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eXistenZ is a 1999 body horror-science fiction film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law.

As in Videodrome, Cronenberg gives his psychological statement about how humans react and interact with the technologies that surround them. In this case, the world of video games.

András Hámori and Róbert Lantos, the two producers of the film (who are both of Hungarian origin) said in an interview that they intentionally hid a pun in the title: "isten" is the word for "god" in Hungarian.^[1]

Plot[link]

In the near-future, organic virtual reality game consoles known as "game pods" have replaced electronic ones. The pods are attached to "bio-ports", outlets inserted at players' spines, through umbilical cords. Two game companies, Antenna Research and Cortical Systematics, compete against each other. In addition, a group of "realists" fights both companies to prevent the "deforming" of reality.

Antenna Research's Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the greatest game designer in the world, is testing her latest virtual reality game, eXistenZ, with a focus group at a seminar. She is shot in the shoulder by an assassin named Noel Dichter (Kris Lemche) with an organic pistol (the weapon on the poster), which is undetectable by security. As Dichter is gunned down by the security team, security guard (and marketing trainee) Ted Pikul (Jude Law), rushes to Geller and escorts her outside.

Allegra discovers that her pod, which contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game, may have been damaged due to an "UmbyCord" being ripped out as the game was being downloaded. To test it, she must plug into the game in tandem with another player that she can trust, and talks a reluctant Pikul into installing a bio-port in his own body so he can play the game with her. Pikul at first objects due to a phobia about "surgical penetration," but eventually gives in. They head to a gas station run by a black marketeer named Gas (Willem Dafoe) to get it installed. Gas deliberately installs a faulty bio-port and the game pod is damaged. Gas (with a shotgun in hand) reveals that he is going to kill Allegra for the bounty on her head, but Pikul shoots him with the rivet gun used to install the port.

The pair make their way to a former ski lodge used by Allegra's mentor, Kiri Vinokur (Ian Holm). He and his assistant repair the damaged pod and give Pikul a new bio-port. Inside the game, Pikul realizes that it is hard to tell whether his or Allegra's actions are their own intentions or the game's. When they meet D'Arcy Nader (Robert A. Silverman), a video game shop owner, Pikul speaks rudely to him, but then expresses surprise at his own rudeness. Allegra informs him that it was the doing of his game character.

Reality becomes more distorted when they use new micro pods given to them by Nader, and gain new identities as workers at a game pod factory. There, they meet Yevgeny Nourish (Don McKellar), who claims to be their contact in the Realist underworld. Nourish recommends that Pikul order the special for lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the factory. Once in the restaurant, Pikul "pauses" the game in order to get back to the real world, but finds out that he is unable to distinguish reality from illusion. Back in the restaurant, Pikul develops an urge to eat the unappetizing special, which turns out to be an assortment of cooked mutant animals. Pikul constructs a familiar object from the inedible parts—the pistol used to shoot Allegra. He points it at her as a joke, but then Nourish identifies their Chinese waiter (Oscar Hsu) as an enemy and gets Pikul to shoot him instead. In keeping with the game reality, the other patrons of the restaurant appear more frozen than shocked, and return to their meals when Pikul tells them it was a simple misunderstanding about the bill. When the pair return to the game store, Hugo Carlaw (Callum Keith Rennie) informs them that Nourish is actually a double agent for Cortical Systematics, and the waiter whom Pikul shot was the actual contact. The next day at the factory, the two plan to sabotage all the game pods in the factory by plugging into a diseased pod. When Allegra becomes infected, Pikul frees her by cutting the umbycord. Allegra almost bleeds to death until Nourish shows up again with a flame thrower, directing it at the diseased pod. The pod bursts, releasing deadly spores. Before leaving, Allegra stabs Nourish in the back with a knife.

