David Cronenberg
Appearances
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Es ist lustig, denn ich erinnere mich daran, dass ich jemandem versuchte, Bruce zu schreiben, und er sagte, Bruce ist im Grunde ein Satirist. Und ich dachte, nein, er ist nicht im Grunde ein Satirist.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Danke, danke. Ich habe das Skript in sechs Tagen geschrieben, und ich habe es mit seinem Dialog gemacht. Das ist es! Denn sein Dialog ist so gut und so einzigartig. Und ich dachte mir, I wasn't sure if it would be a movie. And I thought, okay, I will just take the dialogue and use it verbatim and see if it's a movie. And I thought, not only is it a movie, I've just written the script.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I say, figure it out. I mean, because famously now, but Diane Kruger was really a little bit freaked out when she came to Toronto and discovered that there was no rehearsal time blocked. For? For actors, yeah. What she called a table read, which is sort of a theatrical term.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
And, you know, where you sit around the table and you read the script to each other. And I said, well, I... Don't rehearse. I don't want to rehearse. And what's more, I don't want to micromanage your performance. I want you, when we block the scene on the day that we're going to shoot it, that's when I'm going to hear the dialogue for the first time and I'm going to hear what you feel works.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Your intuition, actually I cast you because I think you can do this. So, I mean, that's one of the things about directing that young filmmakers don't really hear from film school is that half the battle with acting is in the casting. As a director, you need to be a good caster. And it's tricky. It's a black art. So, yeah. So, Und an diesem Punkt ist das Skript der Regisseur.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und er regiert die Schauspieler durch den Dialog.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, ja. Ich mache mehr als das. But on the other hand, I was just talking to Paul Schrader a while ago in Toronto and he said, rehearsal is everything. And I said, Paul, rehearsal is nothing for me. So it works for you, but it doesn't work for me. I find, when you do rehearsal in that artificial situation where you're just sitting around a table, you get into all kinds of strange things.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Actors get competitive. You start to over-interpret. And then when you get on the real set with the real actors, The lighting and the costumes, everything changes. The dynamic is completely different. So I feel that the time spent that way as rehearsing is really useless. It's a waste of time.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
But you can do that when you're blocking it. That's right. You don't say, yeah, you're doing too much. Right. You're overemphasizing. I mean, even as simple as saying you're overacting, bring it down. Right. And that's about it. Right. But the rest is, unless they're really somehow derailed, I don't really have to say much. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
There's a lot. I mean, this is the most dialogue that Vincent Cassell has ever had in any movie. And it's in English, which is not his first language. So it was nervous making for him. It was a big challenge for him.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, ehrlich gesagt, denke ich nicht wirklich darüber nach. Ich weiß, dass es natürlich passieren wird, weil alle meine Filme von mir und meinem Nervensystem kommen und so weiter. But I really take each movie as my first movie. It's like I never made a movie before, and I'm trying to make it work within its own little universe. In other words, I'm not self-referential deliberately.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
There are some directors who do like to do that.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, I think for me it's just a question of more understanding, you know, and I don't expect there to be any resolution, because I don't think there is one.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, it's death. That's the big resolution. But it's really not a resolution, it's just the end. Of you. Yeah, and that's not the same thing as a resolution. The resolution is perhaps for people who have been left behind, let's say. And I find that's interesting now because with this movie, some of the criticism that is basically negative is exactly that.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
There's no resolution that they feel that the film wanders off into conspiracy theories that are not relevant and all of that. And I find that... Das bringt die Frage nach, was jemand von einem Film erwartet. Was erwartest du von einem Narrativ? Ist es wie das alte, gut gemachte Victorian-Spiel, in dem jeder String am Ende verbunden ist und jeder Konflikt entschlossen ist?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ist das, was du erwartest und willst, oder ist es eher ein offenes Ende eines Films?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, I think it's wrong-headed, actually. As I say, each film is its own little universe and some of them demand to be resolved in some way or not and others have a very open ending, which I feel The Shrouds does have.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und was zur Hölle machst du damit? I would say that's accurate, yes. That was why I made the movie, basically. It's not to, a lot of people think, has it lessened the grief, has it been therapeutic, has it been cathartic? And I say, no, absolutely not. It has not changed any of that. But I did have the desire to discuss it with myself, let's put it that way.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
