Line #18 Creator/DavidCronenberg


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/david_cronenberg.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Creator/MartinScorsese says he looks like “a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon”.]]
3
4	->''"My dentist said to me the other day, 'I've enough problems in my life, so why should I see your films?'"''
5
6	David Paul Cronenberg [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CC]] (born March 15, 1943 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian filmmaker and actor.
7
8	His most famous works include ''Film/{{Scanners}}'', the [[Film/TheFly1986 1986 remake]] of ''[[Film/TheFly1958 The Fly]]'' (starring Creator/JeffGoldblum), ''Film/TheBrood'', ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', ''[[Film/ExistenZ eXistenZ]]'', the film version of ''Film/TheDeadZone'', and the film "adaptation" of Creator/WilliamSBurroughs' ''Film/NakedLunch''.
9
10	His SignatureStyle used to focus on BodyHorror and FanDisservice devices, with the occasional MindScrew (especially making use of ThroughTheEyesOfMadness). For instance, ''Scanners'' is the TropeMaker for PsychicNosebleed, and ''The Fly'' the TropeCodifier for visual media depictions of SlowTransformation. His more recent works such as ''Film/Spider2002'', ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence'', and ''Film/EasternPromises'' tend toward less visceral and (relatively) subtler means of disturbing the audience. If anything, most of his works can be described as transgressive, pretty much universally forcing you out of your comfort zone to deal with the topics he puts on film -- and it's rare for a Cronenberg film not to use the human body as an artistic canvas for those topics in one way or another.
11
12	In the late '70s/early '80s he often ran afoul of Canadian [[MediaWatchdog film review boards]] (in most of Canada, film ratings are assigned by government agencies at the provincial level), as some went so far as to ban his films in their jurisdictions. Cronenberg's animosity towards censorship ("Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion.") and the persecution of artists is a recurring theme in his work (''[[Film/ExistenZ eXistenZ]]'' being a prominent example, also inspired by his friend Salman Rushdie).
13
14	Actors notably appearing more than once in his filmography include Robert A. Silverman (''The Brood'', ''Scanners'', ''Naked Lunch'', and ''eXistenZ''), Les Carlson (''Videodrome'', ''The Dead Zone'', ''The Fly'', and ''Camera''), Creator/JeremyIrons (''Film/DeadRingers'' and ''Theatre/MButterfly''), Creator/ViggoMortensen (''A History of Violence'', ''Eastern Promises'', ''A Dangerous Method'' and ''Crimes of the Future''), and most recently Creator/RobertPattinson (''Cosmopolis'' and ''Maps to the Stars''). All of his films from ''The Brood'' onwards were scored by Music/HowardShore (with the exception of ''Film/TheDeadZone'', which was scored by Michael Kamen). He also tends to use a ProductionPosse of key crew members for his films, most notably editor Ronald Sanders, production designer Carol Spier, cinematographers Mark Irwin (from ''Fast Company'' through ''The Fly'') and Peter Suschitzky (from ''Dead Ringers'' onward), and costume designer (and sister) Denise Cronenberg.
15
16	He has also done a bit of acting, including a prominent role in the Creator/CliveBarker film ''Film/{{Nightbreed}}'', a guest-villain role on ''Series/{{Alias}}'', a recurring role on ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', as well as a cameo in ''Film/JasonX'' (directed by his visual effects man, James Isaac) and two cameos for fellow director Creator/JohnLandis in ''Film/IntoTheNight'' and ''Film/TheStupids''.
17
18	His son Brandon Cronenberg is a director as well, who's followed in the footsteps of his father's BodyHorror-ridden SciFiHorror endeavors with films such as ''Film/{{Antiviral}}'', ''Film/{{Possessor}}'', and ''Film/InfinityPool''.
19
20	Cronenberg's first novel, ''Consumed'', was released in September 2014.
21
22	----
23	!!Filmography:
24
25	[[index]]
26	* ''Stereo'' (1969)
27	* ''Film/{{Crimes of the Future\|1970}}'' (1970)
28	* ''Film/Shivers1975'' (1975)
29	* ''Film/{{Rabid}}'' (1977)
30	* ''Fast Company'' (1979)
31	* ''Film/TheBrood'' (1979)
32	* ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' (1981)
33	* ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' (1983)
34	* ''Literature/TheDeadZone'' (1983)
35	* ''Film/{{The Fly\|1986}}'' (1986)
36	* ''Film/DeadRingers'' (1988)
37	* ''Film/NakedLunch'' (1991)
38	* ''Theatre/MButterfly'' (1993)
39	* ''Literature/{{Crash}}'' (1996)
40	* ''Film/{{eXistenZ}}'' (1999)
41	* ''Film/{{Spider\|2002}}'' (2002)
42	* ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence'' (2005)
43	* ''Film/EasternPromises'' (2007)
44	* ''Film/ADangerousMethod'' (2011)
45	* ''Film/{{Cosmopolis}}'' (2012)
46	* ''Film/MapsToTheStars'' (2014)
47	* ''Film/{{Crimes of the Future\|2022}}'' (2022)
48	[[/index]]
49
50	!!This director's work in general provides examples of:
51
52	* AerithAndBob: He favors some really weird surnames for his characters, often mixed between other, more mundane ones.
53	* BioPunk: Most of his work are forays into this genre.
54	** ''Film/Shivers1975'', where a scientist accidentally creates a sexually transmitted PuppeteerParasite, causing in turn a ZombieApocalypse of rape zombies.
