D.W. Griffith at Biograph

The first of my Deep Discount orders arrived the other day-the Griffith
Biograph set from the "Masterworks" collection. Needless to say, I've been
spending every free minute I have going through the films.

I realize that this collection represents a kind of "best of" Griffith's
work, but I still can't get past how inventively he was staging his shots
even at this early point. I actually started with "The Adventures of Dollie"
(presented as a bonus film as the quality of the short, mastered from the
paper print, is evidently below Kino's usual standards). The depth and space
that Griffith brings to the shots is really astounding to me. I know other
filmmakers were doing similar things at the time, but I've simply not seen
anything quite like it in other films of 1908. The framing allows for so
much information within the shot, but not by lining the actors up in front
of the camera, but rather by placing them in different spaces and distances
in the shot.

I also watched "The Musketeers of Pig Alley" so far, which I have been
wanting to see for years. What struck me more than anything here was the
illusion of documentary realism Griffith achieved. I've read that the film
may not have even been shot in New York's Lower East Side after all, but
rather in Fort Lee, New Jersey. If that's the case, it's all the more
impressive what a convincing depiction Griffith manages to create here. His
use of background extras was especially notable, each going about their
business in the background in realistic spaces to create an utterly
believable environment for the story to play out in.

Videodrome: Prophetic Science Fiction

Comparing the development of Cronenberg’s ideas in his earlier films we’ve screened against Videodrome represents a new depth and clarity, especially in regard to the character’s motivations.
Videodrome features an incredibly prophetic view of the interaction between humans and electronics, as well as the increasing place of pornography and extreme content on television. In “Birth of an Auteur”, Cronenberg cites the Canadian City TV as his inspiration for the station, Civic TV, in the film. His real-life influences also include the presence of a Marshall McLuhan-type character, Dr. O’Blivion. McLuhan’s theories on the place of television in society are explored through this character, who turns out to live on only through his pre-recorded video image.
In “Birth of an Auteur”, Cronenberg denies the film having a truly prophetic view, stating that the ideas seemed “obvious” to him at the time. The interaction between humans and electronics, how the media shapes them, and the concept of virtual reality all seem quite timely, which impressed me considering that the film is already more than twenty years old.
As he mentions in “Journals”, Cronenberg is more interested in presenting ideas in this film rather than high-tech hardware and “action” elements. The concepts are much more fully developed than in his previous films, and the casting of James Woods in the lead role really helps to deliver a convincing protagonist, whose psychology is brought to the surface in its physical manifestations. In this way, the film works on two levels, partly by providing a view of how technology impacts one person using it, and how it affects society as a whole. Woods’ interaction with the video representation of Deborah Harry, especially in the torture scene, represent the blurring between the real and the video image. In “Journals”, Cronenberg states that he does not care for merely creating the cinematic equivalent of essays on “social art”, also stating that “when someone is functioning as an artist, he has no social responsibility”. This idea is explored through James Woods’ character in the film, who has no compunction about broadcasting extreme images that he knows will attract viewers. There is, significantly, less emphasis on the medical aspects that Cronenberg employed in his earlier features, instead, as suggested by Carrie Rickey in “Make Mine Cronenberg”, more of a focus on technology, as indicated by the videotapes that become a part of Max Renn’s physicality. Rickey also points out the use of grotesque imagery, another Cronenberg hallmark. I found the imagery in Videodrome to be among the most memorable I have seen so far because it is so integrated into the psychological ideas in the story, and very well achieved from a technical standpoint. The pulsating, morphing video cassette tapes and the handgun taking root in Woods’ hand were both exceptionally well executed.
Videodrome presents another characteristically Cronenberg ending, with Woods’ taking his own life to enter the video world. The bleak ending relates to the endings of Cronenberg’s earlier work in which their was no hope as the disease continued to manifest itself and spread outward into a larger portion of society. At this point, Videodrome presents an interesting twist on this idea, as the “disease” will be spread through the broadcasting and viewing of the tapes, which reflects back on the influence of media and McLuhan’s idea of “the medium is the message”.