And then I invite the audience to come along and watch me discussing it with myself and see how it feels to them. So in some ways it's, quotes, autobiographical and in very important ways it's an invention. These are fictional characters and so on.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, ich meine, wie es strukturiert ist und wie es erklärt wird, ist, dass man das Körper nicht kremiert, weil das nicht das Gehirn gibt, das in dem Körper gelebt hat. It doesn't give it enough time to say goodbye, to detach from this body that it loved and it lived in and experienced life. And so you want the body to slowly decay with the soul kind of hovering around it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
And in the movie, it's a sort of a soul that looks a little like a firefly fluttering over the body and illuminating the body with its innate light to look at it, to think about it. Und schlussendlich akzeptiert die Seele, dass das Körper zerstört ist, und es muss sich nun von diesem Körper entfernen und in den Himmel überwinden.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Als Atheist glaube ich nicht, dass das wirklich so ist, aber ich fand das eine wunderschöne Metapher. Und es ist mir nur gestern geschehen, dass in einer seltsamen Weise Karsh, is that soul. He is the soul of his dead wife. He is fluttering. He is hovering over her. He is trying to allow the body to decompose so that he can try to detach from her and from that grief.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
So for me, it's a metaphorical thing. And Karsh does explain in the movie that he is an atheist. But somehow he does have this kind of religiously structured dream. And that's the connection that I made between those two things.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Nein, das war es nicht. Und wie gesagt, ich denke an Karsh selbst als diese Seele.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Im Grunde genommen ist The Shroud eine Kamera. Ich meine, es erlaubt dir, einen Diskurs zu haben. with the body of your loved one as it decays. Karsh says he wanted to get into the box with her, with her body, as it was lowered into the ground. And I had that feeling myself. I mean, that's how I had that understanding. But of course, you can't get into the box with the dead person.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
You would die yourself, and that's not really what you want. Karsh, being a high-tech entrepreneur, and that is his creative outlet, he would look to technology for a way to um eine Verbindung mit diesem Körper zu erhalten, obwohl er mit ihr nicht im Grunde in der Erde ist.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und so kam er mit der Idee eines Schraubens, was ein traditionelles Geheimnis ist, aber in seinem Fall ist es auch ein gewöhnliches Überwachungsgerät, wenn man es so denken möchte.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
That's right, that's right. It's more like it's like a combination MRI, X-Ray and so on. Yeah, right. And I must say, the technology exists. You could do that now if you wanted to do that. It's quite possible. So this isn't even sci-fi. This is quite literal right now.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
They were sci-fi when I made them and they're now just reality.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I think it's a question of meaning too, because a death is meaningless if you're an atheist and you really accept the absurdity of life in general. Das ist genau richtig, dass es einen Dogma gibt.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und es ist tief. Und es ist jedes Nerv in deinem Körper, jedes Zell in deinem Körper fühlt es. Ja, das ist richtig.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, und es geht nicht weg. Ich meine, das ist das andere. Je mehr andere Beziehungen du hast und du mit deinem Leben weitergehst, das ist noch da. Es geht nicht weg. Nein, es integriert sich.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, das ist das, was die letzte Szene im Film bedeutet, als sie auf dem Flugzeug sind. Und es scheint eine Fusion zwischen Karshas neuer Freundin und seiner Frau zu sein.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Oh ja, in dem Flugzeug, als sie aufsteht. Ja, und er träumt es. Es ist ein Traum einer Fusion der beiden Frauen. Und er versteht, dass jede Frau, die er liebt, seine Frau auch in irgendeiner Art sein wird. Because that was the lovemaking of his life, you know. So that's basically how I imagined it sort of to deliver that idea cinematically.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes. And I think in the movie, Karsh, I think he's accepting that it's not going to be alleviated. It's not going to go away. Well, he doesn't want it to. And that's the other thing, is to do that. Das ist interessant, weil mit deiner eigenen Leidenschaft zu diesen Fragen,
