If
you read Don DeLillo in your formative years chances are you were a bit fucked
up in the head, but that yielded only the urge to understand the hypocrisy of
the world to a better degree…you probably read a lot of Bret Easton Ellis along
with that. Now, if you watched Cronenberg growing up, congratulations you’re
probably smarter than 95% percent of the world’s population, and moreover if
you actually understand all of his films on body-horror, pan-existentialist
levels, then you’re a fucking genius.
A
few of his newest films have been rather polarizing. A Dangerous Method (2011) was schmaltzy crap the whole way through.
And Cosmopolis (2012) got all kinds
of black and white reviews, it’s the kind of film Armand White loves to write
about. The kind of film that gets a mixed reaction at Cannes, and Rotten
Tomatoes has a meltdown over because film critics turn into 5 year olds; All
having something to say each at a louder more obnoxious volume than the other.
Sarah Gadon plays the wife of Billionaire playboy Eric (Robert Pattinson) who promises that one day they will indeed have sex, but never delivers. Probably a smart move on her part.
I
had heard a shit ton of bad press about this film, but it was mostly from
people that didn’t ‘get it’ and were faux film critics to begin with in the
tradition of Ben Lyons who just tear it to shreds because they don’t understand
allegory and post-capitalist theory and still manage to make 6-figure salaries
(Fuck Ben Lyons is basically what I’m saying) he’s probably never watched
anything of Cronenberg’s past Dead
Ringers (1988)).
A prostate exam during a meeting with his financial advisor yeilds the metaphor that Eric has an asymmetrical prostate, take it for whatever you think it might mean.
This
is a film that combines sexual frustration and depression of fear of
being-in-the-world, particularly of being powerful, both sexually and
otherwise, and the inner struggle that exists in the responsibility which that
power comes with. Also, the boredom that comes from knowing that everything is too
easily accessible weather it be billions of dollars or seriously hot French tail.
It is a Jean-Paul Sartre manifesto on film, and no one better to understand
that and make it erotic than David Cronenberg. I thought the film was
fantastic, and thought most didn’t and it barely got distributed, it finally
landed on Netflix, so good for it, a bunch of teenagers can now be either
confused as fuck or take up reading DeLillo and start speaking with a French
accent.Either way, it’s one of
Cronenberg’s more complex and erotic films, which is exactly how he initially
made his name in the business, mixed with some political pathos, it makes for
one hell of a mindfuck.
Kink has come a long way...the first of many puns in this blog post.
Have we ever taken a turn for the masochistic of late. And I love it. Usually it required one locking up all doors and windows and ordering a channel only your most perverted friends had even heard of or going to a dingy warehouse with ziploc sandwich bags tied around your hands to pick out the right ball-gag which you would then proceed to lock in a steel safe in your basement until all of your neighbors were all away on a groupon cruise to the Mediterranean. Now you walk into a Walmart or a Von's and first thing on the shelf in front of you are copies of 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Right next to it? Furry handcuffs.
Now,
kink is manifest in the more sophisticated class, with better
engineered instruments and a general polished, nuanced aesthetic that
appeals to more of a general public rather than just a cult fad.
Polo gear stores are struggling to keep riding crops on their shelves and the elderly ma & pa-type owners can't understand why they are selling those dang riding crops and nothing else. Here's a hint, it's not for polo tournaments, grandad.
And now Hollywood is getting in on all of the sado-masochistic action and popping that last taboo right into our 'vanilla' consciousness (no pun intended). Sundance premiered a film back in January called Compliance (2012), which for months was the talk of the town, and is slated for limited release this August. It stars Dreama Walker from Don't Trust the B---- in Apt 23 fame. It concerns a lowly fast-food employee around 19, who is tricked into some kind of sick masochistic scheme wherein her coworkers are coerced by an anonymous presence over the phone claiming to be the police to strip search her, and make her do generally degrading sexual acts all under the guise that she is guilty of stealing money from another co-worker.
Dreama Walker in Compliance (2012) one of the most highly anticipated films of the year.
There's no question about it, the biggest 'It' thing is BDSM, and everyone is trying their hand at it. 20/20 recently did a retrospective on how marriages were saved by 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Couples started trying kink in the bedroom and it brought back all the heat, and made everyone pregnant. That's right, there's apparently a new baby boom looming and we have one person to thank for that; E. L. James, who took Twilight fanfiction and not only made it the highest selling book of all time, but generated a serious pop-culture fad that looks like it's going to stick around for a while...again, no pun intended.
Sexual trends have always carried significant weight in pop-culture, but then usually receded back into the norm, or what E. L. James describes as 'vanilla sex'; you know that boring kind of sex where you're in missionary just staring at each other, wondering if you want pasta or chicken for dinner, looking at the dog and mutually rolling your eyes, and counting down the seconds before you can start faking an orgasm. Kink has been around forever and the day. When I was 20, I went to the Red Vic in the Haight district in San Francisco to watch a series called The Good Old Naughty Days.
