D AV I D C R O N R N B E R G
INTERVIEW
10
Maps to the Stars, too, will also
Hollywood scrapheap. She has a
Cronenberg. “But both Bruce and
has actually filmed in Los Angeles;
surely go down as one of the
guileless personal assistant, or
I would resist calling it a satire.
he spent five days there mostly, he
finest films in a career that has
“chore whore”, called Agatha (Mia
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal
says wryly, shooting palm trees.
been both consistently surprising
Wasikowska) and a wild-eyed
is a satire, but this movie is too
But Cronenberg is not a total
but also relentlessly Cronenberg:
therapist, Stafford Weiss (John
realistic to be a satire. In fact, Bruce
outsider. Long ago, he was tapped
from the chaotic early body-
Cusack). A sprawling, nightmarish
has said that every line of dialogue
up to see if he might direct Return
horror flicks (Shivers; Scanners;
tale also swallows Weiss’s Bieber-
in the movie he has heard spoken
of the Jedi, and over the years he
The Fly; Dead Ringers) to slicker,
esque son, Benjie (Evan Bird), and a
by someone. He could probably tell
has had many involved, ultimately
more psychologically intense
limo driver, Jerome Fontana (Robert
you who.”
doomed discussions with several
recent movies (A History of
Pattinson), who is, of course, really
Violence, his most mainstream
an actor and screenwriter.
film to date; Eastern Promises;
“The movie is obviously a work
As an outsider Cronenberg is in
of the major studios about making
many respects excellently placed to
films, perhaps most intriguingly
take a swipe at the eccentricities of
a spy caper with MGM starring Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise.
A Dangerous Method). Maps
of fiction, it’s not a documentary
Hollywood. He has lived in Toronto
stars Julianne Moore as Havana
on how Hollywood works; it
—the backdrop for many of his
Segrand, an ageing actress
uses compression, exaggeration,
movies— his entire life and Maps to
desperate not to be tossed on the
all those techniques,” says
the Stars is the first time he
“You have to be outside water to know what water is.” — D a vi d Cr o n e n b e r g