On May 23, local time, "Crimes of the Future" directed by Canadian director David Cronenberg held its world premiere in Cannes. Since the Cannes Film Festival announced the entry list for the main competition unit in April, this new film starring Lea Seydoux and Kristen Stewart has been highly anticipated by all walks of life; and after the announcement of the trailer, more It is because of its weird and black style that fans and media people from all over Cannes are curious.
'Future Crime' Continues 'Human Horror' Style
The story of "Future Crimes" takes place in a future region, where human beings have reached a new normal in which they can grow new organs due to continuous evolution. The protagonists of the film are a couple of performance artists played by Viggo Mortensen and Lea Seydoux. The so-called performance art they perform is to openly remove the new-born human organs from the former on the stage-because The relationship between evolution, humans at this time did not feel any pain when being opened, so it attracted the attention of the National Organ Registry...
Faced with this situation, Cronenberg, who has not released a new film for eight years, took the microphone and said excitedly, "I don't even know what to say. I'm very moved by your reaction. I hope you didn't mean it. Lie to me, I hope your applause is sincere, and I'll text each of you to confirm it."
Cronenberg's lighthearted and joking attitude reminds people of what he said before when he talked about the possibility of an audience leaving the stage - "The audience at Cannes is actually a very strange audience. It is not an ordinary audience. There are a lot of people coming. Watching movies here is purely for the sake of being able to walk on the red carpet and have fun, or for the vanity of 'I have seen a movie in Cannes'. Some people are not movie fans, and they are not familiar with my past. It’s normal to leave in the middle of the movie. Anyway, there were a lot of people who left in the middle of Crash.”
After many years, it is obvious that the old director is still haunted by what happened in the past. In 1996, Cronenberg's "Desire Express" also came to Cannes to compete. There was a lot of boos at the screening, and there were not a few people who quit halfway. In the end, the film won the special prize of the Cannes jury that year, but according to the chairman of the jury Coppola, the opinions within the jury were quite divided, and more than one strongly objected to any award for the film that closely links cars and sex. Weird work together.
In Cannes last year, "Titanium", which also juxtaposed cars and sex, won the Palme d'Or, which seems to indicate that after more than 20 years, the appreciation of the world's film industry has changed dramatically. But on the other hand, "Future Crime" star Viggo Mortensen said in a high-profile interview with "The Hollywood Reporter" last week that "Titanium", which has only "superficial shock value and breaking conventions", is "deep in depth". There is also storytelling and true character exploration" is simply not as good as "Desire Express". This statement also attracted a lot of media attention. According to Mortensen, since the Cannes judges were able to accept "Titanium" last year, "I can't think of any reason why they would not be interested in "Future Crime", let alone more interest, at least it should be the same."
Mortenson, who has been incensed for Cronenberg, has worked with him six times so far. The two first met in Cannes in 2001. At that time, Mortenson followed the "Lord of the Rings" crew to promote, and the two hit it off at the promotional party. After making a decision on the spot, we must cooperate in the filming. Sure enough, four years later, they came to Cannes again with "History of Violence" and left a promotional photo of affectionate kiss on the red carpet.
"Future Crime" is the director's first work in the past eight years, but the script is said to have been formed more than 20 years ago, and when the film started shooting last year, he did not make any changes to it. The modifications made are basically kept as they are. "When I first started writing this script in 1998, there were still many elements of pure fantasy in the plot, but today, the problem of the ubiquity of microplastic particles in human blood is almost no news. ," Cronenberg explained.
"Future Crime" was filmed in Athens, Greece. At that time, the epidemic was still relatively severe. There was still a whole set of epidemic prevention standards to be followed when shooting film and television works. However, Cronenberg said that as an actor earlier, he participated in the filming of the fourth season of the American drama "Slasher", so he has first-hand experience of various epidemic prevention requirements.
As a director, Cronenberg doesn't really like to explain his films. Even the female lead Lea Seydoux said in an interview this time that Cronenberg's specific motivation and inner thoughts about the role she played are very important. Ge did not give her any specific explanation or guidance; on the contrary, the old director spent a lot of time chatting with her about life and life between shots. "Most of my films have fairly open endings," Cronenberg explained. "The stories don't have a clear ending."
