David Cronenberg, film director and screenwriter: biography, creativity

Perhaps, about the horror films known in the world director David Cronenberg knows everything. He is an inspired and creative person. Since the beginning of his cinematographic activity (1975), David one after another has shot nineteen unique on the idea of full-length films, in each of which meticulous filmmakers have not seen any directorial stamp, inherited from previous works. Recognition of the genius of one of the most original directors of independent cinema was entrusted to him to lead the jury of the Cannes Film Festival in 1999.

However, we traditionally start a story about him with a biography.

Emigrant in the third generation

David Cronenberg was born on March 15, 1943 in Toronto. His grandfather, an emigrant in the first generation, a Lithuanian Jew, bore the surname Foreman. However, having sailed to Canada, the ancestor immediately changed it to Konenberg. Perhaps I wanted to deceive fate? After all, the most rich inhabitant of his homeland was Leopold Cronenberg. An enterprising grandfather in a new place created a small family business (bookshop), which he gave to David's father. He, getting a walk from the bench, also worked in the newspaper Toronto Telegams as a journalist. The mother of the future director by education was a musician. She accompanied the dancers in the Canadian ballet.

Study. Craze movie

After school, David Cronenberg entered the university of his native city. Its humanitarian orientation was shown there. In the course of his studies, the student moved from the faculty where he studied the exact sciences to the faculty of English literature, which he graduated in 1967.

At the University, David got carried away with cinematography. The case helped. One of his friends made a short film about classmates. Cronenberg looked at him as spellbound. He was attracted to the possibility of transforming reality with the help of cinema.

At first he directed and produced two short films: "From the Gutter" (1967) and "Moving" (1969).

The original philosophy of creativity

David was an atheist, he did not want to accept for the dogma the divine nature of man. Creative personality was attracted by exorbitant mutations of the mind and body of people. Developing invented a unique direction in filmmaking, the young director obviously proceeded from the principle "do not believe your eyes." Student David Cronenberg questioned the obvious in the knowledge of man, pre-fantasized the visible, giving it a mysterious and mysterious nature. He formulated the cornerstone idea of his future creativity, saying that any person is like a mad scientist, and the life surrounding him is a laboratory for experiments.

The Adept of the Cinema

The next two short films - "Stereo" (1969) and "Crimes of the Future" (1970) - were already created according to the conceived concept. David developed the theme of human mutations, the discovery in him of unknown abilities, deformations of his psyche. Deviation from the norm was stubbornly placed at the center of his work by the beginning Canadian film director, and this, on the one hand, was like madness.

But on the other hand, you see, God alone knows where the line between genius and mental illness lies. Even Plato called human thought delusions, given from above. According to the memories of the disciples, this ancient Greek philosopher himself talked with someone invisible for a long time. It is enough to recall the biographies of some people of creativity. Indeed, according to modern scientific data, Dostoevsky (a severe form of epilepsy), Gogol (schizophrenia), is recognized as mentally ill. Periodically, from madness (this is confirmed by the interview), the literary king of horrors Stephen King is treated.

One thing is beyond doubt: the beginning director David Cronenberg created his worlds, bizarrely reflecting the human essence in the distorted mirror of the scenarios.

The first feature film

1975 marks a new stage in the creative work of the director. On the screen comes his first feature film "Seizures". David Cronenberg (hunting for greater bondage) accumulated funds for a budget film. His script tells of a half-wit scientist-genetics, who brought out new human parasites that affect the increase in the sexual function of man. He lives on one of the residential islands near Montreal. The first experience in implanting parasites is a grief-scientist making over his mistress. However, soon the situation is out of control - an entire epidemic is breaking out on the island, turning good citizens into violent sexual maniacs.

Filmography of maestro Cronenberg

Actually, David Cronenberg's films originate from this film, which is not devoid of shortcomings. The list of them at the moment, as we have already mentioned, counts nineteen names: from "Fuss" (1975) to "Star Map" (2014).

However, already in the "Seizures" he showed himself as a real director. Dialogues are reconciled. Feeling the leitmotif of the film: irony. You see the efforts of the actors. All that could be done to increase the quality of a cheap film, made David Cronenberg. The director's filmography is really impressive. Apparently, after the success of the first film, the young director did not rest on his laurels, but sought new stylistic finds, original expressive means.

Then followed the search for the style in the next three budgetary pictures. And, finally, in 1981 the creative search brought the author the result. There was obvious luck: the film "Scanners", created by the director's own script, brought him recognition in the world of cinema. The genre of the picture experts qualified ambiguously, calling a rattling mixture of a detective, a horror film, science fiction, a shock horror (the scenario narrated about the accidental creation of a new human race as a result of a pharmaceutical experiment).

Looking ahead, we will present the complete filmography of the director. We will talk about it further.

80's movies. Signature tape "Dead Zone"

Directed by David Cronenbergstal, we recognize in our works on the actual issues that are sounding in them. The scientific and technological revolution really began to influence human life. The audience frankly waited for new works from the creative Canadian in about the same way as now the Russian reading public expects another novel from Victor Pelevin. And the author did not disappoint them. His next film, Videodrome, surprised the depth of the director's vision of social problems brought to society by commercial television and the press. In the depth of the disclosure of the problems, the handwriting of the master was seen. The film critic, struck by this level of foresight, was in a state of overloaded computer.

And the following year, the "Dead Zone", a Cronenberg film based on the novel by Stephen King, won two international prizes at film festivals. Criticism calls this film work the best horror film of 1984. Let's briefly outline the plot of this remarkable work. Primary school teacher Johnny Smith, a resident of Maine, is in a serious car accident. He has been in a coma for five years. Finally, when he comes to himself, Smith discovers Dar: the future of other people appears to him clearly and clearly.

