Reaction Shots

Appendix 1: Architectural Space(s) in Cronenberg’s Early works Really, it’s better if you read the main article first. Few other directors have used architecture as a character as well as Cronenberg. Kubrick comes to mind most readily, particularly in the early works where the ironic distance of the characters is buttressed by the choice of antiseptic or Brutalist architecture used as settings. It is palpable, almost out of the gate with “Stereo” where the telepaths move through a sterile environment pursuing the ability to connect emotionally and sexually. It is as if Cronenberg is daring the scientific community to look at how contradictory it is to attempt to distance the observer from the observed through the play-acting of lab coats and “laboratory conditions.” This is a conceit he would revisit periodically throughout his work; but it is impressive how well he used it even this early on.  “Stereo” and “Crimes of the Future” both traffic in this idea of spaces set aside for sc...

“That a film might fail internally because it’s not well-conceived or well-crafted, that’s possible. Obviously my early films, as I’ve said many times, were my film school. You’re seeing me learn to make films right before your very eyes, and obviously the early films are, y’know, they’re pretty rough… but vulnerable?  This is the thing that young filmmakers and young artists out there of any kind are shocked to discover. It’s all vulnerability. You are putting yourself out there for anyone to comment on, and to react to, in ways that might surprise you. I’m totally vulnerable, with every film. But not necessarily because I’ve made a bad film or I’ve done something I didn’t know I was doing, but because you are offering yourself up for evaluation.”(1) The first film of David Cronenberg’s I saw was “Videodrome”; it was riveting and provocative, both viscerally and intellectually and I couldn’t say that it was more one than the other. I’d heard about “Scanners” but most of what reac...