Crimes of the Future * * * *

I have always admired the films of David Cronenberg.  They come along rarely, but he is consistently good even if he can be maddeningly obscure at times. His last film was in 2015 - the brilliant Map to the Stars.  (It came out before I started this blog).

A Cronenberg film always walks the line.  The lives people live, the way they talk, their situation, it's not real - and yet so terribly real.   You don't know if you want to step into the world he has created or be glad you are no part of it.  

In Crimes of the Future, Cronenberg has created a world that is both visually beautiful and ugly.  Most of the sets are kind of like those cafes you see in a building that was once a warehouse or factory.  Crude and grimy but inviting, and kind of cool. Although it is shot in Greece, to be honest I don't know what the time or place where this is supposed to be. It's a parallel reality, sometime in the future. 

But didn't the Director say, "Cut!"?

The principal character dresses in a black cloak.  He walks close to the wall, his face mostly covered, a hood pulled up, like a medieval character. 

Crimes of the Future mainly focuses on the enclosed world of artists. (Interesting how artists tend to receive praise for commenting on the world, yet they live in their own aloof world. Like, if you think about it, what the heck would they know!?)

One particular artist Caprice (Lea Seydoux) works with body art - internally. Her medium is Saul (Viggo Mortensen). She grows new organs inside him - taking body art to a whole new level. Though we find that she is not the only one cutting and chopping.  As no one feels pain anymore, surgery has become the new sex.  Warning! Be prepared for some confrontational imagery with bodies being cut open and organs pulled out.  Then there is the sex scene with scalpels. 

It's a fascinating world, but the story can be somewhat difficult to follow. I mean, there is obviously something going on with undercover police work, a murdered child who lived off plastic and an organ registry where a timid young lady works (Kirsten Stewart).  She becomes obsessed with Saul.

Good luck to you if you can follow the whole plot.  I think I might understand it better if I watched it three times, which I might do... not sure yet. I'm just about intrigued enough to; also I have proven to myself I can sit through the gory bits.