Naked Lunch
NAKED LUNCH (18)
D: David Cronenberg
Recorded Picture Co. (Jeremy Thomas)
Canada/UK 1991
115 mins
Science Fiction/Horror
W: David Cronenberg [based on the novel
by William S. Burroughs]
DP: Peter Suschitzky
Ed: Ronald Sanders
Mus: Howard Shore & Ornette Coleman
PD: Carol Spier
Peter Weller (William Lee), Judy Davis (Joan Lee/Joan
Frost), Ian Holm (Tom Frost), Julian Sands (Yves Cloquet), Roy Scheider (Dr. Benway), Monique Mercure (Fadela), Nicholas Campbell (Hank)
David Cronenberg's adaptation of William S. Burroughs
surreal novel, once deemed "unfilmable" only takes a small percentage of the written text into its big screen translation, omitting all the homosexual undertones from the source
novel.
Set during the 1950's, a pest controller becomes addicted
to the narcotics used to kill the creepy-crawlies, murders his wife and flees to an exotic fantasia to become a writer. That's pretty much the crux of the plot.
In spite of narrative cohesion, the film is visually
amazing, arguably with style very much over substance.
David Cronenberg's films fall into the same category as
David Lynch's. You'll either love them or just won't 'get' them, but even his most ardent fans will agree that this one is wonderfully weird.
7/10