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, that she had been having an affair with her oncologist, for example.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, aber auf der anderen Seite ist es auch eine Art von Selbstverleumdung, weil es auch eine Art von Leidenschaft ist. Und kann man sich fragen, dass sie dich mit jemand anderem verletzt hat und du darüber nicht wusstest, bis sie gestorben ist. Ich habe schon Situationen wie diese erlebt. Eine Frau war ein Nachbar. Ich war damals nur ein Kind.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Aber ihr Mann starb und nur dann fand sie heraus, dass sie eine Schwesternin hatte. Sie hatte eine Schwesternin für so lange. Und plötzlich war all ihr Schmerz weg. put into turbulence by her anger and the sense of betrayal and shock that she didn't really know him. I mean, it goes on and on, you know.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes, although I must say, the Schrause is pretty non-violent, really, compared with some...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, well, you know, when it comes to spirituality, I have red flags that come up with that word. when it really becomes another word for religion. Sure. I mean, you know Christopher Hitchens. Yes. The sort of polemicist journalist. And he said three words. He said, death causes religion. Yeah. And I thought, oh, that's pretty accurate. Right. I mean, if you're going to summarize it, it's...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Every religion offers a reprieve from death. And to me it's a delusional thing, but if people need it, they have it. Of course, billions of people believe in various religions.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I think that's, so that's what I meant when I said there's a red flag there. Sure. Not that I, if somebody said this person is very spiritual, in some ways I can completely understand what that means. But I also wonder if it means religion or not.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I take it to mean, usually spirituality means empathy, sensitivity, awareness, good things, you know, without referring to a transcendence of human existence.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, ich denke, ich meine, zwischen Mori und Karsh gibt es Empathie, weil sie beide verloren haben.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I mean, he was pretty excited to do it. I remember, I was just talking to Brady Corbett in New York, and he said that while they were shooting The Brutalist, that Guy said he was very excited to play this role that you just mentioned. Because it's very different from what he normally kind of thinks.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, nerdy, schleppy, Jewish, paranoid.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, I sometimes think that it is a sort of a Samuel Beckett kind of element. Yeah, that's right. Pairing things down to essential simplicity. And as I became more and more experienced as a film director, I realized that I didn't have to cover everything from every angle and every lens. And I ultimately knew what I wanted from each scene and each shot.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
It could become simpler and simpler and simpler. Right, but the simplicity adds a menace. Well, that's nice to hear, actually. But yes, it can be. I mean, it's forceful and it really directs the audience in a specific way.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
All the way through. Yeah. Well, I do think of, first of all, of course, as a filmmaker, the thing you photograph most is the human body. That's your material. And that is how you discuss the human condition. And I do feel that the body, as in my last film, Crimes of the Future, there's the mantra, body is reality. And I believe that to be totally true.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I mean, just the way that we perceive reality has to do with our eyes and our ears and how our nervous systems respond, different from other creatures. So the body is my medium. There's no question about it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I agree with you. I'm glad to hear you say that because that's my attitude. It needs to be spoken and acknowledged. It doesn't have to be resolved.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah. It's still the whole movie would work if it was all real. All of the conspiracies were for real.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes. Yeah, I like that interpretation. I really do, and I think it's accurate. I think it works.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I agree. I mean, body horror is not a term that I ever came up with. I just was reading somebody who had done research and found that it was first used by some critic in 1983. About you? About me. Yeah. It's not, to me, it's very minimalizing. It's very, it's giving short shrift to what I was doing. And I didn't really, I didn't.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Of course I understand what they mean, but I didn't really relate to it at all.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, that's right, that's right. And of course critics love to play with that. But as I say to them, just thinking about genre does not give me anything to work with as a filmmaker. I don't think about it, I can't use it. And you think, well, Eastern Promises was a gangster movie, a Russian gangster movie, and
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Aber innerhalb des Genres, denke ich, ist es mehr eine Marketing- und eine kritische Frage. Wie verkaufen wir diesen Film? Verkaufen wir ihn als Horrorfilm oder verkaufen wir ihn als... Oder wie beobachten wir ihn kritisch?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Honestly, a movie that I've made, Dead Ringers, is that a horror film? It has, I guess, horror film elements, sort of.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, well, it's crazy, but is it a horror film?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes. But, you know, it was really, we had to use that, you know, acknowledge that novel, Twins. Yeah. But it really was not the basis of the movie. There was actually an article in Esquire called Dead Ringers that was much more the origin of my movie. So was it more of a twin story outside of medicine?