This retrospective even has its own wikipedia page check it out.
It was 10 or so 'blue films'. For those of you not in the know, a 'blue film' is what people used to call pornography, they also called them 'stag films'. Anyway these films were probably dirtier than anything I've seen with starring Sasha Grey these days. They had to do with things like nuns, plates, people on leashes, and so on and so forth. Did I mention these films were from 1895 - 1911? I didn't? Well that's rather important. People were basically making pornographic films for as long as people had been making films. That's right, while the
Georges Méliès was shooting A Trip to the Moon (1902), there were people shooting two women dressed as nuns licking each others nipples.
A still from one of the films in The Good Old Naughty Days series. These films were initially intended to be seen in French brothels as costumers waited for their prostitutes to get ready.
Kink kind of stayed in the background as American culture grew more mundane and compliant (no more puns intended!), but had a huge resurgence with the influx of fetish magazines in the 40's and Bettie Page who reinvented fetish culture particularly accessory fetishes like leather boots, lace-ups, stilettos, dark make-up, fishnet stalkings, and vinyl underwear.
Bettie Page in Teaser Girl in High Heels (1950) a cult short wearing her now infamous fetish gear.
In the 60's, the big thing was wife-swapping and orgies. Films were made about that as well such as Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969) starring Elliot Gould (I know, gross), Natalie Wood, and Diane Cannon. And now, it just so happens that the new fad in sex is to be tied down to a four-box bed and being whipped within an inch of your life...and liking it.
All Hollywood has to do now is catch up. Compliance (2012) is a gritty independent drama about sexual innocence lost through senseless and reckless violence, but with casting of Christian Grey being the hottest topic of conversation on the interwebs, and directors like Cronenberg still working with those themes, this might be the sex fad that's here to stay.
Cronenberg, who was always at the vanguard of strange sex, (which by the way is also the name of a hotly rated TV show at the moment), has released two films in the last two years about that very topic. One about spank-happy Sabina Spielrein, a pupil and sexual partner of Carl Jung, played immeasurably badly by Kiera Knightly - A Dangerous Method (2011). The other is the highly anticipated Cosmopolis (2012) about a billionaire playboy who has a lot of kinky sex in his limo while the world destroys itself around him, starring Robert Pattinson, the influence for the character of Christian Grey in the E. L. James series. How appropriate.
Still from Cronenberg's Cosmopolis (2012) which could be directly out of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' as far as I'm concerned. Robert Pattinson with Sarah Gadon, two people that could not be better cast as Christian and Anastasia respectively.
No longer is BDSM something only porn producers have to worry about. It's taken over basically all media outlets. From television to films, to the ads in Vogue to literature. If you're still thinking about writing the great American novel or re-booting the tale of Snow-White, maybe it's time to turn off the life-support and get with the times. The general consensus seems to be: Tie me up, America.
Recently published composite of the ideal Christian Grey. Looks like a meat-head to me.
That's right people, my second post on 'Fifty Shades of Grey' and it's not even a film and/or Lifetime special yet. As I said before, and I wasn't wrong. 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is a literary phenomenon on par with sensations like 'Gone with the Wind', and 'Harry Potter'. In fact, a new survey shows that dolar for dollar, Fifty Shades recently surpassed Harry Potter in sales, and that's all of the Harry Potter books put together.
Hollywood is currently shitting itself in anticipation of buying the rights to retell this, even though anything slapped with any less than an NC-17 would be outright atrocious.
The number one frontrunner currently in the coveted race to play sadist, chauvinist woman-abuser that women are obsessed with for some reason is ridiculously hot nice-guy Canadian and saver of British women's lives Ryan Gosling. But I think that's a tad obvi.
The story is based on the characters from the Twilight series so Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson our out because that's of course tired and who gives a shit about those two anymore?
Here's what I'm thinking, and this might be obvi too but it just seems so perfect. Michael Fassbender as Christian Grey. It's perfect in-it? He's already a serious contender, and fingers crossed And he's no stranger to full-frontal and hardcore almost-porn, and the man is fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. That's an industry term. He seems like he'd tie you up, smack you around, and leave you asking 'Thank you sir, may I have another?'
Two words. 'um...yes.'
Now, casting the naive college student who galls head over heels in love with Christian and with being tied up, Anastasia Steele, is going to be more difficult, it has to be someone who's a fresh-face, but is totally not against doing demeaning nudity and being ball-gagged for the majority of the film. I think Ellen Page is just a bit too annoyingly dignified for that. Once you get an Oscar nomination you all of a sudden see yourself as far too good for kitschy mommy porn. So I'm going to go ahead and nominate Lilly Collins or perhaps Fassbender's former co-star Sarah Gadon, or even Lady Sybil herself, Jessica Brown Findlay. Of course Sarah Gadon would have to put on a stone or two and dye her hair, but she's my favorite in this race, especially considering she's ballsy enough to work with Cronenberg twice already and she's not even 24 yet.