Next, Cronenberg plans to start shooting a new film in Canada next year. The film, tentatively titled "The Shrouds," is also set in the future, thanks to new technologies that allow humans to witness real-time images of the slowly decomposing dead bodies of loved ones. Under the background that the specific plot is not yet clear, just by reading such a one-sentence introduction, it is conceivable that this work will continue to maintain his uncompromising "human horror" style, and it is no wonder that Netflix, which was originally intended to invest, is scared. Return.
"They wanted me to make the story into a series, but after seeing the script for the first two episodes, they decided to quit." Cronenberg said, "I think Netflix is too conservative, of course, thanks They, if they weren't so enthusiastic at the beginning, I wouldn't even write this script." So, when he came to Cannes this year, in addition to sending "Future Crime", he was also tasked with finding funding for "The Shroud".
Filming has always been bold, and Cronenberg is even more reckless when it comes to expressing his various opinions and views. When talking about the general trend of the world's political situation, he is particularly dissatisfied with the practice of forcibly interfering with art. “Many artists are afraid to speak out now, for fear that a social media post is wrong and it will be 'cancelled'. This is no different from what totalitarian countries used to do in the past, and the political direction may be different, but just look at the results. , in fact, it is the same thing. The brain is a muscle, and I don’t understand the essence of art at all.”
A few years ago, the women's rights movement started in Hollywood quickly spread to all parts of the world, and also won strong support from the literary and art circles, but Cronenberg has his own views on this. "Where there is power, there must be abuse of power. There is nothing wrong with this feminist movement, but the problem is that some people will politicize it, some people will use it as a weapon, and they will use extreme measures. , push it to a ridiculous and unreasonable height. But this is nothing new. There has always been such a thing throughout the ages. It is obviously a good thing, but it is used wrongly, it is used by people to attack the same party, and it is used to avenge private revenge. As a result, many people in the society dare not speak out.”
"Top Gun 2", which came out after many years, is a hot spot at this year's Cannes Film Festival. There has long been a saying in the market that Hollywood had asked Cronenberg to direct "Top Gun", but he rejected such a good opportunity. In this regard, he said that there are some misunderstandings. "Many people have asked me this question, and "Top Gun" has indeed asked me to shoot, I feel honored, but that's all. I never thought to direct such a film, for the machine, for the Those fighter jets, of course, I really like them, but those American troops and so on, I have no interest at all."
Cronenberg's trip to Cannes this time actually has a small episode, which should be said to be thanks to his son's adult beauty. Cronenberg's son, Brandon Cronenberg, is now a director as well. He was born in 1980. Influenced by his father, he was interested in sci-fi, biology and other film themes since childhood, but it was not until the age of 24 that he became clear about his ambition and officially entered the film school. At the age of 28, he made his first short film. Since then, his two feature-length feature films "Virus Antibody" and "The Possessor" have won a lot of praise. At present, his new work, "Infinity Pool" starring Alexander Skarsgard, is in production. Coincidentally, the film's producer is precisely the producer of "Future Crime" - the American independent film company Neon Shadows Industry. As a result, in order to make "Future Crimes" complete as soon as possible and catch up with the competition in Cannes, the son took the initiative to give way, delaying the production process of "Infinity Pool", which also made the old father both proud and comfortable.
For winning, Cronenberg said he didn't care at all. "In fact, I don't even remember what awards I've won in the past. I have to go home and look at the bookshelf to remember." He said sincerely, "I don't mean to put on airs when I say this, it's just that To be honest, I think it’s a bit like a transaction if the award is not awarded. Don’t think that the winner is the only one who benefits. In fact, this matter is sometimes more important for the party that issues the award, because the Sending it to you, there will be one more person to decorate their facade. In short, I don’t make movies for these. I make movies for creation, and for this kind of connection between people. But then again, Movies are not my whole life, I have three children and four grandchildren, that is my life.”
'Future Crime' Continues 'Human Horror' Style
The story of "Future Crimes" takes place in a future region, where human beings have reached a new normal in which they can grow new organs due to continuous evolution. The protagonists of the film are a couple of performance artists played by Viggo Mortensen and Lea Seydoux. The so-called performance art they perform is to openly remove the new-born human organs from the former on the stage-because The relationship between evolution, humans at this time did not feel any pain when being opened, so it attracted the attention of the National Organ Registry...
