woops

is not like other people
v over-rated director, as i said upthread, his best work is as an actor in someone else's film
 

woops

is not like other people
he's the ballard of cinema and i consider ballard equally overrated in his field
 

woops

is not like other people
which last two posts make me wonder if ballard has ever popped up as a character in anyone else's novel
 

woops

is not like other people
Where do you think they're lacking?

they lack the things i like that make me take a work of art to my heart. cronenberg's films are impressive as statements but there's nothing to aspire to. i find them depressing and as i hate feeling depressed that puts me off. it's more a weird fascination than enjoyment. there's a lack of humanity which as a human i can't quite relate to. i find ballard's work repetitive even though when i watch an interview with him i can see that he's very intelligent. my favourite cronenburg is The Fly and my fave ballard is Concrete Island

re Concrete Island it's like the music of Steely Dan, I remember my dad had this book around when i was too young to know how I old I was
 

version

Well-known member
There's definitely something distant about the two of them. I like them both, but I don't think I'd ever include anything of theirs in a list of favourites. I tend to come away from their work with a few ideas or images which really made an impression, but an overall sense of hollowness.
 

woops

is not like other people
that director also made a sitcom called twitch city. and oh look he appears in eXistTENZ
 

version

Well-known member
I was just looking at Twitch City on IMDB after you mentioned Last Night. I always get this peculiar feeling when I start finding these forgotten films and shows from the 70s to about the 90s. They seem to exist in a parallel universe. I got the same feeling when I stumbled across Hal Hartley's page on there and when I looked through some of Albert Brooks' stuff.
 

version

Well-known member
Looking through the recommended films under Last Night atm, I can't help feeling how arbitrary the success of a film can be. A bunch of them are highly-rated, but nobody really seems to watch or talk about them. Apparently they're good, but something happened which stopped them taking off. Maybe they got a bad review from the wrong person or came out at the wrong time or at the same time as something too similar. Clearly a lot of luck and politics involved.
 

woops

is not like other people
just read that book recently, the sequel to easy riders raging bulls, can't remember what it's called

but the conclusion was that as an indie film maker you have one indie film in you, cos after that you either go hollywood or you're skint
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
This is a good read, surprisingly in-depth for a BBC article I thought, and I was surprised to learn how controversial Crash (the film) was when it was released (I was about 12 at the time). I watched it years later, the budding apprentice masturbator, fast forwarding to the shags. I probably should watch it as a slightly less horny adult.

 

catalog

Well-known member
just read that book recently, the sequel to easy riders raging bulls, can't remember what it's called

but the conclusion was that as an indie film maker you have one indie film in you, cos after that you either go hollywood or you're skint
Down and dirty pictures but it's not as good as easy riders raging bulls
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Has anyone mentioned The Dead Zone in here? Great film. It's obviously quite mainstream for Cronenberg, but Cronenberg being mainstream is still weird.
 
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