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Es war eine sehr akkurate Beschreibung der Markus-Brüder, die eigentlich jüdische Ärzte waren, Twins, Gynäkologen in New York. Und der Novel ging in eine ganz andere Richtung, in die mein Film nicht gehen kann. Also, wie ich gesagt habe, war wirklich der Artikel von Dead Ringers die Basis.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, and in fact, I don't think many critics do, though, actually.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes, but once again, it's sort of somewhat autobiographical in that I had experienced a very devastating divorce with a kid involved. And so when people talk about ob es eine Autobiografie ist oder nicht. Ich sage wirklich, The Brood war mein erster Einfluss, sagen wir mal, mit meinem echten persönlichen Leben, das auf dem Bild endet. Wie hat deine Ex-Wife darauf reagiert? Entschuldige?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Aber sagen wir mal, wir sind nicht sehr nahe.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah. Well, you know, at the time there was a movie, Kramer vs. Kramer, with Dustin Hoffman. Right. Und es ging um einen Verabschiedung. Und wie sie alle ein bisschen unterstützt waren und alle sehr lieb waren. Und ich sagte, The Brood ist mehr realistisch, obwohl es ein Horrorfilm ist, als Kramer vs. Kramer. Weil ich denke, was du am Ende verletzt hast, ist ein traumatisierter Kind.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ein traumatisierter Kind und zwei sehr wütende Menschen. Ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes, and of course, you might want to kill your ex-wife, but normally you don't actually do it, but you might think about it. Why not make it a horror movie? Exactly, exactly.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, I certainly remember seeing Freaks, the movie Freaks, and being very impressed by it. And it's still a very unusual movie, there's no question about it. But it really had to do more with, The desire to change the body. Humans have never really been accepting of their body as given. We will always be doing tattoos and changing things.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Even 3,000 years ago, people were doing operations on each other's brains and so on. To me, it seemed like a sort of normal part of human existence that you would... change the body. It wouldn't just be aging that would change your body. You could actually will your body to be changed. I think tattooing is part of that. But also the medical, you know, once you're enmeshed in the medical
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Structure because of some disease, chemotherapy, some surgery. Then you are having to deal with the changing of the body of somebody that you love. And how does that affect your relationship?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
It's very specific. That's very specific. You have a breast amputation, you have an arm amputation, you have... Staples in the body. And is this person still the same person? Is it still a person that you could desire sexually? Does it turn you off? Does it turn you on?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
So I'm thinking more in that way than what you talk about with freaks, which is a more natural kind of occurrence of bodily dysmorphia.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes, I mean, I know the director Coralie Fargia, I mean, I met her, and undoubtedly there are Sie sagt es sehr einfach, dass ich von meinen Filmen sehr beeinflusst bin. Auch Julia Ducournau mit Titan, was auch ein Film ist, der mit meinen Filmen verbunden ist. Und es ist wundervoll. Ich liebe die Idee, dass ich diese kinematischen Mädchen habe, die von mir beeinflusst werden. Es ist sehr süß.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
So funktioniert Kunst. Es funktioniert. Es funktioniert absolut.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
The name of the game for human beings. I mean, we are always challenging in a very arrogant way, I suppose, from some points of view and just sort of a kind of sort of physically challenging kind of way from other points of view. Ja, man kann nie glücklich sein. Ja, genau.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ich glaube, junge Filmmacher würden es in dieser Ära nicht wissen, aber die Menschen wurden sehr traumatisiert von den Effekten von Thalidomide. Das war primär eine Verschmutzung. Es war im Grunde eine Verschmutzung und eine komplette Produktion von Menschen, die wirklich anders waren als wir normalerweise sehen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I think it was for pregnant women. I think it's a tranquilizer.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, I thought, okay, if it's something that causes strange anomalies in unborn children who then are born and become... Ja, ja. Aber sie waren eigentlich telepathisch.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, Scanners war nicht mein erstes Film. Aber ich meine, zurück zu Stereo. Ja, ja. Es ist ein Telepathie-Movie. Ja, es war immer diese Idee. Ich meine, wenn man das Gehirn und die Elektrizität im Gehirn betrachtet, warum könnte es nicht eine Erweiterung der elektrischen Aspekte sein?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
