(1991)
Reviewed By-Kit Gavin Directed by David Cronenberg Starring: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider. Released through: Criterion NTSC Region 1 [United States]
The book, Naked Lunch, is one of those unfilmable opuses of modern literature which when read would leave the reader bewildered by it’s fragmentary and abstract nature. Penned by drug-icon William S. Burroughs, in the late 50’s, Naked Lunch is one of those psychedelic novels, which predates the psychedelic era by nearly a decade. The narrative, although well written, is warped, confused but extremely well written. Part of where Burroughs most famous work is unfilmable is in the construction of the narrative, which never flows cohesively, and it is up to the reader to construct some sort of sense of it, as there is minimal storyline with very few elements of reality, which can be seen as straightforward. Burroughs’ tale is abstract, a nightmare world of hallucinated dreamscapes with occasional bursts of reality breaking in. The novel is unrelenting, frightening, squalid and unpleasant. It would take a master director to attempt to construct a film around this semi-indulgent novel and to make it into a viewable experience. Luckily, with David Cronenberg at the helms, we have just that, and ideas, and interpretations (without altering Burroughs’ vision) from the novel and woven and interlinked them together and constructed into this film.
Cronenberg’s interpretation of the protagonist of the novel, Bill Lee (Peter Weller) and his excursions into the drug-induced nightmare state are truly visionary, that these journeys into what is called the Interzone, are what made Burrough’s work unfilmable. These odysseys into a parallel non-reality are compounded by the fact that their borderlines are so blurred between what is reality/non- reality add to the belief that this was unfilmable. Also the fact is that the Interzone is so intense and so egocentric and personal a nightmare existence that it would be difficult for an audience, be they readers and more so film viewers, to appreciate and understand. Therefore Cronenberg, with the fascination he has for the human body, has taken elements and moments of narrative and constructed NAKED LUNCH from those.
Despite the highly personal nature of the nightmare that is the Interzone, Cronenberg has created an immensely strong, powerful and disturbing film in nature which is assisted by the powerful acting of the cast, good quality special effects, a good usage of location and high production values.
Set in 1953, New York, the film is based around a pet exterminator (and heroin addict) Bill Lee. His wife, Joan (Judy Davis), another junkie, has been taking his bug repellent powder so as to achieve a new high. Bill, in his heroin soaked existence, displays such apathy to the world he lives in that he has interest and regard when his wife has a party with two of his male friends, Hank and Martin. However his wife’s dependency on the bug powder ends up causing Bill problems, as he is called in for questioning by detectives, as the powder is deemed an illegal substance. Bill’s drug induced alternative perspective on reality starts to kick in, encountering the first of the monster bugs that will plague him. The bugs take the bizarre form of a mutation of standard typewriter, which instruct Bill on his mission, what to write, what to do. They also tell him that his wife is an enemy agent, a bug secret agent. And needs to be liquidated, and that she has to be killed "real tasty".
Naked Lunch is such a bizarro project that it is a miracle that any filmmaker agreed to take on the project, and by extension any studio agreed to produce and distribute the film. Presumably Cronenberg’s high kudos amongst horror fans added to the saleability of an extremely tricky and outré project like this one. It is, without doubt, an extremely beautiful and visually stunning film, but at same time it is bleak, depressing and perhaps too confusing for a mainstream viewer to fully appreciate and understand. Only upon repeated viewings does the film start to hold together, yet this is not to say that the film is so abstract as to be nonsensical at first. It is not. It is the sheer power of the film and the inquisitive nature of the viewer which will hopefully encourage him/her to attempt an interpretation of events on screen. The film will be appreciated, albeit probably misinterpreted by horror fans, owing to the presence of the disgusting monsters with pseudo-sexual organs, and the squirm-inducing violent nature of proceedings on screen, which will, without a doubt repulse even the hardiest of viewers stomachs.
What has been constructed through Cronenberg’s genius, as a director is solid flowing narrative, which is faithful to its literary source where reality and fantasy become confused. Bill Lee’s worlds are not parallel universes, even though the Interzone is worlds apart from his mundane existence as an exterminator. The worlds are one flowing continuum, even though one is real and one is not. It is only the viewer’s experience of what is reality and what isn’t that will allow him to discern what is real, and what isn’t. The Interzone itself, in Cronenberg’s vision, is easily accessible, for it is a mere bus ride away. All that Lee needs to do is to board a Greyhound bus and he is on his way, although the Interzone is warm, inviting and womblike in it’s coloration resembling Tangier in North Africa. A similarity might be drawn here between Naked Lunch and Alphaville, by French auteur Jean-Luc Goddard, where Alphaville, much like the Interzone, seemingly an illusionary figment of the protagonist’s imagination can be reached through a conventional freeway.
