Happy Birthday David Cronenberg – Five Weird And Wonderful Films From The Great

From the extremely strange Naked Lunch to the wonderful The Fly, Cronenberg has never been predictable and continues to challenge himself with every new production. Here are five of the weirder but wonderful Cronenberg projects.

1. Naked Lunch

After developing an addiction to bug killer, an exterminator murders his wife and becomes embroiled in a government plot orchestrated by giant bugs. Yes, that it is the plot. Based on the William S. Burroughs book, Naked Lunch was deemed unfilmable until Cronenberg. 

2. A Dangerous Method

Not exactly the most adventurous of the Cronenberg films, but certainly a break with style and one of the more dramatic pieces, A Dangerous Method examined the strained relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

3. Cosmopolis

Just as soon as he had finished working on Dangerous Method, Cronenberg began adapting the philosophical novel Cosmopolis, starring Robert Pattinson. The film was slated by critics, but was certainly an interesting piece of work, not least for picking up one of the teen idols and turning him into a leading man.

4. Crash

Oh, you know the one. The film that had all the people having sex in cars, constantly, almost to the point of being a porn film. Yeah, that one.

 

5. Videodrome

Perhaps a film that is currently extremely socially relevant, Videodrome tells the story of a cable TV programmer whose life begins to spiral out of control when he gets a new kind of programming for his station. Made in 1983, Videodrome is often one of Cronenberg’s overlooked masterpieces.