You would think. You would think. And in a way we do it anyway. We do it through, you know, so the brain controls what we speak and what we see.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, maybe all cats are kind of scanners, actually. Of course they are.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, that's the thing, because as soon as you say reading, you're really restricting the possibility to something familiar. Right. But it's quite different from reading. It's a sensing... It's maybe beyond verbiage. It's beyond words.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I did too. And I've talked to Luca about that. Yeah. Yeah. And he's seen The Shrouds and he was very complimentary about it. But he was worried that when I saw Queer that... Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. There's a monologue that the Burroughs character speaks that's exactly the same monologue that my Bill Lee character speaks in Negan Lunch.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Because I did, when I talked to Burroughs, I said, you know, William, I'm gonna have to... I can't make a movie out of just the book Naked Lunch. I need to incorporate some parts of your life, like the fact that you shot your wife accidentally.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes. And then I also want to use some of what you wrote in Queer, because it's very interesting to me. You know, there were some, the gay community, some members of the gay community were were very negative about Naked Lunch because it suggested that at some point he was denying his gayness.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
But in fact, if you read Queer, you know that he did go through a period where he didn't know that he was gay or he couldn't accept that he was gay or queer or whatever. So I did incorporate all that into my movie Naked Lunch, which is quite... Und es wurde natürlich ein ganz anderer Film von Lucasfilm, welcher, wie du sagst, sehr physisch und sehr menschlich ist.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und sehr biografisch, in Bezug auf Burroughs.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Illegal. Ja, es war illegal und sozial nicht akzeptabel, Period. Also... There is that element in my movie.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, ja, weil ich meine, in einer Art und Weise, seine Drogenverwendung war seine Art, die Grenzen der Realität zu entfernen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, na ja, er war nicht so fasziniert von Bugs, wie Sie denken. Wie würden wir nicht denken? Aber ich sehe das und What happens when you adapt a novel like that is there's a fusion between you, the filmmaker, and Burroughs, the writer of the novel. And he knew that. And he was very fascinated by my insect typewriters. But that doesn't exist in Burroughs. There are no insect typewriters.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
That was my version of... Ja, genau. Well, there's later in books, I'm not sure, it was part of the trilogy, you know, Cities of the Red Knight, Western Lands and Place of Dead Roads.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, natürlich. Toxinen. Und ja, er war natürlich interessiert in Centipeden. Centipeden, Mann. Viele Centipeden. Ja, obwohl Centipeden keine Insekten sind.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, und ich war nicht überrascht. Ich hatte nicht das Gefühl, dass das das Spiel war, das er und ich spielten. Die Geschichte, die Resolution.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, er ist ein wunderschöner Kerl. Es ist interessant, wie er seine Karriere von der Schauspielung entfernt hat.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Ja, ich meine, er und ich sind sehr gut zusammengekommen. Es war wundervoll. Wir sind zusammen nach Tangier gegangen. Oh, wow. Er war nicht mehr da in 17 Jahren. Oh, wow. Und ich bin mit ihm und Jeremy Thomas da gegangen, weil wir planen, Naked Lunch in Marokko und Tangier zu schießen, was in seinem Buch Interzone wird. Ja. Und wir haben mit Paul Bowles gesprochen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Sie hatten sich in so vielen Jahren noch nicht gesehen. Diese beiden hübschen Jungs, die brillanten Schriftsteller, haben sich mit einander befasst. Sie hatten eine Liebe-Hate-Beziehung, glaube ich. Und es war fantastisch für mich, das zu sehen und mit ihnen zu sein. Aber wir sind sehr gut zusammengekommen. Und es gab... He had a tough guy persona when he was sort of lecturing or speaking.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Hombre invisible. But there was a sweetness though, a real sweetness to him that he wouldn't let people see very easily. But it was definitely there when we were talking together.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
We are very congenial. I really liked him very much.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, the fact, I mean, he was very different in person from what you might think if you read Crash. Because Crash was a very tough, very difficult film. And the characters were not very sympathetic and not very attractive. But Ballard Good for you. Ich war in Cannes, ich hatte meinen ganzen Kasten dort, James Spader, alle. Und Ballard war dort.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und er sagte, David, das ist sehr intensiv für einen Schriftler. Die meisten Schriftler haben keine Erfahrung mit der Publikation und der Glamour und der Druck und allem, was ein Filmfestival wie Cannes ist. Du bist meistens zuhause in deiner Wohnung, alleine zu schreiben. Ja. But he was there to support the film, which was terrific. He loved the film? He loved the film, and this is the thing.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
There was a journalist who I think was Scandinavian, Swedish or Norwegian, who got up to attack the film in a different way. Rather than saying it's a perverse, horrifying movie, he said, you have betrayed the book. This is not really the book Crash. You should be criticized and be ashamed to have made a movie like this from the book.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