Allegra and Pikul suddenly find themselves back in the ski lodge, and it seems that they have lost the game. They discover that Allegra's game pod is also diseased. Pikul is confused by the disease's crossover from the game into reality. However, Allegra immediately notices Pikul rubbing his back and realizes that Vinokur gave Pikul an infected bioport in order to destroy her game. She inserts a disinfecting device into Pikul's bioport. Unexpectedly, Carlaw reappears as a Realist resistance fighter, and escorts Allegra and Pikul outside to witness the death of eXistenZ. Before Carlaw can kill Allegra, he is shot in the back by Vinokur, who is a double agent for Cortical Systematics. He informs Allegra that he copied her game data while he was fixing her pod. In revenge, she kills Vinokur. Pikul then reveals that he himself was sent to kill her; he is a Realist. However, she informs him that she knew of his true intentions ever since he pointed the gun at her in the Chinese restaurant, then kills him by detonating the disinfecting device in his bioport by remote control.

In yet another twist, the two then appear on a stage, together with the main players from the game. It turns out that the story itself is in fact a virtual reality game called "tranCendenZ" played by the cast, mirroring the first scene. This is enforced by more naturalistic acting coupled with significantly less cliche dialog, and cutaways from Allegra and Pikul. Another difference occurs when it is revealed that players are using electronic devices rather than game pods. The real game designer, Nourish, feels uneasy because the game started with the assassination of a game designer and had an overall anti-game theme that he suspects originated from the thoughts of one of the testers. Pikul and Allegra approach him (with Pikul's pet dog close by) and ask him if he should pay for his "crimes" of deforming reality. As Merle (Sarah Polley), Nourish's assistant, calls for security, Pikul and Allegra grab pistols hidden under the dog's false mane and shoot Nourish and Merle to death. As in the restaurant scene, the other players appear more frozen than shocked. As Pikul and Allegra leave, they aim their guns at the person who played the Chinese waiter, who first pleads for his life, then asks if they are still in the game. The last shot is of Pikul and Allegra standing in surprised silence, apparently unsure of the answer.

Cast[link]

• Jennifer Jason Leigh as Allegra Geller
• Jude Law as Ted Pikul
• Ian Holm as Kiri Vinokur
• Willem Dafoe as Gas
• Don McKellar as Yevgeny Nourish
• Callum Keith Rennie as Hugo Carlaw
• Christopher Eccleston as the Seminar Leader
• Sarah Polley as Merle
• Robert A. Silverman as D'Arcy Nader
• Oscar Hsu as Chinese Waiter
• Kris Lemche as Noel Dichter
• Vik Sahay as Male Assistant

Reception[link]

The film received generally positive reviews, with a 71% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.^[2]

Awards[link]

1999:

Berlin Film Festival^[3]

• Won, Silver Bear: David Cronenberg
• Nominated, Golden Bear: David Cronenberg

Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival

• won, Silver Scream: David Cronenberg

2000:

Chlotrudis Awards

• Nominated, Best Screenplay: David Cronenberg

Genie Awards

• Won, Best Achievement in Editing: Ronald Sanders
• Nominated, Best Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design: Carol Spier, Elinor Rose Galbraith
• Nominated, Best Motion Picture: David Cronenberg, Robert Lantos, Andras Hamori

Golden Reel Awards

• Nominated, Best Sound Editing in a Foreign Feature: David Evans, Wayne Griffin, Mark Gingras, John Laing, Tom Bjelic, Paul Shikata

Saturn Awards

• Nominated, Best Science Fiction Film

Novelizations[link]

Christopher Priest wrote the tie-in novel to accompany the movie eXistenZ, the theme of which has much in common with some of Priest's own novels. He uses the pseudonyms John Luther Novak and Colin Wedgelock, usually for his movie novelizations.

In 1999, a graphic novel credited to David Cronenberg and Sean Scoffield was published.

See also[link]

• Alternate reality game
• Game studies
• Simulated reality

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Existenz

• eXistenZ at the Internet Movie Database
• eXistenZ at AllRovi
• eXistenZ at Rotten Tomatoes
• eXistenZ at Metacritic

David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg at Cannes, 2002
Born	David Paul Cronenberg (1943-03-15) March 15, 1943 (age 69) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater	University of Toronto
Occupation	Director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1966–present
Influenced by	William S. Burroughs, Vladimir Nabokov, Federico Fellini, J.G. Ballard, Ingmar Bergman, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Jonas Mekas, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali
Spouse	Margaret Hindson (1970–1977) Carolyn Zeifman (1979–)

