CANNES (France) — David Cronenberg sits on a balcony as a squawking seagull flies above.
Cronenberg smiles, “Full-of-plastic, that bird.”
Canadian filmmaker, 79 years old, has been fascinated for decades by the contents of our bodies and what we put into them. His interest in the ubiquitous use of microplastics is partly what inspired his latest film “Crimes of the Future”, which will open in theaters on Friday.
Cronenberg was interviewed at the Cannes Film Festival, where “Crimes of the Future,” premiered. He first wrote the script for the film in 1998. Cronenberg discovered the script in 1998, when it was becoming more and more relevant. He didn’t alter it one bit.
It centers around Saul Tenser (Viggo Morensen), and Caprice (Lea Seydoux). They remove tumorous organs from Tenser during surgical performances in a near future where plastics have altered human biology. Kristen Stewart stars as Kristen Stewart, a bureaucrat who becomes a super-fan after seeing a performance.
Cronenberg’s early films (Videodrome, “The Fly”) were a master at body horror. Art is an organ that has been cut out and displayed. He is also auctioning an NFT for his kidney stones that he recently lost. Mortensen, who starred in Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence”, “Eastern Promises”, and “A Dangerous Method”, calls “Crimes of the Future” Cronenberg’s most personal film.
Mortensen said, “Each time I watch one his movies, I see more.”
Cronenberg saw the layers of “Crimes of the Future”, as a way to explore both the nature of being an art and the ways that our increasingly unnatural environment is changing our bodies. Cronenberg is excited by this evolution. He marvels at the way scientists are working to make plastics edible, and perhaps even tasty.
He says, “That’s actually what’s happening.” It’s not scifi anymore.
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AP: How has your relationship with your body changed as you get older?
CRONENBERG : Yes, it is. It’s usually dismaying, but it isn’t so bad. It can be very fascinating. It’s something you have read about, anticipated, and now you are experiencing. Let’s just say it hasn’t been nearly as difficult as it could have been. I’m 79. I don’t feel this age.
AP: Are you taking care of yourself?
CRONENBERG – I have been lifting weights since the age of 16. I don’t want to become a bodybuilder but to keep in shape. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I don’t drink out of any sociological or political agenda. These things are not what I am attracted to. Perhaps that is the key.
AP: Do you ever think about what you put into your body?
CRONENBERG – Not obsessively.
AP: Your work is a lot about the relationship between the body and the environment. Technology has entered our bodies more often over the years that you have been making films.
CRONENBERG : I had just cataract surgery. Now, that’s amazing. They are basically destroying your lenses and sucking them out. Then they put in plastic lenses that will unfold and become your eyes. My entire career as a filmmaker has been spent looking through my lenses. The cataracts have cleared my eyes so I can see better. Everything’s brighter. It’s quite a different color. My director of photography joked that it would be necessary to recolor the entire movie since I have different lenses in each eye. It’s quite intimate. Technology in your eyes. I have hearing aids. Bionic is my only word. This would have been a problem years ago. This would have made my career much more difficult.
