After the rather staid costume drama of "A Dangerous Method," a film that failed to embrace the kink promised in the premise of an sado-masochistic affair between Jung and a former patient, many started to wonder: had David Cronenberg gone soft? The filmmaker has been steadily moving into more mainstream territory, but generally managed to keep a little of the transgressiveness that made his name with films from "The Brood" to "Crash." But with the Keira Knightley/Michael Fassbender drama? Not so much.
Well it appears that that was only a short-term issue: the teaser trailer for Cronenberg's next film, an adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel "Cosmopolis," has arrived, and it looks like classic Cronenberg stuff. Following a twentysomething billionaire, who fears he's going to be murdered, as he travels through Manhattan in a limo on the worst traffic day in record, the film's been getting more attention than the filmmaker's used to, seeing as it's toplined by "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson, who for certain demographics is one of the biggest heartthrobs to hit the big screen in a long time. But that attention doesn't seem to have made Cronenberg water things down — the brief, French-subtitled clip (which seems a little reminiscent of "Enter The Void" in its neon-inflected marketing) has sex, violence, body horror and bizarre images.
It looks, to be frank, absolutely brilliant, and it's certainly dampened any doubts we might have had for the time being. And R-Patz? Damned if he doesn't look, in the very brief glimpses, right at home. Is it possible that all the doubters are about to be proved wrong with a terrific performance? That being said, we'd said the same about "Bel Ami," and that did not turn out well... All signs point to a Cannes premiere for the film, which will open in France on May 23rd: there's no U.S. distributor or release date just yet, but it can't be too far away. Update: C7nema has a new international poster for the film which we've added below. [Twitch]
