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, then-unknown
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 upon 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.
Aside from
The Dead Zone (1983) and
The Fly, Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream
Hollywood filmmaking, although he has had occasional near misses. At one stage he was considered by
George Lucas as a possible director for
Return of the Jedi 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
migraine 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 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
Dead Ringers, Cronenberg has worked with cinematographer
Peter Suschitzky on each of his films (see
List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations). Suschitzky was the director of photography for
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 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 [a system of government
grants] in order to have a national cinema in the face of Hollywood".
Cronenberg has also appeared in the films of other directors as an actor. Most of his roles are
cameo appearances, 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
gynecologist 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.
