Directed by David Cronenberg
Released in 1983
Written by David Cronenberg
Cinematography by Mark Irwin
Language: English
Before I was born, David Cronenberg created a film which anticipated me exactly. It is like I was pierced, and a membrane slid under my skin. To write about Videodrome in any concise fashion is impossible for me. Since I first watched it back in 2022, I've seen it so many times that I've memorized sizeable portions of the dialogue. Each watch is a familiar experience, a pleasant homecoming, and yet there's something novel each time too. It would be too easy to metaphorize it as peeling back layers of flesh, but Cronenberg's work is more a jumble of sensations. In its simplest sense, the film is about the way that violent and sexual spectacle has a penetrative and transformative effect on the bodymind, creating an undifferentiated form of flesh loaded with potential political energy. Every time I watch this, I find something new to focus on: hallucination; imperialism and orientalism; the market logic of capital; technology, television, and screen mediation; pop psychology. (December 30, 2024)