No. I heard about it, and forgot, it seems. Thanks for another great reminder :-)
I LOVE eXistenZ. I think it is the work of a genius, the story is INCREDIBLE, and very subtle filming techniques are used to transport the viewer into a strange context and the viewer feels this but does not understand how or why. Second time I watched it, I realized what he had done - there is no electronics in the movie (the game part). Remember the hotel room? No TV, no phone. No electronic equipment anywhere in the film. The game itself is of course a "manufactured" animal.
Another point - note that sometime through the film, the camera starts cutting from one character to another as they say their respective lines. As in a game. It all comes together to produce a very unreal atmosphere.
I actually adore pretty much everything David Cronenberg has ever filmed. Dead Ringers, for example, is brilliant! Naked Lunch is probably not for everyone, but I find it extremely good. I discovered Cronenberg when I watched Crash, and was hooked. I was also hooked on the books of J. G. Ballard who wrote the book "Crash", and reading "The Atrocity Exhibition" afterwards, I realized that Crash was a rather "normal" book for him but that's another story. It turns out that Crash was one of the most "normal" films Cronenberg had made :-)
Last year in Cannes Film Festival, you wouldn't believe what I did to gind an invitation to Cronenberg's new film Spider. It was a different style and for his most devoted fan, a bit of a disappointment. Still, along with Neal Stephenson and Bach, David Cronenberg is GOD... |
