By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Taking on retakes: Cronenberg in Cannes
David Cronenberg tells the Reporter about esthetic deja vu: “It’s very perplexing because many of my old movies have been suggested for remakes. There’s been talk of remaking Scanners and The Brood and even Videodrome, and that fills me with horror of a different kind. I really think it’s a lack of faith in the creative process. It is part of a general atmosphere of conservatism, in this case not politically but creatively. You want something that has some proven value, even if it only had value 30 or 40 years ago because you’re so uncertain about what could possibly work as original. You’d think that people would be looking for strikingly original work, but it’s quite the contrary. That’s the hardest sell… It’s too bad because a lot of the stuff that was done in the ’70s… was powerful because it was original. Now, it’s not a great era for moviemaking, I’m afraid. It’s all retro. The strange thing is, that Tarantinoesque sensibility—the idea that if you remake ’70s trash it will somehow be better now. … I remember those ’70s films, and they weren’t good then. Why would you want to remake it? … I think it’s so restricted in its range of creative inquiry, that it’s just an endless, incestuous cycle of trash. … The whole idea of making films just because you love movies really derails the whole process of art. That’s not enough of a reason to make a movie — because, gee, I loved that movie when I was a kid so I’ll remake it. That’s really weird, and I think the results are pretty pathetic… It’s almost like it’s a fear or an inability to respond to the real world and instead retreating to your video corner to relive your childhood in a very superficial way. It’s not very exciting.”