Videodrome is the first in the Studies in the Horror Film series, which aims to present critical and popular discussion of the great horror films in affordable, attractive packages.

Tim Lucas is the editor of Video Watchdog magazine, which specializes in critical discussions of popular and obscure horror, fantasy, and science fiction films. He is also a renowned and astute film critic and award-winning writer.

Videodrome

by Jack Martin.

Published by New English Library Ltd.

Published 1983.

ISBN-10: 0450056015

ISBN-13: 978-0450056017

Description:

In the world that lies ahead of us all, reality and hallucination will merge and interchange.

So, when Max Renn saw the flesh of his stomach swell and redden as though a giant worm was moving beneath the skin, was that imagination – or reality?

And when the skin split and the flesh parted like giant lips, soft and bloodied. When he could sink his fingers, his whole hand, deep inside, feeling and probing through the wall of his own stomach. As the juices, thick and warm, clung and sucked gently at his finger-tips, drawing him in. As the bile rose, hot with revulsion in his throat....

Was that a nightmare – or reality?

Scanners (1980) - still blows my mind … kind of:

Review by Jack Kost

 

Whenever I hear the subject of “guilty pleasures”, Scanners (1980) is one of the movies I immediately remember.

At the time I first watched Scanners, I’d already seen director David Cronenberg’s previous cinematic ventures into the “body horror” genre: Shivers, Rabid, and The Brood.

I wasn’t too impressed with any of those movies.
They had interesting concepts, but were flawed, and often hampered by wooden acting.
Scanners is no exception, sadly, but it still entertains me.
If I had to make up a category, I guess Flawed but Fun would fit.
 
Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly – I enjoyed.

Videodrome, The Dead Zone, Dead Ringers, and eXistenZ – I loved.

Naked Lunch – I hated.

Eastern Promises and A History of Violence were both thought-provoking and gripping conventional thrillers, breaking away from his principal horror genre.

I have yet to see his other works.
 
Scanners, released in the United States on January 14, 1981, is a mix of horror, science fiction, and espionage-thriller, with a James Bond-esque plot of world domination.

The Scanners of the title are people with an invisible mutation: a form of telekinesis enabling them to link, control and even destroy humans and computers by the power of thought.
This is a fun movie to be enjoyed simply for what it is: fantasy.
Whenever I watch Scanners, I ignore the numerous plot holes and inconsistencies.
I wish I could ignore the lousy acting in particular … however, that’s simply impossible.
Stephen Lack, as great and jovial a guy as he is, in my movie-watching experience, gives the worst performance of a lead actor I have ever seen.
He acts as if he’s in a daze and says his lines in a droning monotone.
He’s so wooden; I felt I could have made a solid bookcase just out of his performance!
The man was cheated out of his Razzie Award!
I laugh every time I see and hear him deliver the line:
“The future! You murdered the future!”

On the plus side: this movie made me a fan of Michael Ironside.
He’s excellent as the villain, Revok, and his presence in a movie has always inspired me to view it.

Ironside, along with Patrick McGoohan, Jennifer O’Neill, and Lawrence Dane, all give good performances.

The special effects fall into the “good for the time” category, but even with no CGI at the time it was made, and a limited budget, Cronenberg still did a great job.
The vein and eyeball-popping final battle between the hero and villain will make you smile at how fake it all looks.

For all its faults and fall-shorts, there’s still a lot to enjoy in this movie, and no blog about Scanners would be complete without mentioning the landmark exploding head scene.

This effect alone makes Scanners a classic must–see … even if you do have to ignore the fact that there is not one spot of blood or gore on either Michael Ironside, or the table at which they were seated!

When I first saw Scanners, I knew very little about the story, so this scene had a similar surprise element of the head falling out of the hole in the bottom of the boat, in Jaws, or the shock ending of Carrie.
It was a long time before a making-of documentary revealed to me how they achieved the exploding head effect in Scanners: a latex life-cast was made of actor Louis Del Grande’s head:

The cast was fitted with a plaster support, filled with dog food, fake blood, rabbit liver, portions of burger, syrup, and sealed with wax.
After numerous failed attempts to produce a convincing effect, special effects artist, Gary Zeller, finally took a shotgun, positioned himself low behind the seated dummy, and blew its head off!

The resulting effect is … even now … mind blowing!