Thriller director research- David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg

To become the director and creator of a thriller opening, I wanted to get inside the head of a well known thriller director, hopefully to understand why they love thrillers, how they got into making thrillers and their views on society and the world itself. I chose David Cronenberg to look at.. and here's what I found!

• He was born in Toronto, Canada in 1943, and is classed as a filmmaker, screenwriter and actor


• David is known as one of the originators of 'body horror' due to his exploration of pyschological and physical themed thriller films


• His father was a journalist, and his mother was a pianist - he used parts of his parents characteristics and aspects of their lives to create characters in some of his films which I think is really interesting


• From a young age he had an interest in literature, and apparently he wrote a number of gruesome horror stories as a child and teenager


• He got a degree in literature but after making two sketch films and two short art-house features, he went into partnership with Ivan Reitman and from then on has been writing and directing a number of well known thriller films


• His films often involve horror by mutation, parasites, or medical conditions, when he first started making thriller films, a lot of them were based on science experiments going wrong, or mutation of the body making someone become some sort of monster. However through his career he has expanded his genre and is now known for thrillers based on pyschological as well as physical storylines


• He has turned down oppertunities to direct; star wars, top gun and robocop


• David has said his films should be seen from "The point of view of the disease."


• He got the 'Special Jury Prize' at the 1996 Cannes Film Festical, and in 1999 he was inducted onto Canadas walk of Fame


• He is an atheist and doesn't believe in the afterlife - I think this could be an interesting fact and would probably have an affect on his films


• - After reading and watching interviews with David Cronenberg I think he has a unique outlook on society and life and he said so many interesting things, this is my favourite quote that I found; "Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos."


• His films include; A dangerous method, Eastern Promises, To each his own cinema, A history of violence, Spider, Short6, Crash, M. Butterfly, and Naked Lunch.


• I decided to look into one of his films, to look at the storyline and significant events. I picked at random 'Eastern Promises'; It's about a british midwifes interactions with the mafia after finding a Russian diary on a young girls body who died during childbirth, the midwife tries to track down the girls family in the hope that the baby will have a family to live with. The film appeared on several 'Top 10 films' lists in 2007, and the film has been noted for it's plot twists, subjects of sex trafficking, violence, and realistic depiction of Russian career criminals. 'Eastern Promises' won several awards, including audience prize for best film. Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassell all appear in it and 89% of critics gave the film positive reviews!!