"Shivers" and "The Brood": A Comparative Review

David Cronenberg’s Shivers and The Brood offer perfect examples of his distinct style and themes as discussed in “Cronenberg on Cronenberg” and “Logic, Creativity and Critical Misinterpretation”.
Of the two films, I preferred Shivers for its sheer vision of spreading “disease”, in this case, in the form of sexual parasites that infect their victims through sexual interaction and lead their victims to pass them on through reproducing. The film itself falls into the horror genre, but represents a larger interest in science. In “Cronenberg on Cronenberg”, the director cites the idea of “hunting and killing and mating”, which is a dominant theme in Shivers. Similarly, the ideas of mating and killing appear in the characters of the deformed children in The Brood, although I felt the theme was less well-developed in that film than in Shivers.
To make a scientific analogy, Cronenberg’s situations play out in the equivalent of a cinematic petrie dish. As a director, he takes the role of scientific observer. In the interview, “Logic, Creativity and Critical Misinterpretation”, Cronenberg offers a unique vision on his characters in Shivers, calling the conclusion to the film “a weirdly, twisted happy ending”. He argues that the characters are representative of the “creative mind” and he identified with them over the bland, regimented characters who on the surface appear as the “good” and normal characters. I agree with his assessment of the film’s ending, as the main characters in the film are difficult to sympathize with, especially in regard to their almost secluded, “perfect” lifestyle in the Starliner Towers. The characters appear just as devoid of free will, while living in these sterile apartments as they do when infected by the parasites and their sole focus becomes sex and reproduction. The horror elements of the film-characters trapped in a single location, the spreading of the parasites and the growing threat-are mixed with a unique scientific approach, which directly relates to Cronenberg’s experience in medicine as well as his ideas of the doctor as the source of the disease. The character of Dr. Hobbes is our initial glimpse at the behavior that is to come as a result of the parasites, and it is explained by another doctor that he originated the parasites for a supposedly good cause but that his plans took a different turn, leading those infected with the parasites to seek constant sexual activity. The doctor who serves as protagonist finally loses control in the final sequence in the Towers’ swimming pool, in which he is finally infected by the parasites, and is the final victim to succumb to infection. In “Cronenberg on Cronenberg”, he describes the characters as initially reacting in horror as they are drawn into this new experience, but that he ultimately sympathizes with the infected characters, and considers it a “triumph” when they finally take over at the end. In “Logic, Creativity and Critical Misinterpretation”, Cronenberg explains his interest in scientists as very distinct and “real characters”. He also describes them as acting out of a controlling, insulated interaction with other people. This view of scientists manifests itself in the character of Hobbes in Shivers, whose interaction with other people is strictly scientific until he is infected by the parasite himself and loses all control. This turns the notion of sex into one of horror and panic, especially in terms of the male characters’ relationships with women. Cronenberg responds to criticism about his supposed “disgust” with female sexuality as not being representative of his personal views and considers the idea more of a critical projection than a valid reading of his work. I disagree with his response in that the views of female sexuality in the film, such as the encounter between the two women (one of whom is already infected), and the idea of reproduction occurring among the parasite, offer grotesque depictions that support the critics’ notion of disgust.
The Brood also offers a similarly disgusting viewpoint of reproduction and female sexuality. As has been pointed out, Cronenberg was in the middle of a terrible divorce when the film was made, which probably accounts for the negative depiction of the character of the wife as the source of terror and the reproduction of deformed children who kill as a way of acting out the wife’s rage. While many of Cronenberg’s ideas are better executed in this film, I still felt that Shivers offered more of a sense of genuine panic and claustrophobia. Perhaps it was this claustrophobic element that better serves the idea of Cronenberg’s cinematic world as a petrie dish in which an infection intrudes and expands. In the finale of both films, the disease spreads outside of the self-contained world. In Shivers, we have the infected residents of the Starline Towers leaving en masse, presumably to continue infecting and reproducing. In The Brood, we see a more subtle variation on the same idea, as the little girl is last seen with the welts and bumps on her skin, indicating that the cycle of abuse and rage manifested in the deformed children will perpetuate itself.
From a purely technical standpoint, the execution of the horror elements of The Brood were superior to Shivers. In particular, I was struck by the scene in which the wife “gave birth” to one of the deformed children in the presence of her husband. The imagery was very well achieved, and served to convey the disgust and fear in great detail. However, the “rationale” given for the spreading parasites in Shivers struck me as better executed in terms of the story and ideas. The Brood did not convey the same sense of panic in terms of how the reproduction of the deformed children would harm the entire community in the same way as the parasites of Shivers. It lacked the same sense of impending doom that marked the ending of Shivers.
In “Cronenberg on Cronenberg”, the director describes The Brood as a cathartic experience, with the creatures representing his own rage. He also describes a closeup of Samantha Eggar’s character licking the newly-born creature, covered in blood, as “loving”. This affection for the characters is similar to Cronenberg’s assessment of the ending to Shivers. I agree with his notion of the underlying sympathy to the character that is otherwise offset by the grotesque imagery.
These two films by Cronenberg follow the same structure of introducing a disease into an otherwise healthy, contained “world”, and observing the effects of the spreading of that disease until it carries on and “spills over” into a world that exists outside the film.