Videodrome

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Movie
German title Videodrome
Original title Videodrome
Videodrome Schriftzug.png
Country of production Canada , USA
original language English
Publishing year 1983
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (previously 18)
Rod
Director David Cronenberg
script David Cronenberg
production Claude Héroux
music Howard Shore
camera Mark Irwin
cut Ronald Sanders
occupation

Videodrome is a Canadian - American science fiction - Thriller by David Cronenberg from the year 1983 .

The film describes the increasing loss of reality of Max Renn, operator of a private TV channel , after he was repeatedly exposed to the violent pornography of a pirate station .

action

Max Renn is the operator of the private cable broadcaster "Civic TV" in Toronto , Canada, which specializes in sensational content. His colleague Harlan has deciphered a pirate station called "Videodrome", which broadcasts violent pornography on changing frequencies. Max's friend, the masochistic radio presenter Niki Brand, likes the show so much that she wants to apply to be an actress. Always looking for new material, Max tries to contact the station, which, according to Harlan, is based in Pittsburgh , USA. His acquaintance Masha, who is supposed to establish contact for Max, warns him against further research, because the makers of "Videodrome" have an ideology and the violent acts broadcast are not investigated. Nevertheless, she reveals to him that media professor Brian O'Blivion could put him on the station's track.

O'Blivion only communicates via pre-recorded video tapes that Max receives from his daughter and manager Bianca. Videodrome viewers, according to O'Blivion, develop a brain tumor after prolonged viewing of the program, which in turn triggers hallucinations. In this way they can also be manipulated. While Max is increasingly plagued by illusions (his stomach apparently develops a vagina- like opening in which handguns and video cassettes can be stowed), he learns that O'Blivion's “Videodrome” has fallen victim. Finally he meets Barry Convex, the boss of the company that operates behind the facade of the glasses manufacturer "Spectacular Optical". Max's colleague Harlan turns out to be a co-conspirator who had specifically exposed him to test broadcasts. North America has become “weak”, “rotten inside” by entertainment programs like the one on “Civic TV”, and this process is to be stopped. Since one is now ready to go on the air regularly, Max receives the order to kill his business partners and to broadcast the program of "Videodrome" on his transmitter.

As ordered, Max murders the two co-owners of his station. When he is also supposed to kill Bianca O'Blivion, she is able to save herself by informing Max about Niki's murder and "reprogramming" it against his clients. Max kills Harlan and Convex and goes into hiding. Niki appears on the television screen in his hiding place, asking him to become one with her. With the words "long live the new flesh" on his lips, Max shoots himself.

background

Cronenberg on the violent images and the radically subjective narrative style in videodrome :

“With Videodrome I wanted to posit the possibility that a man exposed to violent imagery would begin to hallucinate. I wanted to see what it would be like, in fact, if what the censors were saying would happen, did happen. [...] But there is the suggestion that the technology involved in Videodrome is specifically designed to create violence in a person; we know that by the use of electrodes in certain areas in the brain you can trigger off a violent, fearful response without regard to other stimulants. [...] Our own personal reception of reality is the only one we'll accept. Even if you're going mad, it's still your reality. [...] I feel that Max ultimately manages to manipulate this new reality he finds himself in to seek his own equilibrium again. [...] People in prison camps, or people subjected to all kinds of psychological and physical torture are constantly trying to rebalance themselves. There is an innate balance that wants to be expressed. "

“With Videodrome I wanted to postulate the possibility that a person exposed to violent images would begin to hallucinate. I wanted to see what happens when what the censors say will happen. […] But it is suggested that the process in videodrome was specially designed to provoke violent reactions in a person. We know that the use of electrodes in certain brain regions can generate violent, fear-driven reactions without external triggers. […] Our personal perception of reality is the only one that we accept. Even if we go crazy, it is still our reality. […] In my opinion, Max finally manages to control the new reality that surrounds him in order to find his balance again. [...] People in captivity, or people who are exposed to all conceivable forms of mental or physical torture, are constantly trying to restore their balance. This shows an innate tendency to balance. "

As before with Cronenberg's The Brood and scanner acted in Videodrome again Claude Héroux , Pierre David and Victor Solnicki as producer or executive producers . The well-known makeup artist Rick Baker was won over for the special effects . During the filming, the film studio Universal Pictures stepped in as a co-financer, the production costs amounted to approximately 6 million Canadian dollars . A first version for a test demonstration had a running time of 75 minutes; Due to negative reactions from the audience, including the lack of intelligibility of the plot, Cronenberg extended the film to around 90 minutes. In addition to editing requirements for an R rating for the US cinema market by the Motion Picture Association of America , Universal Production Director Robert Rehme demanded a further cut in a scene in which a dildo is shown. Videodrome opened in US theaters on February 4, 1983, but failed at the box office.

Videodrome was only released on video in Germany in 1985 and was indexed , although it was the already abbreviated R-rated version . In August 2010 the indexing was renewed (so-called follow-up indexing). The indexing was finally lifted in March 2018, a re-examination by the FSK revealed an age rating of 16 years and over for the uncut version.

