David Cronenberg and his ‘Crimes of the future’, one of the most anticipated titles at Cannes

In the very near future, the vertiginous increase in environmental pollution will have produced terrifying effects throughout the planet. Accustomed to breathing badly and eating even worse, also subjecting ourselves to increasingly invasive cosmetic surgery, to controlling our emotions by privileging our relationship with electronic devices, humanity is rushing towards a dark and disturbing tomorrow, wounded in mind and body, incapable of to accept the decline of our own physical. David Cronenberg’s nightmares thus parade one after another in crimes of the futureone of the most anticipated titles at Cannes, in its Official Section.

Beyond marking the return of the Canadian director to the Croisette, after eight years with Map of the Stars, this installment contains the core of all his artistic inspiration: “As a filmmaker I propose concerns, but I do not offer answers. Making a film is equivalent to fulfilling a philosophical exploration. My works are based on the exploration of the body, since it is the first data that exists on the existence of humanity. Escaping from this physical reality means falling into fantasy without being able to understand what violence can cause.

Already winner of a Jury Prize at Cannes in 1996 for Crash, Cronenberg was greeted with long applause at the French competition, after the world premiere of crimes of the future. Along with him, the great cast of this science fiction that combines art and transhumanism: Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart and Scott Speedman and Léa Seydoux. “I wrote it 20 years ago, but you could already feel how all this was coming, this type of ownership and oppressive control, the still latent problems of the rights over our own body that the rulers subject us to. I recognize that the film addresses, although not in a formal way, the question of who owns whose body, ”she continued.

“History repeats itself constantly, because there will always be some kind of government that wants to control its population. And that control includes your brain. This just means, again, that the body is the only reality,” she added. “This is not overtly a political film. But for me, all art is political. A deep expression of culture, context and intellect, with a very specific language. So it could be said that in that sense it is of a political background, even if as an author I am aware of it or not, ”he explained.

Crimes of the Futurefocuses on the relationship between two artist partners of performancethat they stage the metamorphosis of their organs in avant-garde shows. The researcher of the Office of the National Registry of Organs closely follows her practices. It is then that a mysterious group appears to take advantage of the fame of one of their number in order to reveal to the world the next stage of human evolution. “All my films are very intimate”assured the filmmaker. “In fact, what I have filmed the most in my life has been the human body and what I propose with this film is a debate on the human condition from the body,” he emphasized.

“I remember when I wrote the script, nobody was talking about microplastics. But in a recent study traces of these substances were found in a large percentage of the human bodies studied. One option, I think, would be to clean all oceans and human bodies of this material. But that is not possible, so the alternative is to accept it. A suggestion with some truth, because there are scientists who are investigating the possibility of eating plastic”, he commented referring to the fact that in his story there are characters who ingest it.

Cronenberg finished off this meeting with the press with his position regarding the behavior of the government right: “We in Canada are of the opinion that everyone in the United States is completely insane and I can’t believe what the elected officials are saying. We’ve talked about Putin and the invasion of Ukraine, but at the same time there’s a strangely similar feeling on Canada’s southern border. These are certainly strange times.”