Post by klep on Jan 11, 2021 9:38:18 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/11: eXistenZ
BAD SCIENCE WEEK!
Cronenberg has always excelled at body horror. Whether the famous exploding head shot from Scanners or the grotesque transformation of The Fly, he has an uncanny knack for digging into our brains and finding that exact spot that fills us with revulsion even as we're unable to look away. His prosthetics always look distinctly biological and fleshy, but somehow wrong - cancerous or unnatural.
In most of Cronenberg's films his squirmy body horror is about the body - an effort to express the fear and disgust at the changes the body experiences. In his 1999 film eXistenZ, however, he uses it as a metaphor to help us key into the horror of a warping mind. Ted Pikul (Jude Law) is a marketing trainee at a video game company. It's a field he wanted to get into for some reason despite never having played any of its games - a surgical phobia has kept him from getting the necessary spinal port. But he's there at a focus group/hype session for the latest game from star developer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) regardless, scanning people who come through the door for recording devices.
eXistenZ is set in a near-future world where video games have apparently largely or entirely been taken over by hyper-realistic virtual reality that uses a direct connection to a port installed in the small of the back. An umbilical cord (term deliberately chosen) connects the user to a tumorous pod that looks like flesh. It looks really disturbing, but everyone seems accustomed to it. Except, that is, for the luddite who attempts to assassinate Allegra. Soon Ted and Allegra are on the run, hoping to hide out until they can figure out where it's safe to go, and ultimately that leads Ted to overcome his phobia and actually try out Allegra's game.
The game is of a kind that the real life industry dreams of but can't yet create - something completely dynamic, which takes its cues from the neural connection it has with the players' brains. So it's only natural that the cat & mouse game Ted and Allegra were playing in real life follows them there, creating a byzantine fantasy that leaves them uncertain of where reality begins and ends.
Cronenberg uses the unsettling nature of the game's physical interface to key us into the increasingly uncomfortable mental state of Ted and Allegra as they lose their grip on reality. There's a real vulnerability that comes with a hole in your back and knowing that your spine has been made vulnerable, and the way Allegra anthropomorphizes her 'pod' creates the disturbing notion that vulnerability is being exploited by something with an agency all its own. Cronenberg repeatedly reinforces that sense of vulnerability with the way the installation and examination of Ted's port is so roughly handled, and it all gets enhanced by the way objects from life (like that creepy bone gun) bleed into the game.
In the end Cronenberg finds one final way to pull the rug out from under us. Right when we aren't sure what reality is or not, he seemingly gives us an answer only to tear it away again multiple times in the span of about 15 minutes. It's a marvelously unsettling way to conclude a thoroughly unsettling film.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/18: Pan's Labyrinth
THIS FILM KILLS FASCISTS WEEK!
We have to run this theme again, so we're taking the opportunity to finally visit this Guillermo Del Toro 2007 classic. Be sure to join us next week for our discussion of Pan's Labyrinth, available on Netflix and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/12: Soul
Pixar's latest picture is the topic of the next podcast and is, as usual, a balm for the.... well... you know. Join us Wednesday as we discuss Pete Docter's latest effort, available on Disney+
BAD SCIENCE WEEK!
Cronenberg has always excelled at body horror. Whether the famous exploding head shot from Scanners or the grotesque transformation of The Fly, he has an uncanny knack for digging into our brains and finding that exact spot that fills us with revulsion even as we're unable to look away. His prosthetics always look distinctly biological and fleshy, but somehow wrong - cancerous or unnatural.
In most of Cronenberg's films his squirmy body horror is about the body - an effort to express the fear and disgust at the changes the body experiences. In his 1999 film eXistenZ, however, he uses it as a metaphor to help us key into the horror of a warping mind. Ted Pikul (Jude Law) is a marketing trainee at a video game company. It's a field he wanted to get into for some reason despite never having played any of its games - a surgical phobia has kept him from getting the necessary spinal port. But he's there at a focus group/hype session for the latest game from star developer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) regardless, scanning people who come through the door for recording devices.
eXistenZ is set in a near-future world where video games have apparently largely or entirely been taken over by hyper-realistic virtual reality that uses a direct connection to a port installed in the small of the back. An umbilical cord (term deliberately chosen) connects the user to a tumorous pod that looks like flesh. It looks really disturbing, but everyone seems accustomed to it. Except, that is, for the luddite who attempts to assassinate Allegra. Soon Ted and Allegra are on the run, hoping to hide out until they can figure out where it's safe to go, and ultimately that leads Ted to overcome his phobia and actually try out Allegra's game.
The game is of a kind that the real life industry dreams of but can't yet create - something completely dynamic, which takes its cues from the neural connection it has with the players' brains. So it's only natural that the cat & mouse game Ted and Allegra were playing in real life follows them there, creating a byzantine fantasy that leaves them uncertain of where reality begins and ends.
Cronenberg uses the unsettling nature of the game's physical interface to key us into the increasingly uncomfortable mental state of Ted and Allegra as they lose their grip on reality. There's a real vulnerability that comes with a hole in your back and knowing that your spine has been made vulnerable, and the way Allegra anthropomorphizes her 'pod' creates the disturbing notion that vulnerability is being exploited by something with an agency all its own. Cronenberg repeatedly reinforces that sense of vulnerability with the way the installation and examination of Ted's port is so roughly handled, and it all gets enhanced by the way objects from life (like that creepy bone gun) bleed into the game.
In the end Cronenberg finds one final way to pull the rug out from under us. Right when we aren't sure what reality is or not, he seemingly gives us an answer only to tear it away again multiple times in the span of about 15 minutes. It's a marvelously unsettling way to conclude a thoroughly unsettling film.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/18: Pan's Labyrinth
THIS FILM KILLS FASCISTS WEEK!
We have to run this theme again, so we're taking the opportunity to finally visit this Guillermo Del Toro 2007 classic. Be sure to join us next week for our discussion of Pan's Labyrinth, available on Netflix and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/12: Soul
Pixar's latest picture is the topic of the next podcast and is, as usual, a balm for the.... well... you know. Join us Wednesday as we discuss Pete Docter's latest effort, available on Disney+