Future Crime poster
Although the above plot sounds bizarre, audiences familiar with Cronenberg's "human horror" movies should not be unfamiliar with the various abrupt and even disgusting, specific and strong sensory images in the film. Therefore, the director predicted early in the morning that when the film is shown, there will definitely be audiences who can't stand it and leave halfway. As a result, a dozen or 20 people did choose to leave the screening at Cannes, but the vast majority of the audience persisted until the end of the film and gave a standing ovation for six or seven minutes.Faced with this situation, Cronenberg, who has not released a new film for eight years, took the microphone and said excitedly, "I don't even know what to say. I'm very moved by your reaction. I hope you didn't mean it. Lie to me, I hope your applause is sincere, and I'll text each of you to confirm it."
Cronenberg's lighthearted and joking attitude reminds people of what he said before when he talked about the possibility of an audience leaving the stage - "The audience at Cannes is actually a very strange audience. It is not an ordinary audience. There are a lot of people coming. Watching movies here is purely for the sake of being able to walk on the red carpet and have fun, or for the vanity of 'I have seen a movie in Cannes'. Some people are not movie fans, and they are not familiar with my past. It’s normal to leave in the middle of the movie. Anyway, there were a lot of people who left in the middle of Crash.”
After many years, it is obvious that the old director is still haunted by what happened in the past. In 1996, Cronenberg's "Desire Express" also came to Cannes to compete. There was a lot of boos at the screening, and there were not a few people who quit halfway. In the end, the film won the special prize of the Cannes jury that year, but according to the chairman of the jury Coppola, the opinions within the jury were quite divided, and more than one strongly objected to any award for the film that closely links cars and sex. Weird work together.
In Cannes last year, "Titanium", which also juxtaposed cars and sex, won the Palme d'Or, which seems to indicate that after more than 20 years, the appreciation of the world's film industry has changed dramatically. But on the other hand, "Future Crime" star Viggo Mortensen said in a high-profile interview with "The Hollywood Reporter" last week that "Titanium", which has only "superficial shock value and breaking conventions", is "deep in depth". There is also storytelling and true character exploration" is simply not as good as "Desire Express". This statement also attracted a lot of media attention. According to Mortensen, since the Cannes judges were able to accept "Titanium" last year, "I can't think of any reason why they would not be interested in "Future Crime", let alone more interest, at least it should be the same."
Mortenson, who has been incensed for Cronenberg, has worked with him six times so far. The two first met in Cannes in 2001. At that time, Mortenson followed the "Lord of the Rings" crew to promote, and the two hit it off at the promotional party. After making a decision on the spot, we must cooperate in the filming. Sure enough, four years later, they came to Cannes again with "History of Violence" and left a promotional photo of affectionate kiss on the red carpet.
"Future Crime" is the director's first work in the past eight years, but the script is said to have been formed more than 20 years ago, and when the film started shooting last year, he did not make any changes to it. The modifications made are basically kept as they are. "When I first started writing this script in 1998, there were still many elements of pure fantasy in the plot, but today, the problem of the ubiquity of microplastic particles in human blood is almost no news. ," Cronenberg explained.
"Future Crime" was filmed in Athens, Greece. At that time, the epidemic was still relatively severe. There was still a whole set of epidemic prevention standards to be followed when shooting film and television works. However, Cronenberg said that as an actor earlier, he participated in the filming of the fourth season of the American drama "Slasher", so he has first-hand experience of various epidemic prevention requirements.
Cronenberg in "Blood"
"So I also wanted to see if I could make a movie in this situation. After wearing masks, social distancing, and streamlining the filming crew, I wanted to see if it would slow down. Efficiency, will it increase expenses, will it affect everyone's performance and my directing work. As a result, I found that this did cost us more money, and it did slow down the speed, but it was generally feasible, And I quickly got used to the changes, including wearing masks all the time. In our 150-person crew, there was no positive case in the end, and I am very relieved.”As a director, Cronenberg doesn't really like to explain his films. Even the female lead Lea Seydoux said in an interview this time that Cronenberg's specific motivation and inner thoughts about the role she played are very important. Ge did not give her any specific explanation or guidance; on the contrary, the old director spent a lot of time chatting with her about life and life between shots. "Most of my films have fairly open endings," Cronenberg explained. "The stories don't have a clear ending."
