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3 articles from 1999

13 May 1999 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

Canadian director David Cronenberg, who is the chairman of this year's Cannes Film Festival jury, clashed with reporters at Cannes Wednesday as he sought to justify the festival's virtual exclusion of Hollywood studio films from this year's competition. "Unlike the Oscars, this is not a popularity contest, " Cronenberg, whose latest film, eXistenZ (1999), was recently released, remarked. According to today's (Thursday) Toronto Globe & Mail, the director was then peppered with questions about the fact that Star Wars will receive no screenings at all during the festival. At one point, he responded to a questioner caustically: "You are British, aren't you? I know the style." When the reporter insisted that the jury was "self-indulgent" to refuse to comment on Star Wars Cronenberg called the question, "stupid, ridiculous and irrelevant." He added that the purpose of Cannes is to celebrate film as an art form. »

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23 April 1999 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

Canadian director David Cronenberg is receiving some of his best reviews ever with the release of his gory/funny comedy, eXistenZ (1999). "This is Comedy Night in Weirdsville for you, " writes Peter Howell in the Toronto Star, who gives the film a 4-star rating. John Anderson in Newsday credits Cronenberg with an "entertainingly depraved sense of humor" while Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post figures that "'Crazy' is too mild a word by far to describe the twisted worm at play inside the skull" of Cronenberg. And Stuart Klawans writes in The Nation that the film is "the first North American release of 1999 that can make you tingle while you're watching it, then think three days later while you replay it in your mind at home." »

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26 February 1999 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

Director David Cronenberg, one of the world's most iconoclastic and controversial filmmakers (Fly, The (1986), Crash (1996), eXistenZ (1999)), has been chosen to head the jury at Cannes this year; he'll be the first Canadian ever to do so. In a statement, Cronenberg indicated Thursday that he plans to be a vocal judge of the competing films. "Once I'm there, the physician in me won't be able to resist conducting a few diagnostic tests and perhaps writing a prescription or two, " he said. "It's going to be intoxicating and thrilling, and I can't wait." The festival runs from May 12 to 23. »

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3 articles from 1999