Posted in: Movies | Tagged: coronavirus, david cronenber, The Fly

The Virality of David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg gives good quote.  For example, he recently told The Guardian, "Movies were made for sex, there's no doubt about it."  He said lots of other things, but he knew that one would be the headline. Reading that closely and seeing that he gave The Playlist something similar, it becomes apparent that — presumably noticing how well this has worked for other filmmakers — what he's really doing there is picking a fight with super-hero film fans.  The Playlist notes: "Another issue that Cronenberg is noticing with Hollywood, particularly in the "asexual" superhero films is the lack of eroticism."

Which brings us to the David Cronenberg viral zinger published today by The Hollywood Reporter.  Regarding the coronavirus, he told them:

"It's a mutation. On a scientific level, this is great stuff. It's not scary. Socially, it's scary. But if you're a science geek, this is just business as usual on planet Earth,"

It's pretty apparent from Cronenberg's body of work that he's fascinated with mutation.  Of course, there's an equally apparent context for that fascination: Cronenberg studied biochemistry ath the University of Tornoto, before becoming a filmmaker.  He once said:

If I had stayed the course, I would have been in biochemistry. I was never interested in hardware sciences. Chemistry was more interesting because it related to the body; not just the human body, but the planet's body. I loved botany. I loved the interchange of fluids and plants; the chemistry of plants. All that stuff. So it was biochemistry in the brain, getting at the physical basis of thought and imagination. I think it natural that I should try to draw those parts of myself [literary and scientific] together and integrate them, finally, in film-making.

This seems to explain David Cronenberg's interest in viruses as well — on a couple different levels.

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