The maestro is teasing us, with his favourite instrument: the scalpel. Mechanical, electrified scalpels that split open the flesh -- often, the belly -- like a bulging purse being unzipped. This time, what comes out of the belly is a menagerie of grotesque organs -- organs with neither names nor functions, grown inside the body primed for involuntary evolution.
David Cronenberg's Crimes Of The Future is one of the most anticipated films at the 75th Cannes Film Festival. It turns out to be what everyone thinks it's going to be, not more, not less. This is a vintage Cronenberg, full of icky displays of internal organs (this time, they are tattooed) and bizarre apparatus that look simultaneously like taxidermied monsters and medical equipment. It's also a late Cronenberg -- the Canadian is turning 80 -- still bold and fearless and yet a little less sharp.
