Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Are you a Cronenberg fan or skeptic?
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Hello Reader, Hit reply to let me know where you sit on Cronenberg (including, who on earth is Cronenberg anyway?)! As I talk about on today's podcast on Cronenberg's The Shrouds, I started out as a Cronenberg skeptic. What had trickled down to me about Cronenberg was that he made horror movies, often body horror movies, often about psycho-sexual things. Although I've liked plenty of films that fit into each of these categories, none of them are my go-to favourite genres. I pretty much assumed he wasn't for me. And I was wrong. I just hadn't seen the right Cronenberg films yet or had the right framing. What nobody had told me was that he considers his movies comedies. And they are often very funny. Or that, whatever genre he's working in, he's still essentially making character-driven talky chamber dramas. If they had, a lightbulb would have gone off: these are exactly the films for me. (Even though some of them are a lot less for me.) Whether you come to Cronenberg for the horror, or his films have turned you off because of that:
One of the people responsible for my 180 on Cronenberg is Angelo Muredda, whose 2021 talk on The Fly (1986) through the lens of disability studies totally changed how I thought about Cronenberg. Here's Angelo on what he likes about Cronenberg (he goes deeper on today's podcast): "Regardless of which genre he is currently ostensibly working in, his movies are about talking and about working through ideas. And they're about people often who are undergoing some sort of change...inside their bodies or inside their minds, in some cases. And they're often articulate enough to be able to comment on that process, or they're fascinated by that process, or they're scared of that process.
His movies are really about trying to figure out what's going on with me, the person who's undergoing these strange processes. Where a lot of other horror filmmakers, and he is sometimes a horror filmmaker, show bodies changing, and show monstrosity, disability, and deformity. They often show those things in a jump scare sort of way as this horrible thing that happens that you instinctively turn away from.
Cronenberg protagonists look at the thing and document the thing and talk about the thing and have dreams about it and process those dreams and have long conversations about it — to the point where there's almost the Cronenberg micro-genre of these like talky dramas that are somewhat comedic and that are often sex-based and have body horror elements with people just talking about what's going on with them, what kind of identity crisis they're currently in."
Episode 169: David Cronenberg's The Shrouds with Angelo MureddaToday on the podcast, Angelo joins me to discuss one of the year's best films: David Cronenberg's The Shrouds. It's also one of Cronenberg's best films, and we think it's a great entry point if you've never previously clicked with Cronenberg. We talk about what unites Cronenberg's best work, why we keep coming back to his films, and how The Shrouds is a surprisingly funny, sad, and poignant drama about grief and aging. We also consider The Shrouds through the lens of disability. Happy watching/listening! Alex
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Seventh Row
Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
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