Next, Cronenberg plans to start shooting a new film in Canada next year. The film, tentatively titled "The Shrouds," is also set in the future, thanks to new technologies that allow humans to witness real-time images of the slowly decomposing dead bodies of loved ones. Under the background that the specific plot is not yet clear, just by reading such a one-sentence introduction, it is conceivable that this work will continue to maintain his uncompromising "human horror" style, and it is no wonder that Netflix, which was originally intended to invest, is scared. Return.
"They wanted me to make the story into a series, but after seeing the script for the first two episodes, they decided to quit." Cronenberg said, "I think Netflix is too conservative, of course, thanks They, if they weren't so enthusiastic at the beginning, I wouldn't even write this script." So, when he came to Cannes this year, in addition to sending "Future Crime", he was also tasked with finding funding for "The Shroud".
"Future Crime" stills
Not interested in Top Gun and winning awardsFilming has always been bold, and Cronenberg is even more reckless when it comes to expressing his various opinions and views. When talking about the general trend of the world's political situation, he is particularly dissatisfied with the practice of forcibly interfering with art. “Many artists are afraid to speak out now, for fear that a social media post is wrong and it will be 'cancelled'. This is no different from what totalitarian countries used to do in the past, and the political direction may be different, but just look at the results. , in fact, it is the same thing. The brain is a muscle, and I don’t understand the essence of art at all.”
A few years ago, the women's rights movement started in Hollywood quickly spread to all parts of the world, and also won strong support from the literary and art circles, but Cronenberg has his own views on this. "Where there is power, there must be abuse of power. There is nothing wrong with this feminist movement, but the problem is that some people will politicize it, some people will use it as a weapon, and they will use extreme measures. , push it to a ridiculous and unreasonable height. But this is nothing new. There has always been such a thing throughout the ages. It is obviously a good thing, but it is used wrongly, it is used by people to attack the same party, and it is used to avenge private revenge. As a result, many people in the society dare not speak out.”
"Top Gun 2", which came out after many years, is a hot spot at this year's Cannes Film Festival. There has long been a saying in the market that Hollywood had asked Cronenberg to direct "Top Gun", but he rejected such a good opportunity. In this regard, he said that there are some misunderstandings. "Many people have asked me this question, and "Top Gun" has indeed asked me to shoot, I feel honored, but that's all. I never thought to direct such a film, for the machine, for the Those fighter jets, of course, I really like them, but those American troops and so on, I have no interest at all."
Cronenberg's trip to Cannes this time actually has a small episode, which should be said to be thanks to his son's adult beauty. Cronenberg's son, Brandon Cronenberg, is now a director as well. He was born in 1980. Influenced by his father, he was interested in sci-fi, biology and other film themes since childhood, but it was not until the age of 24 that he became clear about his ambition and officially entered the film school. At the age of 28, he made his first short film. Since then, his two feature-length feature films "Virus Antibody" and "The Possessor" have won a lot of praise. At present, his new work, "Infinity Pool" starring Alexander Skarsgard, is in production. Coincidentally, the film's producer is precisely the producer of "Future Crime" - the American independent film company Neon Shadows Industry. As a result, in order to make "Future Crimes" complete as soon as possible and catch up with the competition in Cannes, the son took the initiative to give way, delaying the production process of "Infinity Pool", which also made the old father both proud and comfortable.
For winning, Cronenberg said he didn't care at all. "In fact, I don't even remember what awards I've won in the past. I have to go home and look at the bookshelf to remember." He said sincerely, "I don't mean to put on airs when I say this, it's just that To be honest, I think it’s a bit like a transaction if the award is not awarded. Don’t think that the winner is the only one who benefits. In fact, this matter is sometimes more important for the party that issues the award, because the Sending it to you, there will be one more person to decorate their facade. In short, I don’t make movies for these. I make movies for creation, and for this kind of connection between people. But then again, Movies are not my whole life, I have three children and four grandchildren, that is my life.”
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