And then Ballard said, well, actually, I think the movie is better than the book. And the guy just sort of said, oh, okay. He just kind of sat down and shut up. So that was very sweet of Ballard. He's right. I mean, in the sense that, once again, it's a fusion. Sure. Die Menschen im Film sind wunderschön. Sie sind wunderschön ausgelöst. Sie sind sehr sensuell und sexuell.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Das ist nicht so, wie man es im Buch erleben würde. Es ist sehr klinisch, sehr kalt und klinisch. Es ist einfach die Art, wie es sich entwickelt hat, als ich den Screenplay aufgrund des Buches geschrieben habe. Und Ballard antwortete gut dazu. Er fühlte nicht, dass es ein Betrug war. Er liebte den Film wirklich. Das war der Art von...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
This is the movie. Yeah, exactly. You have to, I've often said, and I still mean it, in a way you have to betray the book to be... Ja, weil es ein anderes Medium ist. You're going to have a dead movie.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
I think I had some input, but not much. Bruce is an expert screenwriter also, so that really helps, because he knows all that. He's not trying to protect the book in some weird way. He knows that this is a different medium and it needs to be something else.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, it's not a resolution that makes you feel good about yourself.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, Stuart Kornfeld was... His guy. His guy. Yeah. And he came to me and he said, Mel and I would love for you to make... um ein Remake von The Fly zu machen und wir haben ein Skript und du würdest es lesen und ich habe das Skript gelesen und ich habe gesagt, schau, ich, das erste, was ich sagen würde, ist, wir müssen die ersten 17 Seiten wegwerfen. Ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und dann zweitens, der Dialog, ich würde es alles wiederholen müssen, du weißt, und wahrscheinlich willst du das nicht machen. Und sie sagten, nein, wir wollen, dass du das tust. Und ich sagte, na gut, lass mich darüber nachdenken. Und ich dachte darüber nach. Und dann habe ich endlich entschieden, ja, okay. So lange du es akzeptierst, werde ich das ganze Ding wiederholen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und es wird komplett anders sein. Weil es in dem Skript, der existierte, für mich war die einzige wirklich gute Sache, war die... Absorption of the concept of DNA, which of course when the original movie, the 1950s, they didn't know anything about it. And so that was interesting, that it was a fusion of the fly's DNA with human DNA, which is technically feasible.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
But the rest, the relationship of the characters and so on, I didn't find that very interesting. Als Mel sagte, du hättest die Freiheit, das komplett wieder zu schreiben, wir wollen deine Vision und so weiter und so fort, da habe ich es gemacht. Und Mel war wundervoll. Er war wirklich sehr anwesend und freundlich.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Wir hatten viele Diskussionen über Dinge, aber im Grunde habe ich den Film so machen können, wie ich es wollte. Howard und ich haben über die Musik für The Flood gesprochen. Wir haben gesagt, okay, schau. This is really three people in a room. Howard Shore. Howard and I are saying, this movie is basically three people in a room and it's very operatic.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
So let's treat it like an opera and the music will be operatic. And so there's a point where Jeff Goldblum is walking down the street Und die Musik ist groß. Und Mel sagt, David, der Typ ist nur auf der Straße. Warum ist die Musik so groß? Wir haben dieses große Orchester und so. Und ich sagte, Mel, er ist nicht nur auf der Straße. Er ist auf dem Weg, um sein Destin zu treffen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Und er sagte, oh ja, du hast recht. Und das war die Diskussion.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Nein, er ist natürlich ein sehr klüger Kerl und er ist es immer noch.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Nein. Es gab eine Frau im Studio, ich kann mich nicht mehr erinnern, die wirklich überzeugt war, dass ich derjenige war, der Flashdance machte. Aufgrund von was? Ich sagte, weißt du... Wenn ich das drehe, werde ich es tatsächlich zerstören. Und du wirst nicht glücklich sein. Ich wusste, es war nicht für mich. Aber du hast M. Butterfly gemacht.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
M. Butterfly ist ein sehr anderer Art von Geschichte, ziemlich interessant, ziemlich multikulturell.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yeah, although honestly I abandoned the essence of that graphic novel. If you look at it again and look at my movie, my movie is much more almost realistic because the graphic novel went off into some strange stuff that I wasn't convinced of, I must say.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Oh, thank you. I was very happy. Oh, yes. No, I was very happy. I mean, it was lovely because that's how I met Vigo. Yeah. And we got along obviously very well. We've done many movies. A bunch of movies. Seems like a great guy. And he is a wonderful human being. He really is a great guy.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Yes. I really was interested in doing American Psycho. But you did it. Cosmopolis... It's pretty close. Yeah, it is somewhat close, although there's some violence in American Psycho that is not in Cosmopolis. That's right. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1638 - David Cronenberg
Well, no, we could sit here all day, actually, if I didn't have a plane to catch.