David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC (born March 15, 1943)^[1] is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the psychological is typically intertwined with the physical. In the first half of his career, he explored these themes mostly through horror and science fiction, although his work has since expanded beyond these genres. He has been called "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world."^[2]

Early life[link]

Born in Toronto, Canada, Cronenberg was the son of Esther (born Sumberg), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor.^[3] His family has been described as "a nurturing middle class family."^[4] He began writing as a child and wrote constantly. He attended high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute. A keen interest in science, especially botany and lepidopterology, led him to enter the Honours Science program the University of Toronto in 1963, but he switched to Honors English Language and Literature later in his first year. Cronenberg's fascination with the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1966) by classmate David Secter sparked his interest in film. He began frequenting film camera rental houses, learning art of filmmaking and made two 16mm films (Transfer and From the Drain). Inspired by the New York underground film scene, he founded the Toronto Film Co-op with Iain Ewing and Ivan Reitman. After taking a year off to travel in Europe, he returned to Canada in 1967, graduating from University College at the top of his class.^[4]

Career[link]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (January 2012)

After two short sketch films and two short art-house features (the black and white Stereo and the colour Crimes of the Future) Cronenberg went into partnership with Ivan Reitman. The Canadian government provided financing for his films through the 1970s. He alternated his signature "body horror" films such as Shivers with projects reflecting his interest in car racing and bike gangs (Fast Company). Rabid exploited the unexpected acting talents of pornographic actress Marilyn Chambers (Cronenberg's first choice was a young, then-unknown Sissy Spacek). Rabid was a breakthrough with international distributors and his next two horror features gained stronger support.

Over the arc of his career, Cronenberg's films follow a definite progression, a movement from the social world to the inner life. In his early films, scientists modify human bodies, which results in the breakdown of social order (e.g. Shivers, Rabid). In his middle period, the chaos wrought by the scientist is more personal, (e.g. The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome). In the later period, the scientist himself is altered by his experiment (e.g. his remake of The Fly). This trajectory culminates in Dead Ringers in which a twin pair of gynecologists spiral into codependency and drug addiction. His later films tend more to the psychological, often contrasting subjective and objective realities (eXistenZ, M. Butterfly, Spider).

Cronenberg has cited William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov as influences.^[5] Perhaps the best example of a film that straddles the line between his works of personal chaos and psychological confusion is Cronenberg's "adaptation" of his literary hero William S. Burroughs' most controversial book, Naked Lunch. The book was considered "unfilmable" and Cronenberg acknowledged that a straight translation into film would "cost 100 million dollars and be banned in every country in the world". Instead—much like in his earlier film, Videodrome—he consistently blurred the lines between what appeared to be reality and what appeared to be hallucinations brought on by the main character's drug addiction. Some of the book's "moments" (as well as incidents loosely based upon Burroughs' life) are presented in this manner within the film. Cronenberg stated that while writing the screenplay for Naked Lunch, he felt a moment of synergy with the writing style of Burroughs. He felt the connection between his screenwriting style and Burroughs' prose style was so strong, that he jokingly remarked that should Burroughs pass on, "I'll just write his next book."

Cronenberg has said that his films should be seen "from the point of view of the disease", and that, for example, he identifies with the characters in Shivers after they become infected with the anarchic parasites. Disease and disaster, in Cronenberg's work, are less problems to be overcome than agents of personal transformation. Of his characters' transformations, Cronenberg said, "But because of our necessity to impose our own structure of perception on things we look on ourselves as being relatively stable. But, in fact, when I look at a person I see this maelstrom of organic, chemical and electron chaos; volatility and instability, shimmering; and the ability to change and transform and transmute."^[6] Similarly, in Crash (1996), people who have been injured in car crashes attempt to view their ordeal as "a fertilizing rather than a destructive event". In 2005, Cronenberg would say that he was upset that Paul Haggis had chosen the same name for his Academy Award winning film Crash, feeling it was "stupid" and "very disrespectful."^[7]

Aside from The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly, Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, although he has had occasional near misses. At one stage he was considered by George Lucas as a possible director for Return of the Jedi but was passed. Cronenberg also worked for nearly a year on a version of Total Recall but experienced "creative differences" with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett. A different version of the film was eventually made by Paul Verhoeven. A fan of Philip K. Dick, author of "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale," the short story upon which the film was based, Cronenberg related (in the biography/overview of his work, Cronenberg on Cronenberg) that his dissatisfaction with what he envisioned the film to be and what it ended up being pained him so greatly that for a time, he suffered a migraine just thinking about it, akin to a needle piercing his eye.

