David Cronenberg’s films stand collectively as one of the great achievements in cinema. Fearless, imaginative and provocative, as well as intelligent and refreshingly disturbing, his work expresses a unique personal vision. More than simply ‘the baron of blood’ or the ‘king of venereal horror’, Cronenberg has long transcended these early attempts to label him. Through five decades of parasites, plastic realities, creative destruction and the rise of the new flesh - here is a filmmaker uniquely suited to dissect our mutating relationship with sex, death and technology. David Cronenberg On Screen presents a new survey of his extraordinary career, from early, experimental shorts and body-horror explorations, to commercial success with The Fly and Dead Ringers, and on to his celebrated and sometimes controversial literary adaptations. This volume also considers his excursions as an actor; key collaborators; television and advertising; and his new phase as a novelist. Cronenberg’s recurring themes are explored along the way: psychological transformation revealed in physical mutation, disease as an agent of change, violence, alternative sexualities, and the viral nature of desire. In our hyper-connected world of pandemic fear and mutable identities, the films of David Cronenberg are as relevant as ever. AUTHOR: Patrick Chapman is an Irish writer, whose books include a novel, So Long, Napoleon Solo, (BlazeVOX, 2017), eight poetry collections, and three volumes of short fiction. He has written an award-winning short film, Burning the Bed and many episodes of animated television. His work also includes audio plays for Doctor Who and Dan Dare and scripts for docudrama The Space Race (B7/Audible, 2019). He produced B7’s dramatisation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles for BBC Radio 4. With Dimitra Xidous he edits a poetry magazine, The Pickled Body. Chapman contracted the Cronenberg virus in the 1980s, when he first saw The Fly. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.
42 colour photographs
