David Cronenberg: Auteur (Part One)

So it's official, Universal is going to remake David Cronenberg's Videodrome and make it into "a large-scale sci-fi action thriller". Ugh. Is it really coming to this? This is like trying to remake Rocky Horror Picture Show or Harold & Maude or Eraserhead. They aren't stories to be re-worked, they are iconic cult classics that rely on their look, feel, the actors who played the parts, and the directors who created something unique and temporal. As an auteur, Cronenberg's work feels especially untouchable in my opinion. All of his films certainly have their flaws but they each are very special and hold a significant place within his overall body of work. For shame, Universal, for shame! I shake my fist at you!


With that said, this week starts a multi-part series on Cronenberg as Auteur. Enjoy!

David Cronenberg: Auteur

“There’s a lot of mythology about what a director must be and the qualities that he must have and I think it’s all mythology. In fact, each person invents himself or herself as a director in a very intimate and specific and unique way.”

- David Cronenberg (Rabid commentary 34:05)

In the world of film, an auteur is a director who can for all intents and purposes, be considered the author of the piece he directs. The drama that plays out on the screen embodies the vision held by the director and conveys the message intended through the choices made by the director. This is often a difficult task to accomplish within the Hollywood system where story and final product are often dictated by the studios providing the funding. David Cronenberg is one director who has managed to successfully retain his identity as an auteur throughout his career in independent filmmaking while occasionally crossing over into the Hollywood limelight.

Beginning with his first feature-length film, Shivers, Cronenberg established areas of personal interest and has consistently explored and re-explored common themes of “body horror”, technology as relating to the body, identity and alienation. Not only does Cronenberg return again and again to the same issues and concerns, in doing so, he is perpetually developing and refining his approach to the subject matter. While celebrating moderate success within the confines of Hollywood, as an auteur, Cronenberg has managed to preserve the execution of his vision through his work.

Before continuing with this study of David Cronenberg, it is important to clarify what is truly meant by the term auteur. In American film criticism, the concept of the auteur comes from auteur theory as introduced by film critic Andrew Sarris in the early 1960s. According to Sarris, auteur theory is the approach by which the entire body of work by a director must be taken under consideration in order to understand an individual film as it will be found that “after a given number of films, a pattern is established.”(Sarris/"Perils" 28) It follows that in order to be a true auteur, “over a group of films, a director must exhibit certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serve as his signature. The way a film looks and moves should have some relationship to the way a director thinks and feels.”(Sarris/"Notes" 516)

David Cronenberg can absolutely be considered a true auteur by Sarris’s definition. When looking at his complete filmography, certain patterns emerge in respect to theme as well as the look, tone and feel of Cronenberg’s pictures. This study will not cover every aspect of these patterns but will focus in on some of the more prominent, recurring themes and approaches that have come to define Cronenberg as a director and auteur.

As he himself acknowledges, Cronenberg’s films tend to be very body-conscious with the narrative often firmly imbedded within the body. “I gradually realized that I was more interested in things that happen inside you…to a certain extent, it’s your own body that’s the monster.”(Fear 11:16) In the book Cronenberg on Cronenberg, he discusses the fact that we are always trying to prepare ourselves for that which is inevitable but because certain inevitabilities are deemed taboo within our society, we find alternative ways to discuss and face these issues. “One of the ways man has always done this is through art. The cinema is one way we can do that. We confront things in a relatively safe context.”(73) With this is mind, Cronenberg began his exploration of the body through our fear of disease, aging and dying.

To be continued...