In the late 1990s, Cronenberg was announced as director of a sequel to another Verhoeven film, Basic Instinct, but this also fell through. His recent work, the thriller A History of Violence (2005), is one of his highest budgeted and most accessible to date. He has said that the decision to direct it was influenced by his having had to defer some of his salary on the low-budgeted Spider, but it is one of his most critically acclaimed films to date, along with Eastern Promises (2007) a film about the struggle of one man to gain power in the Russian Mafia.

Cronenberg has collaborated with composer Howard Shore on all of his films since The Brood (1979), (see List of noted film director and composer collaborations) with the exception of The Dead Zone (1983), which was scored by Michael Kamen. Other regular collaborators include actor Robert Silverman, art director Carol Spier, sound editor Bryan Day, film editor Ronald Sanders, his sister, costume designer Denise Cronenberg, and, from 1979 until 1988, cinematographer Mark Irwin. In 2008, Cronenberg directed Howard Shore's first opera, The Fly.

Since 1988's Dead Ringers, Cronenberg has worked with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky on each of his films (see List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations). Suschitzky was the director of photography for The Empire Strikes Back, and Cronenberg remarked that Suschitzky's work in that film "was the only one of those movies that actually looked good",^[8] which was a motivating factor to work with him on Dead Ringers.

Having worked with many Hollywood stars, Cronenberg says that he did not get to make a film with an actor he wanted to work with for a long time, Burt Reynolds. Cronenberg remains a staunchly Canadian filmmaker, with nearly all of his films (including major studio vehicles The Dead Zone and The Fly) having been filmed in his home province Ontario. Notable exceptions include M. Butterfly and Spider, most of which were shot in China and England, respectively. Rabid and Shivers were shot in and around Montreal. Most of his films have been at least partially financed by Telefilm Canada, and Cronenberg is a vocal supporter of government-backed film projects, saying "Every country needs [a system of government grants] in order to have a national cinema in the face of Hollywood".^[9]

Cronenberg has also appeared as an actor in other directors' films. Most of his roles are cameo appearances, as in Into The Night, Jason X, To Die For, and Alias, but on occasion he has played major roles, as in Nightbreed or Last Night. He has not played major roles in any of his own films, but he did put in a brief appearance as a gynecologist in The Fly; he can also be glimpsed among the sex-crazed hordes in Shivers; he can be heard as an unseen car-pound attendant in Crash; his hands can be glimpsed in eXistenZ; and he appeared as a stand-in for James Woods in Videodrome for shots in which Woods' character wore a helmet that covered his head.

In 2008 Cronenberg realized two extra-cinematographic projects: the exhibition Chromosomes at the Rome Film Fest and the opera The Fly at the LaOpera in Los Angeles and Theatre Châtelet in Paris. In July 2010, Cronenberg completed production on A Dangerous Method, an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure, starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, and frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen. The film was produced by independent British producer Jeremy Thomas.^[10][11]

In 2012, his film Cosmopolis competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.^[12][13]

In the October 2011 edition of Rue Morgue, Cronenberg stated that he has written a companion piece to his 1986 remake of The Fly, which he would like to direct if given the chance. He has stated that it is not a traditional sequel, but rather a "parallel story".

