Re: Censorship - "Crash" Tonight
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2002 8:47 am
yes, for the first time since it's original release and it was was better than i remembered.
when a film deals with an extreme premise such as this (auto-eroticism redefined, you might say), there's alway the danger of proceedings lapsing into absurdity (james spader fucking roseanne arquette's leg wound!). on the whole though, i thought it succeeded in sustaining the intense, hallucinatory quality of ballard's prose amazingly well (see 'empire of the sun', for how not to do it).
having read the book before seeing the film, i was disappointed that it was reset from west london to the usa. fortunately, david cronenberg is one of contemporary cinema's most uncompromising directors and things were handled with the utmost integrity.
it was refreshing to see a group of north american actors (especially the 'name' ones) committed to a project that must have scared a lot of their peers shitless. koteas. unger, arquette, holly hunter and james spader all deserve plaudits just for taking up the challenge, as well as rising to it.
it's a shame it couldn't go as far as 'ai no corrida' in terms of graphically depicting the numerous sex scenes but then 'ai no corrida' is virtually unique in fusing explicit sex with bona fide "art house" film values.
it's interesting that films such as "bais? moi" (rape me) and "romance" are now emerging. perhaps things are moving in the direction of a more radically explicit cinema, for the first time since the early 70's. alexander walker seems to think so. let's hope the rancid old bugger is right for once.
[btw, it was great to hear kermode name checking the aforementioned toe-rags - they richly deserve their place in the critics hall of infamy.]
when a film deals with an extreme premise such as this (auto-eroticism redefined, you might say), there's alway the danger of proceedings lapsing into absurdity (james spader fucking roseanne arquette's leg wound!). on the whole though, i thought it succeeded in sustaining the intense, hallucinatory quality of ballard's prose amazingly well (see 'empire of the sun', for how not to do it).
having read the book before seeing the film, i was disappointed that it was reset from west london to the usa. fortunately, david cronenberg is one of contemporary cinema's most uncompromising directors and things were handled with the utmost integrity.
it was refreshing to see a group of north american actors (especially the 'name' ones) committed to a project that must have scared a lot of their peers shitless. koteas. unger, arquette, holly hunter and james spader all deserve plaudits just for taking up the challenge, as well as rising to it.
it's a shame it couldn't go as far as 'ai no corrida' in terms of graphically depicting the numerous sex scenes but then 'ai no corrida' is virtually unique in fusing explicit sex with bona fide "art house" film values.
it's interesting that films such as "bais? moi" (rape me) and "romance" are now emerging. perhaps things are moving in the direction of a more radically explicit cinema, for the first time since the early 70's. alexander walker seems to think so. let's hope the rancid old bugger is right for once.
[btw, it was great to hear kermode name checking the aforementioned toe-rags - they richly deserve their place in the critics hall of infamy.]