While David Cronenberg has yet to make a contemporary film that wasn’t in perfect thematic continuity with his classic work, he’s certainly been choosing increasingly subdued projects in the past 6 or 7 years. From the looks of it, having finally reached a place of almost total — and very deliberate — repressed tension in A Dangerous Method, Cronenberg’s instincts have now snapped back like a rubber band way into the other direction, giving birth to Cosmopolis.
What we have here is an all-too-short glimpse of the film by way of a French teaser for the film’s May 23rd release. There is no US release date which, as frustrating as that may be, is only going to be more infuriating when you watch this.
NOTE: This is not safe for work…
From the graphic design, to the mood of the music, and all through every frame of imagery we have what looks like deep, wheelhouse Cronenberg made flesh by Twilight star Robert Pattinson. Promising a story filled with self-mutilation, kinky sex, hallucination, violence, and exploration of the darker instincts of man, Cosmopolis looks to be just what people have been hoping for from Cronenberg for some time. I mean, just listen to the way this synopsis is written:
New York City, not-too-distant-future: Eric Packer, a 28 year-old finance golden boy dreaming of living in a civilization ahead of this one, watches a dark shadow cast over the firmament of the Wall Street galaxy, of which he is the uncontested king. As he is chauffeured across midtown Manhattan to get a haircut at his father’s old barber, his anxious eyes are glued to the yuan’s exchange rate: it is mounting against all expectations, destroying Eric’s bet against it. Eric Packer is losing his empire with every tick of the clock. Meanwhile, an eruption of wild activity unfolds in the city’s streets. Petrified as the threats of the real world infringe upon his cloud of virtual convictions, his paranoia intensifies during the course of his 24-hour cross-town odyssey. Packer starts to piece together clues that lead him to a most terrifying secret: his imminent assassination.
I’ve been in love with Cronenberg’s masterful, sophisticated dive into mainstream(ish) dramas that allowed for a more subtle exploration of his usual themes, but I’d be a fucking liar if I said this trailer didn’t excite me. Videodrome is one of my absolute favorite films (and my coincidental namesake), so this can’t come soon enough.
Man, what a year 2012 is shaping up to be.
Obviously this is not a full trailer or even intended for US audiences, so we can expect another trailer (likely SFW) sometime soon, and more importantly a release date.
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YES! I’ve felt like Cronenberg’s lost his own voice and is flat-out duplicating David Lynch for the last decade. Finally good to see him back in his own groove.
are you kidding? David Lynch and Cronenberg may have similar thematic concerns, but this has always been the case. and given David Lynch’s increasingly avant-garde trajectory lately, I see very little of Lynch in Cronenberg, who has become, if anything, more subdued and theatrical.
That’s… a very strange comparison. Can you elaborate?
Damn it, I don’t want to have to see a Robert Pattinson movie …
This is not a Cronenberg original. This is a Don DeLillo book of the same name (http://www.amazon.com/Cosmopolis-A-Novel-Don-DeLillo/dp/0743244257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332449115&sr=8-1)
However, that being said, I’m assuming that the Cronenberg “take” will be a both more inspired than the prose in the book.
The book is pretty great. I dunno why it was greeted with such a tepid response from some critics. And this looks like almost an exact duplication of it from page to screen, which to me means it looks awesome.
The most Lynchian thing I’ve ever seen in a Cronenberg film has been the death of Richie Cusack in A History Of Violence. He gets locked out, and starts fumbling with his keys when Joey Cusack opens the door and shoots him in the face.
That teaser was friggin’ awesome. P
I have to admit that I do kind of admire the fact that Pattinson appears to want to push himself, and is no longer sticking to safe mainstream movies which would appeal to his Twilight fans. With Bel Ami and this, it seems like he wants to be known as something other than “the sparkly vampire”.
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