David Cronenberg :: Something smarter than us is going to emerge

David "Deprave" Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1943. His father was a journalist, and his mother was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early age (he wrote and published serie short stories, thus following his father's path) and for music (playing classical guitar until he was 12), Cronenberg graduated from Toronto University with a degree in Literature, after quitting the Scientific Department. He reached the cult status of horrormeister with the gore-filled, modern vampire variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship in independent filmmaking and in Canadian television programs.
Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981) after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood (1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal filmmaking identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of famous American horror movie.
With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a mere genre moviemaker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are prominent in the provocative Crash (1996/I) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ (1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. Cronenberg continues to be an active filmmaker today.

Transfer (1966) From the Drain (1967) Stereo (1969) Crimes of the Future (1970) Tourettes (TV-1971) Letter from Michelangelo (TV-1971) Jim Ritchie Sculptor (TV-1971) Winter Garden (TV-1972) Scarborough Bluffs (TV-1972) Lakeshore (TV-1972) In the Dirt (TV-1972) Fort York (TV-1972) Don Valley (TV-1972) Shivers (1975) Rabid (1977) Fast Company (1979) The Brood (1979) Scanners (1981) Videodrome (1983) The Dead Zone (1983) The Fly (1986) Dead Ringers (1988) Naked Lunch (1991) M Butterfly (1993) Crash (1996) eXistenZ (1999) Camera (2000) Spider (2002) A History of Violence (2005) Eastern Promises (2007)

TV Series - at least 1 episode: Programme X (1972) Peep Show (1975) Teleplay (1976) Friday the 13th (1987) Scales of Justice (1990)