Eastern Promises producer Paul Webster told Screen International that a sequel is in the works, which will reunite the key team of [Cronenberg, Steven Knight and Viggo Mortensen. The film will be made by Websters new production company Shoebox Films in collaboration with Focus Features and is likely to shoot in early 2013. ^[14]

Personal life[link]

Cronenberg lives in Toronto.^[1] His seven-year marriage to Margaret Hindson ended in 1979 and he married Caroline Zeifman, production assistant on Rabid. They have two children, Caitlin and Brandon.^[15] In the 1992 book Cronenberg on Cronenberg, he revealed that The Brood was inspired by events that occurred during the unraveling of his first marriage, which caused both Cronenberg and his daughter Cassandra a great deal of turmoil. The character Nola Carveth, mother of the brood, is based on Cassandra's mother. Cronenberg said that he found the shooting of the climactic scene, in which Nola was strangled by her husband, to be "very satisfying".^[16]

Cronenberg refers to himself a "nonbeliever" who sees death as the "end of all consciousness."^[17][18]

[edit] Awards and recognition

Cronenberg has appeared on various "Greatest Director" lists. In 2004, Science Fiction magazine Strange Horizons named him the 2nd greatest director in the history of the genre, ahead of better known directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jean-Luc Godard and Ridley Scott.^[19] In the same year, The Guardian listed him 9th on their list of "The world's 40 best directors".^[20] In 2007, Total Film named him as the 17th greatest director of all-time.^[21]

Cronenberg received the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for Crash.^[22] In 1999, Cronenberg was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame^[23] and was awarded with the Silver Bear Award at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.^[24]

In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2006 he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse d'Or.^[25] Also in 2006, Cronenberg was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars.^[26] In 2009 Cronenberg received the Légion d'honneur from the government of France.^[27] The following year Cronenberg was named an honorary patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[link]

As director[link]

As producer[link]

• Transfer (1966)
• Stereo (1969)
• Crimes of the Future (1970)
• Dead Ringers (1988)
• Crash (1996)
• I'm Losing You (1998)
• Existenz (1999)
• Spider (2002)

As actor[link]

• Into the Night (1985)
• The Fly (1986, cameo)
• Nightbreed (1990)
• To Die For (1995, cameo)
• Blood and Donuts (1995)
• The Stupids (1996, cameo)
• Extreme Measures (1996, cameo)
• Last Night (1998)
• Resurrection (1999)
• Jason X (2002)
• Alias (TV) (2003) (Episodes "Remnants" and "Conscious")
• Barney's Version (2010, cameo)

Writing[link]

• Red Cars. Volumina Artbooks. Bologna: Associazione culturale Volumina. 2005 ISBN 978-88-901996-8-4
• David Cronenberg: Interviews with Serge Grunberg. Plexus Publishing. 2005. ISBN 0-85965-376-5.
• David Cronenberg: Collected Screenplays 1: Stereo, Crimes of the Future, Shivers, Rabid. 2002. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-21017-1.
• eXistenZ: A Graphic Novel. Key Porter Books. 1999. ISBN 1-55263-027-7.
• Crash. Faber and Faber. 1997. ISBN 0-571-19127-4.
• Cronenberg on Cronenberg. David Rodley (ed.) Faber and Faber. 1997. ISBN 0-571-19137-1.

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Mark Browning (2007): David Cronenberg: Author or Filmmaker? (ISBN 978-1-84150-173-4)
• Thomas J. Dreibrodt (2000): Lang lebe das neue Fleisch. Die Filme von David Cronenberg — von 'Shivers' bis 'eXistenZ'. (academic; in German) (ISBN 978-3-932872-05-1)
• Serge Grünberg, ed. (2006): David Cronenberg (interviews) (ISBN 978-0-85965-376-3)
• Piers Handling (1983): The Shape of Rage: The Films of David Cronenberg (ISBN 978-0-7736-1137-5)
• Kim Newman (1989): Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film 1968–1988 (ISBN 978-0-517-57366-2)
• Drehli Robnik, Michael Palm, eds. (1992): Und das Wort ist Fleisch geworden. Texte über Filme von David Cronenberg. Vienna, PVS: 1992. ISBN 978-3-901196-02-7

External links[link]

	Film portal
	Horror portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: David Cronenberg

• David Cronenberg at the Internet Movie Database
• David Cronenberg at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Literary Adaptations of David Cronenberg (via LitReactor, 2011)
• David Cronenberg Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
• An interview at Salon.com (November 1999)
• BBC interview with Cronenberg (Video, October 2007)
• David Cronenberg Profile by The New York Times Magazine (September 2005)