Now, what's really important is who's going to direct it.
Sarah Gadon just has one of those great faces that screams 'please corrupt me, I'm impressionable and also a virgin' so she's perfect in my opinion.
Off the top of my head, three names that instantly come to mind are Sally Potter, David Cronenberg, and Paul Verhoeven. How amazing would any of those be, but Hollywood being Hollywood they'll probably hire some guy who does second unit on Jersey Shore or turn it over to Tom Hooper who'll make it some cheesy, weepy, clap-trap melodrama about sexual depravity and take all of the filth out of it. Please grow some balls Hollywood and listen to me. I'm praying for a wildly farcical, seriously graphic, campy shit-show, just like it was originally written.
Below, an article on the casting of Christian Grey that has housewives everywhere queefing in their granny-panties.
THERE IS A NEW TRAILER EXCLUSIVE ON ITUNES FOR THE UPCOMING CRONENBERG OPUS A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011) ABOUT THE FOREMOST NAME IN SEX, SIGMUND FREUD (VIGGO MORTENSEN) AND HIS LONG TIME COLLABORATOR, INSPIRATION, AND INFLUENCE CARL JUNG (MICHAEL FASSBENDER). IT'S CURRENTLY PLAYING AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL AND WILL BE AT TORONTO NEXT MONTH. IT OPENS ON NOVEMBER 23RD OF THIS YEAR AND I FOR ONE CAN'T WAIT. WHY? IF THERE IS A CONTEMPORARY SEXUAL INFLUENCE ON THE CINEMA THAT IS SINCERE, UNINHIBITED, AND VIOLENT, IT'S CRONENBERG. I AM A HUGE HUGE FAN (THAT GOES WITHOUT SAYING BUT ANYWAY) I BELIEVE THAT IF ANYONE CAN BIO PIC THE PERSONAL LIFE AND PROFESSIONAL PASSION OF FREUD IT'S HIM. I HAVE A LOT OF FAITH IN THE TWO MALE PRINCIPLE LEADS AS WELL, YOU REALLY CAN'T GO WRONG WITH FASSBENDER AND MORTENSEN (AND CRONENBERG AND MORTENSEN GO TOGETHER LIKE PEAS AND CARROTS THESE DAYS) THE ONLY THING I HAVE TROUBLE WITH PER SE IS THE CASTING OF KEIRA KNIGHTLY AS RUSSIAN BANANA SANDWICH AND FREUD PARAMOUR SABINA SPIELREIN. THIS COULD BE A MAKE OR BREAK PERFORMANCE FOR THE FILM, AND TRUTH BE TOLD...I'M NERVOUS. I HONESTLY DON'T THINK SHE PACKS ANY APPEAL SEXUAL OR OTHERWISE AND DON'T SEE HER AS ABLE TO CARRY THE ROLE, BUT YOU KNOW...WE'LL SEE.
STILL FROM A DANGEROUS METHOD.
ARTIST RENDITION OF NEUROLOGIST AND FREUD COLLABORATOR JEAN-MARTIN CHARCOT DEMONSTRATING HYPNOSIS ON A PATIENT.
THIS IS A FILM I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR, FOR A WHILE NOW. I HAVEN'T BEEN THIS EXCITED SINCE THE FIRST TRAILER FOR THE SOCIAL NETWORK WAS RELEASED, AND I HOPE THIS WILL ALL DRIVE US BACK TO OUR BOOKSHELF TO PICK UP THAT OLD DUSTY COPY OF 'BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE' THAT WE HAD TO READ IN HIGH SCHOOL AND IMAGINE THE SEXUAL APPEAL OF HANDLE BAR MUSTACHES.
CRONENBERG IS A NAME SYNONYMOUS WITH THE IDEA OF CONFRONTING DIFFICULT AND CONTROVERSIAL MATERIAL AND HE DOESN'T SHOW ANY SIGNS OF TAKING IT EASY ANY TIME SOON, IN FACT, HE'S ACCELORATING AND NOW PUSHING 70 DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE CRESTED. HE'S NOT SLOWING DOWN NOW THAT HE'S IN HIS GOLDEN YEARS, HE'S STILL AS INNOVATIVE AND UNCENSORED AS EVER, I DON'T DOUBT THAT A DANGEROUS METHOD WILL REITERATE THAT. LETS ALL GO SEE IT AND THEN GO GET HYPNOTIZED INTO ADMITTING REPRESSED SEXUAL MEMORIES! CHEERS.
A LINK TO THE TRAILER EXCLUSIVE: A DANGEROUS METHOD ITUNES EXCLUSIVE
