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David Paul Cronenberg Film Director and occasional Actor . He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the '' Body Horror '' or ''venereal horror'' genre. This style of Filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and Infection . In his films, the psychological is typically intertwined with the physical. In the first half of his career, he explored these themes mostly through Horror and Science Fiction , although his work has since expanded beyond these genres. BIOGRAPHY Early life Cronenberg was born in when he was young, later graduating from the University Of Toronto with a degree in literature, having switched from science. He has cited William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov as influences. Career After two short sketch films and two short art-house features (the black and white '' Stereo '' and the colour '' Crimes Of The Future '') Cronenberg went into partnership with Ivan Reitman . The Canadian government provided financing for Cronenberg's films through the 1970s. Cronenberg alternated his signature " Body Horror " films such as '' Shivers '' with projects reflecting his interest in car racing and bike gangs. '' Rabid '' exploited the unexpected acting talents of porn queen Marilyn Chambers (Cronenberg's first choice was a young unknown actress called Sissy Spacek ). ''Rabid'' was a breakthrough with international distributors and his next two horror features gained stronger support. Over the arc of his career, Cronenberg's films follow a definite progression, a movement from the social world to the inner life. In his early films, scientists modify human bodies, which results in the breakdown of social order (e.g. '' Shivers '', '' Rabid ''). In his middle period, the chaos wrought by the scientist is more personal, (e.g. '' The Brood '', '' Scanners '', '' Videodrome ''). In the later period, the scientist himself is altered by his experiment (e.g. Cronenberg's remake of '' The Fly ''). This trajectory culminates in '' Dead Ringers '' in which a twin pair of Gynecologists spiral into Codependency and Drug Addiction . Cronenberg's later films tend more to the psychological, often contrasting subjective and objective realities ('' EXistenZ '', '' M. Butterfly '', '' Spider ''). Perhaps the best example of a film that straddles the line between his works of personal chaos and psychological confusion is Cronenberg's "adaptation" of his literary hero Burroughs' most controversial book, '' Naked Lunch ''. The book itself (widely accepted as Burroughs' seminal work) was considered "unfilmable" and Cronenberg acknowledged that a straight translation of the book to film would "cost 100 million dollars and be banned in every country in the world". Instead, Cronenberg--much like in his earlier film, ''Videodrome''--consistently blurred the lines between what appeared to be reality and what appeared to be Hallucinations brought on by the main character's Drug Addiction . Some of the book's "moments" (as well as incidents loosely based Burroughs' life) are presented in this manner within the film. Cronenberg stated that while writing the screenplay for '' Naked Lunch '', he felt a moment of Synergy with the writing style of William S. Burroughs . He felt the connection between his screenwriting style and Burroughs' prose style was so strong, that he jokingly remarked that should Burroughs pass on, "I'll just write his next book". He also credits fellow director David Lynch, for giving him inspiration. Cronenberg has said that his films should be seen "from the point of view of the disease", and that, for example, he identifies with the characters in ''Shivers'' after they become infected with the anarchic parasites. Disease and disaster, in Cronenberg's work, are less problems to be overcome than agents of Personal Transformation . Similarly, in '' Crash '' (1996), people who have been injured in car crashes attempt to view their ordeal as "a fertilising rather than a destructive event". In 2006, Cronenberg would say that he was upset that Paul Haggis had chosen the same name for his Academy Award winning film '' Crash '', feeling it was not only ethically wrong, but annoying as well. {Link without Title} Aside from ''The Dead Zone'' (1983) and ''The Fly'', Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream '' but was passed. Cronenberg also worked for nearly a year on a version of '' Total Recall '' but experienced "creative differences" with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett. A different version of the film was eventually made by Paul Verhoeven . A fan of Philip K. Dick , the author of the short story ("We Can Remember it For You Wholesale") upon which ''Total Recall'' was based, Cronenberg related (in the biography/overview of his work, ''Cronenberg on Cronenberg'') that his dissatisfaction with what he envisioned the film to be and what it ended up being pained him so greatly that for a time, he suffered a Migrane just thinking about it, akin to a needle piercing his eye. In the late 1990s, Cronenberg was announced as director of a sequel to another Verhoeven film, '' Basic Instinct '', but this also fell through. His most recent work, the thriller '' A History Of Violence '' (2005), is one of his highest budgeted and most mass audience-accessible to date. He has said that the decision to direct it was influenced by his having had to defer some of his salary on the low-budgeted ''Spider'', but it is one of his most critically acclaimed films to date. Cronenberg has hired Howard Shore to compose the Soundtrack to nearly all of his films (see List Of Noted Film Director And Composer Collaborations ). Other regular collaborators include actor Robert Silverman, Art Director Carol Spier, Sound Editor Bryan Day, Film Editor Ronald Sanders, his sister, Costume Designer Denise Cronenberg , and, from 1979 until 1988, Cinematographer Mark Irwin. Since 1988's '''', and Cronenberg has repeatedly said that Suschitzky's work in that film made it the most beautiful sci-fi film he had ever seen, which was a motivating factor to work with him on '' Dead Ringers ''. Coupled with the loyalty he shows to his key personnel, Cronenberg remains a staunchly Canadian filmmaker, with nearly all of his films (including major studio vehicles ''The Dead Zone'' and ''The Fly'') having been filmed in his home province Ontario. Notable exceptions include ''M. Butterfly'' and ''Spider'', most of which were shot in China and England, respectively. Also, ''Rabid'' and ''Shivers'' were shot in and around Montreal . Most of his films have been at least partially financed by Telefilm Canada , and Cronenberg is a vocal supporter of government-backed film projects, saying "Every country needs system of government Grants in order to have a national cinema in the face of Hollywood".[http://www.avclub.com/content/node/22500] Cronenberg has also appeared in the films of other directors as an actor. Most of his roles are Cameo Appearance s, as in ''Into The Night'', '' Jason X '', '' To Die For '', and '' Alias '', but on occasion he has played major roles, as in '' Nightbreed '' or '' Last Night ''. He has not played major roles in any of his own films, but he did put in a brief appearance as a Gynaecologist in ''The Fly''; he can also be glimpsed among the sex-crazed hordes in ''Shivers''; he can be heard as an unseen car-pound attendant in ''Crash''; his hands can be glimpsed in '' EXistenZ ''; and he appeared as a stand-in for James Woods in ''Videodrome'' for shots in which Woods' character wore a helmet that covered his head. Honors In 1999, Cronenberg was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame.http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/99_david_cronenberg.xml.htm In 2002 , he was made an Officer of the Order Of Canada , and in 2006 . he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival 's lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse D'Or .http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=filmNews&storyID=2006-05-22T094006Z_01_N22332578_RTRIDST_0_FILM-CRONENBERG-DC.XML] In 2006, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society Of Canada , the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. {Link without Title} FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR Feature films
Short films
Television serials
Commercials
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
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BIBLIOGRAPHIES REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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