The US releases of Videodrome on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (by Universal Home Video or in the Criterion Collection ) contain the uncut unrated version.

reception

Reviews

“This shocker, shot by David Cronenberg in 1983, leaves the usual narrative structures as far behind as a commercial film can […] Although incoherent and often pretentious, the film is a bold attempt to give personal obsessive images priority over the audience - a kind of Kenneth Anger version of Star Wars . ”- David Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Although Videodrome ends up getting grotesque and a bit confused, it starts off very well and retains its cleverness for a long time. [...] Max is never sure where his visions end and reality begins, and so is the viewer. In the midst of Max's glaring, sadomasochistic fantasies, one doubts whether Videodrome is so far removed from the sensationalism that he is actually trying to target. ”- Janet Maslin , The New York Times

"Truly a fascinating starting point for a story [...] which unfortunately becomes increasingly slow and silly, with disgusting special effects by Rick Baker." - Leonard Maltin

“With his amalgamations of gross mud horror and social criticism, Cronenberg has consistently crossed the line between taste and bad taste, and this film is no exception. [...] The plot is too twisted and far too weird to reproduce here [...] what remains unquestionably is Cronenberg's disgust for the world as a whole. ”- Chris Peachment, Time Out Film Guide

"[...] visionary [r] sci-fi thriller [...] still serves effective shocks today [...]." - Cinema

“Horror and science fiction thriller with disgusting and shocking images, which, as a grim black comedy, thinks ahead with modern media technologies.” - Lexicon of international film

Aftermath

Film and TV

In the ABC television series Wild Palms (1993), the “Wild Palms Group” broadcasts the “Church Windows” program on its Channel 3 television channel in order to manipulate the viewer's experience of reality. In Videodrome , the organization behind “Spectacular Optical” plans to broadcast their program “Videodrome” on Channel 83 for the same manipulative purposes. In Wild Palms , shallow entertainment programs that creep in to replace reality are designed to distract viewers from the increasingly totalitarian system that is being built around them. In Videodrome , the people behind the scenes want to use manipulated images to unleash and bundle the aggression potential of the audience in order to make a “weak” North America strong again. In Wild Palms the protagonist Harry, who has joined the underground organization “The Friends”, kills his wife with the words “Long live the Friends! Death to New Realism! ". Max Renn shoots Barry Convex with the words “Death to Videodrome! Long live the New Flesh! "

music

In addition to many other bands, the German metalcore band Callejon and the project “Tumor” by industrial rock musician Chris Pohl used dialogues from videodrome in some of their songs . Videodrome ranked 10th on a list of the films most frequently used for samples , published in 2004 .

Awards

proof

  1. ↑ a b Chris Rodley (Eds.), Cronenberg on Cronenberg, Faber & Faber, 1997.
  2. ↑ a b Videodrome in the Internet Movie Database .
  3. ↑ Indexing report on Schnittberichte.com , accessed on November 18, 2011.
  4. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/ticker.php?ID=4989
  5. ↑ "This 1983 shocker by David Cronenberg comes about as close to abandoning a narrative format as a commercial film possibly can [...] Never coherent and frequently pretentious, the film remains an audacious attempt to place obsessive personal images before a popular audience - a kind of Kenneth Anger version of Star Wars. "- review in the Chicago Reader , undated, accessed November 26, 2011.
  6. ^ "Though Videodrome finally grows grotesque and a little confused, it begins very well and sustains its cleverness for a long while. [...] Max is never sure where these visions leave off and reality begins; the viewer won't find it easy to tell, either. And there are times when it is dangerously unclear, in the midst of Max's lurid, sadomasochistic fantasies, whether Videodrome is far removed from the kind of sensationalism it seeks to satirize. ”- Review in The New York Times of February 4, 1983, accessed on November 26, 2011.
  7. ↑ Genuinely intriguing story premise […] Unfortunately, story gets slower - and sillier - as it goes along, with icky special effects by Rick Baker. - Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide, Signet / New American Library, New York 2007.
  8. ↑ "Cronenberg has always crossed the line between taste and distaste with his combinations of vile glop-horror and social criticism, and this is no exception. […] The plotline becomes too contorted to go into here, and far, far too weird […] what certainly survives is Cronenberg's wholesale disgust with the world in general. "- Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999, Penguin, London 1998 .
  9. ↑ Entry on Videodrome on Cinema.de, accessed on November 18, 2011.
  10. ↑ Videodrome. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed November 18, 2011 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  11. ↑ The Top 1319 Sample Sources ( Memento from October 19, 2004 in the Internet Archive ), Version 60, September 1, 2004, accessed on January 22, 2012.

Web links

further reading

  • Simon Pühler: Metaflesh. Cronenberg with Lacan. Body technologies in Shivers and eXistenZ , Berlin: AVINUS, 2007; ISBN 978-3-930064-65-6 , [1]
  • Thomas Weber: Mediality as a borderline experience. Futuric media in the cinema of the 80s and 90s , Bielefeld: transcript, 2008; ISBN 978-3-89942-823-0 , [2]