Monday, 16 December 2019

Cronenberg on Amazon Prime?

Coming up this week: I still need to blog the Warrior taster, there's my first social outing with Manchester Andy's Man Club, and then I break from work for Christmas. It's Mad Friday! The last Friday before Christmas should see a plethora of people hitting Manchester. I have no solid plans but I expect there'll be a story out there somewhere. Tweet me if you've got one.

Also, I've got an Amazon Prime 30 day trial. I've activated it- I just have to remember to cancel it in time... Keen to see if they have any of the numerous films that are sadly lacking from Netflix.

Last week I finished reading Cronenberg on Cronenberg, from publisher Faber and Faber and edited by Chris Rodley. It comprises of responses from interviews with Canadian surrealist filmmaker David Cronenberg, he of Crash / The Fly / Scanners fame. The interviews follow the chronology of his career, starting with his polite, middle class Toronto upbringing and his progression through film school and into the realisation of his early works (something, since reading about, I've put on my Amazon wishlist). It goes on to investigate his later, more successful movies like the Fly and Crash, but was published in '97 so before Existenz and subsequent films.

David Cronenberg makes weird, fucked up movies. You want someone fucking a flesh wound in a woman's leg? He's filmed it. A flesh-eating skin-graft in a woman's armpit? Check. Mind readers who explode their subjects' heads. You got it. His explanations of the hidden meanings in his films make for fascinating reading, although obviously if the films aren't for you, the book won't be either. He's more than a low-budget schlock horror movie maker, so if you want gore, he's your man, but if you want intellectual concepts along with that, you will be far from disappointed.


Are his movies on Amazon Prime, though? They aren't on Netflix...

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