The nurse who cared for him, Johnny points to the mortal danger threatening her daughter. Immediately returned home, the mother manages to save the child from a fire.

Smith is mentally unprepared for such a transformation. The attending physician suspects an aggravated mental disorder, he examines the patient, he takes his hand ... and sees the past. He sees war, a young woman giving the child to evacuated people in a leaving car. The doctor is shocked, this is his mother, and she is alive (until then he considered her dead)!

Johnny does not know how to live with his gift. Returns to him his girlfriend, still in love with him. However, the next story that happened to him finally takes him out of a shaky mental balance. The police use it as a psychic in the investigation of the serial killings of young women. Suddenly in the middle of the investigation experiment, the deputy sheriff leaves. Johnny Smith is the person who left, and he and the sheriff go to that house. In the arrivals from the threshold of the house, the assistant's mother shoots, but misses, and the sheriff's return shot proves true. Bursting into the house with the sheriff, Johnny sees a scissor pierced by her son's scissors-a maniac who has done these terrible killings before.

He is shocked by the fact that he became a tool of fate ... Smith becomes a recluse, settles in a shack. But human glory does not give him rest, people go to him for advice. The predictor manages to prevent another misfortune: the man, changing his decision, saves his son, who was supposed to fall under the ice.

The spectator really drags and carries away the "Dead Zone". The film, created as a result of the joint work of Stephen King and David Cronenberg, turned out to be fascinating and unordinary.

But it ends tragically. Sarah, beloved Johnny, becomes a volunteer in the election campaign of the contender for the presidency of the United States. Arrived at a meeting with voters, candidate Stilson greets people by the hand, while also touching the main character of the film. He sees his future: becoming president, the candidate will unleash the third world war.

John understands that his mission is now global - to save the world. But for this it is necessary to kill Stilson. That is, he, the teacher of children, will have to violate the Commandment of God ("do not kill!") The predictor is going through a spiritual crisis, but decides to take such a step. Moreover, he knows: his attempt will be successful. But he does not see the details ...

However, the shot did not follow. When John took out his gun, Stilson covered himself with Sara's baby. This manages to shoot the reporter, and the published photo destroys the career of the applicant, pushing him then to suicide.

Teachers are ahead of the candidate's guard. They open fire on him and mortally wound him. John dies before he can explain his beloved.

Growth of popularity, growth of film budgets

It was a success! Judge for yourself: with the budget of the "Dead Zone" of $ 10 million, box office revenues in the US alone amounted to more than 20 million! The world viewer, as you know, paid another $ 20 million. The film is called the best band of horrors for the year, has awards of international film contests.

After this film, another director would rest on his laurels. However, irresistible in his work, David Cronenberg. Films for him are his life. He does not consider the income received as a source of enrichment, but as a way to get money to create new films. By the standards of the townsfolk, he is simply possessed ... The fanatic got burnt out by the production of the new blockbuster "Fly". Already this film seems to have looked all over the world ... Do you think (by analogy with the efficiency of the last film) that the income from the "Fly" was 40 million dollars? Do you want 60?

90th years. Recognition, awards

After "Flies" the name of David Cronenberg becomes the brand in the world. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the self-taught director entered the recognized and venerable. He succeeded in everything! He began to experiment in genres, and successfully. William Burroughs highly praised the adaptation of his anti-utopia "Naked Breakfast". In 1990, the master tried himself in the adaptation of D. Hwang's play. He managed to remove the rating film "Madame Butterfly", recognized by experts. Of course, he does in the favorite genre of horror films. The film "Car crash", based on the work of James Ballard, brings the director of the Cannes Film Festival award.
In 1999, David Cronenberg was recognized as the No. 1 director in the world. The filmography of the master was replenished with the cult film Existence. The author managed to show the process of how the human consciousness falls into the trap of virtual computer reality and begins to replace it with the real world.

He is instructed to head the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. And he holds the most scandalous award in the history of the competition, bypassing the award-winning masters and handing them to the newcomers. After all, for Cronenberg, who started his way from budget films, there is only one criterion of creativity: talent in its pure form. So "sacred cows from the cinema" had no choice but to make a good face in a bad game.

Movies of the new century from Cronenberg

In 2002, the chamber minimalist thriller "Spider" set the tone for the entire competitive program of the Cannes Film Festival. The master with scrupulousness of Dostoevsky plunged the audience into the depths of the human psyche. Sneaked by schizophrenia, Dennis Cleg is globally exposed to the oedipal complex. The film leaves the impression of complete hopelessness of the life situation of the protagonist.

Inscrutable ways of creativity. The criminal drama "Justified cruelty" (2005) based on the novel by D. Wagner was nominated for an Oscar. The subsequent films of the director were box-office, but only in 2014 the film-allegory "Star Map" was awarded "Oscar". As the work of the master of recent years shows, he gradually moved away from the theme of gene mutations, focusing on the subjects with a philosophical second bottom.

The talented director showed himself as a writer. Do not get tired of surprising the many facets of his creative gift David Cronenberg. "Eaten" - just his starting novel, but when you read, there is the impression of a classic pen. Readers are convinced: not only the language of cinema, the Canadian is fluent. His novel captures and keeps readers in suspense from the beginning and up to the last page.

Instead of concluding

What is interesting for the general public, director David Cronenberg? In fact, he is self-taught. Do not prepare graduates of literary universities to make films. Had he interfered with this? Probably no. It helped. Precisely because no one told David how and what to shoot, he went in the work of his unique way.

An analogy is suggested with Pushkin, who was an unloved child in the family, and therefore until the age of 9 was left to himself (at the same time his brother was "drilled" by his father and his sister by his mother). This was enough to lay the foundations of genius ...