55	** ''Film/{{Rabid}}'', where an experimental skin graft creates a sort of BioPunk vampire, whose victims all become rabid zombies and attack Montreal.
56	** ''Film/TheBrood'', where a revolutionary psychiatric method results in hideous bodily mutations.
57	** ''Film/{{Scanners}}'', where a pharmacological error creates a BizarreBabyBoom of socially-maladjusted, creepy psychics.
58	** ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', where warring ideologies use communications technology to mutate viewers into monstrous pawns.
59	** ''Film/NakedLunch'' is BioPunk via Creator/TheBeatGeneration, with sentient typewriters, giant bugs, and monsters who give you tremendous creativity in exchange for blowjobs.
60	** ''[[Film/{{Existenz}} eXistenZ]]'', where genetically-engined amphibians are used to create OrganicTechnology video game hardware.
61	** ''Film/TheFly1986'', where a failed teleportation experiment fuses Creator/JeffGoldblum and... well, a fly.
62	** ''Film/CrimesOfTheFuture2022'' is set in a near-ish future where the characters, having transcended pain and disease, use fleshy-carapace machines to perform recreational surgeries as entertainment.
63	* BodyHorror: Cronenberg is an acknowledged ''master'' of this trope. He specializes in a genre he calls "venereal horror", dealing with infection, diseases, and transformation of the flesh.
64	* CreatorsOddball: ''Fast Company'' is about stock car racing, with humor and action that wouldn't be out of place in a Burt Reynolds vehicle of the era, and is ''by far'' Cronenberg's most upbeat movie. He ''is'' a huge racing buff. Interestingly, some key members of his ProductionPosse, editor Ronald Sanders and cinematographer Mark Irwin, first worked with him on this one.
65	* FanDisservice: The torture/murder channel in ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', the disturbing fetishization of car crashes in ''Literature/{{Crash}}'', and the borderline violent stairway sex scene in ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence'' come to mind.
66	* {{Gorn}}: Damn near every BodyHorror film made by Cronenberg will contain plenty of blood, guts, and other disturbing imagery.
67	* LovecraftianSuperpower:
68	** ''Film/TheBrood''. While Psychoplasmics isn't ''necessarily'' a superpower, the ability to birth homunculi from your traumatic memories who end up subconsciously doing your bidding might be considered useful, if fucked up.
69	** ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' are technically "just" {{Telepath}}s. Thing is, most telepaths in fiction ''can't'' make '''YourHeadASplode.''' And the BigBad can overpressurize a man's veins until he fountains blood and '''''[[SpontaneousHumanCombustion bursts into flames!]]'''''
70	** ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', where Max ([[UnreliableNarrator probably]]) gets mutable flesh and a giant mouth in his stomach, which can apparently create hand grenades.
71	** Seth Brundle in ''Film/TheFly1986'' gains the ability to wallcrawl, super strength, and even vomit a corrosive enzyme to dissolve food (or enemies). Unfortunately, he gained these abilities when he accidentally fused his genes with a fly and slowly mutates into a grotesque giant insect/human hybrid. BlessedWithSuck indeed.
72	* {{Mindscrew}}: Several films as regards to what is really happening and what isn't.
73	* OrganicTechnology: There are fleshy videocasettes and living televisions in ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', talking insectoid typewriters in ''Film/NakedLunch'', and organic video game consoles and guns in ''Film/{{eXistenZ}}''.
74	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: His films are clearly set on the cynical end and tend to have {{Downer Ending}}s if [[NoEnding they have them at all]], but some do end more [[BittersweetEnding bittersweetly]].
75	* SpiritualAntithesis: ''Dead Ringers'' to ''The Fly''; the former came right after the latter and they tend to duke it out for the title of Cronenberg's greatest film. Each is a PsychologicalThriller {{Tragedy}} with a few significant characters in which a man's jealous love for a woman inadvertently sends him into SanitySlippage and a grisly finale. Both involve extensive special effects and a lead actor who was very seriously committed to their performance on physical and mental levels. But ''The Fly'' is science fiction involving a transformation into both a HalfHumanHybrid and MadScientist with extreme amounts of onscreen BodyHorror; ''Dead Ringers'' is a more realistic story of a gynecologist who becomes a MadDoctor and BodyHorror is more suggested than shown. Where ''The Fly'' involves two entities (the scientist and a housefly) merging into one, with makeup effects turning Creator/JeffGoldblum into a monster, ''Dead Ringers'' involves two entities trying to separate themselves -- the doctor and his twin, who have shared the same life if not body, with the special effects allowing Creator/JeremyIrons to play both. The visuals, acting, and tone are icy and chic in ''Dead Ringers''; ''The Fly'' is warmer and dowdier. The ''Dead Ringers'' trailer actually positioned it as this trope in its narration (and used RecycledTrailerMusic from its precursor): "From David Cronenberg, who in ''The Fly'' made the fantastic real...Now, David Cronenberg makes reality the ultimate fantasy."
76	* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Film/{{eXistenZ}}'' is regarded as this to ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' in its examination of the intersection of humanity and new technology.
77	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: A few films blur the line between reality and imagination with a protagonist who is hallucinating at several or all points.
78	** ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', in which Max Renn's grasp of reality is tainted by the brain-damaging Videodrome signal.
79	** ''Film/NakedLunch'', in which Bill Lee is either insane, tripping on drugs, or is inserting himself into his own story about Interzone.
80	** ''Film/Spider2002'' is told from the perspective of Spider, a paranoid schizophrenic who is hallucinating half the time.

Context Creator / DavidCronenberg