[HN Gopher] David Cronenberg on "Crimes of the Future"
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       David Cronenberg on "Crimes of the Future"
        
       Author : keiferski
       Score  : 49 points
       Date   : 2022-12-28 05:26 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.filmcomment.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.filmcomment.com)
        
       | jokowueu wrote:
       | It was a fantastic movie . Kristen Stewart was phenomenal in this
       | movie .
        
         | Mistletoe wrote:
         | Post Twilight I'm a huge unabashed Kristen Stewart fan. Saw her
         | in some Olivier Assayas movies at the art museum and fell in
         | love.
        
           | yamtaddle wrote:
           | I also now see Pattinson's involvement in a film as a sign
           | it's gonna at least be worth a watch.
           | 
           | All I can figure is the script and director _demanded_
           | wooden, bad acting in the Twilight films, for whatever
           | reason.
        
           | Jare wrote:
           | I'm ready to bet that _both_ Kristen Stewart and Robert
           | Pattison will get an Oscar in the next 5 years. They are
           | fantastic and it 's crazy that both would get the big
           | spotlight thanks to that bankable but utterly uninteresting
           | franchise.
        
         | TechnicolorByte wrote:
         | Wish I could share the enthusiasm. Felt like it wasn't saying
         | anything interesting. That or I missed the point because much
         | of the dialogue was hard to understand in the theater.
        
       | cpeterso wrote:
       | If you like David Cronenberg's work, definitely check out his son
       | Brandon Cronenberg's films "Antiviral" and "Possessor".
        
         | e40 wrote:
         | _Possessor_ is on Hulu... thanks!
        
       | labrador wrote:
       | _Set in a haunted, ancient-yet-avant-garde Athens where people
       | cut each other up for kicks_...
       | 
       | No thanks, I've had enough of Cronenberg for one life
        
         | Bayart wrote:
         | It's very much in the lineage of Videodrome and Existenz.
        
         | beepbooptheory wrote:
         | You will be left behind as the world changes, holding on to an
         | expired sanctity. The New Flesh has no need for those who would
         | judge sentences instead of organs!
        
       | n0us wrote:
       | This was one of the strangest movies I've seen in years, in a
       | good way
        
       | arcade79 wrote:
       | I "snuck" in to watch Crash, by Cronenberg, at a con in '96 or
       | '97. I was among the crew/organizers at the con, so "snuck" is an
       | exaggeration. Anyhow. I was 16 or 17 at the time. It was rated 18
       | in my country at the time. It should've been rated NSFL. :-)
       | 
       | I've never watched a Cronenberg since.
       | 
       | I'm sure he makes good movies, but .. eh, I developed a healthy
       | scare for his movies watching Crash.
        
       | bee_rider wrote:
       | _In a sense, this is a "process" film, devoted to the nuts and
       | bolts of creation, and thus one of Cronenberg's densest and most
       | pedantic outings. Yet it's somehow also among his most immediate
       | works--a kind of intellectual road map for the contemplation of
       | existential questions of such overwhelming scale and urgency that
       | few artists dare to confront them so directly._
       | 
       | Does anyone know what a process film is, or what it means for a
       | movie to be pedantic?
       | 
       | I can't make heads or tails of this, but I'm glad (sincerely and
       | unsarcastically) that Cronenberg is around to make movies for
       | people who can!
        
         | sdwr wrote:
         | I read process as meaning the film is about systemic effects in
         | a variety of contexts, as opposed to being plot- or character-
         | driven.
         | 
         | Like, "it's about the journey, not the destination", but one
         | step further, because journey implies people and meaningful
         | events.
        
         | autoexec wrote:
         | I'm guessing a process film is this:
         | 
         | In The Process Genre Salome Aguilera Skvirsky introduces and
         | theorizes the process genre--a heretofore unacknowledged and
         | untheorized transmedial genre characterized by its
         | representation of chronologically ordered steps in which some
         | form of labor results in a finished product.
         | 
         | https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-process-genre
         | 
         | a 'pedantic film' may just mean it's unimaginative/boring, or
         | even ostentatious/preachy
        
           | Slow_Hand wrote:
           | Crikey. The writing from that excerpt is tedious to parse.
           | Why is academic writing so often insufferable?
           | 
           | Are there any other genres of writing that are usually this
           | clunky to read? Maybe legal writing?
        
             | autoexec wrote:
             | Sorry, I didn't author it, I just found it googling around
             | for an explanation for the term. I blame the publisher.
        
         | RC_ITR wrote:
         | Pedantic in this case means dull and unimaginative.
         | 
         | https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedantic
         | 
         | Everyone else's understanding of process seems fine.
        
           | HillRat wrote:
           | "Pedantic" is probably not the most felicitous term they
           | could have used; they clearly meant something more like
           | "abstruse," given their obvious admiration for the film.
        
           | bee_rider wrote:
           | I've gotten multiple contradictory definitions of "process
           | film" here, I think yamtaddle's is most correct though.
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34177435
        
         | yamtaddle wrote:
         | The sentence tells you exactly what "'process' film"
         | means--"devoted to the nuts and bolts of creation", that is, to
         | a _process_. The quotes on  "process" here indicate the author
         | is either using some very-obscure term or (more likely, I
         | think) is coining it themselves for their purpose in this
         | piece, which is why (in either case) it's explained right
         | after.
         | 
         | Pedantic, I think is used in the sense of schoolmasterly or in
         | the manner of a teacher--as in: the film "reads" a bit like a
         | lecture, is concerned with details and plainly connecting A to
         | B in a logical order and clearly demonstrating that to the
         | viewer, that kind of thing. That's why it's contrasted with "
         | _Yet_ it's somehow also among his most immediate works "
         | (emphasis mine). The author's saying it's not also excessively
         | abstract or distant from life and applicability, as one
         | imagines lectures might sometimes be.
         | 
         | Same root as "pedagogy", though outside certain educated
         | circles "pedant" is almost exclusively used in the colloquial,
         | pejorative sense of "know-it-all, especially one who insists on
         | correcting others unnecessarily"--but it's certainly used in
         | the older, more neutral sense here.
        
         | slibhb wrote:
         | You don't have to intellectualize movies to enjoy them.
        
           | bee_rider wrote:
           | I agree. Some people enjoy movies more by intellectualizing
           | them, though, and certain directors seem to have more to
           | offer them.
        
         | abruzzi wrote:
         | I read it as like a "police procedural", which is a film that
         | prioritizes the actual procedure of police work over big
         | themes, character development, and action. In this case---it
         | delves into processes, artistic and bureaucratic. There are
         | "big themes" but there are also odd scenes where bureaucrats
         | discuss the need for cataloging organs, and artists discuss the
         | viability of doing an autopsy as art.
         | 
         | In this quote I read "pedantic" as simply meaning focused on
         | the details, really just a reinforcement of the "process"
         | assertion.
        
         | pessimizer wrote:
         | I suspect that by "process" film, they mean a film about the
         | process of doing something.
        
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