The Interzone, despite sounding warm and pleasant from the description above is not. It is full of paranoid fantasy figures that haunt Bill Lee. There are crime syndicates, foreign powers at work herein. These syndicates send agents after our pseudo-hero in the bizarre form of monstrous typewriter like insects, who communicate with Lee though their abdomens. Bill’s writings (I presume the novel Naked Lunch) are top-secret reports, which are sent back to the headquarters that Bill works for in his parallel universe.
Along the way, in the Interzone, Bill meets oddball characters, human and non-human. He encounters Yves Cloquet (Julian Sands), a wealthy gay philanderer who becomes a monster insect. He also encounters one of the Mugwumps, a bizarre alien creature that specialises in "sexual ambiguity". He encounters another writer/agent? Tom Frost (Ian Holm) who also has a bizarre semi-sexual relationship with his typewriter. Holm has a wife much like Bill’s "real" world and dead wife, also named Joan, and together they possess an Arabic typewriter, which they spend their time typing soft porn into. The typewriter has it’s own bizarre identity too, and becomes a perverse combination of insect and human genitalia.
Cronenberg has been especially careful and clever in his construction of this tale. The subject matter is so fringe, and the whole film is an exercise in one man’s paranoia, highs and fantasies and hallucination. Bill Lee is an identifiable protagonist, and one that it will be possible for the audience to sympathise with, despite his extra-ordinary seemingly almost sexual obsessive ness with his typewriter and his polymorphous sexuality/bisexuality. His humor is deadpan yet he also comes across as, despite his addictions, a terribly sad figure (of which there are semi-autobiographical hints at Burroughs), not pathetic in any way but burdened and haunted by a guilt which has resorted to usage of heroin in order to keep him from toppling over the edge from the crime which he did not deliberately set out to commit (i.e. the death of his junkie wife)
It is obvious to anyone that has seen and appreciated Cronenberg’s canon of work that he is clearly obsessive about the human body. His obsession has extended to parasites invading the body (Shivers, Rabid), bodies taken over by another and transform (The Fly, The Brood), and bizarre sexual perverse fixations and practice (Crash, Dead Ringers). There are shades even of one of Cronenberg’s most popular works (Videodrome) here, where inanimate objects become anthropomorphic, fleshy, living, repellent. Cronenberg’s work has pretty much always strayed between the borders of science fiction and of horror and this film is no exception. Without a doubt no other director could have done the same justice as he has done here to Burrough’s work.
For the release, Criterion has lived up to their usual standard of excellence. When it comes to transfers of films, without doubt Criterion leads the field, be it in arthouse (which Criterion specialise in), pop festivals and the foray into horror films, Criterion is the ne plus ultra of labels in the North American market. With this their release of Naked Lunch, it is not difficult to say that Naked Lunch has never looked better and the viewing experience is even better than I recall when I saw the film at a theatre in London’s Leicester Square, well over a decade ago. Those served by a home theater system will enjoy the film as much as seeing it on the big screen, thanks to the loving care which has been bestowed on this release, which has truly brought the nightmare of both director and writer into the home.
Picture quality, as expected, is superb, with the film it’s original 1:77:1 ratio. Colors are strong; you can feel the warmth of the original film without the feel of over exposure, or artifacting. The print looks superb, new without resorting to artifacting or an over zinging freshness which would ruin the feel of the film. The film is presented in 2.0 Digital Stereo as it was presented in the early 90’s and remixing the film into 5.1 would have been pointless and not done the film any favors or justice.
Extras however vary from DVD to DVD on the Criterion label, where most of the budget often goes into careful restoration of the film more so than tracking down cast members, etc. However for NAKED LUNCH there are some great extras in this two-disc set. The most apparent one is the inclusion of a documentary called "Naked Making Lunch" about the behind the scenes and the making of the film, which shows that Burroughs was present whilst the film was being made, and we see the director, producer as well as the actors discussing their thoughts and interpretations of the movie. This was originally televised on British television as part of a cultural/arts program which played on Sunday evenings called the South Bank Show. It is also a delight to see (now deceased) Burroughs reflecting and talking about the film. Burroughs, elderly, world wise, a counterculture icon from a bygone age, and clearly plagued with more inner nightmares than we, the viewer can guess at discusses and digresses whilst he talks on camera but none the less it is a fascinating insight into such an unsung fringe/cult personality. Also included on the disc is Burroughs (purely audio) reading from his own book. There are a selection of private photos taken by beat-icon Ginsberg and Burroughs (who also appeared in the film Chappaqua together, previously reviewed on CN) in North Africa, which was the clear inspiration behind the choice of Tangier for the Interzone.
Also included is a great photo gallery of Behind the Scenes photos, as well as a collection showing the Special effects, as well as an entertaining and interesting audio commentary (on disc 1) given by star and director (Weller and Cronenberg) of the film. There is also a trailer for the film as well as two TV spots. Rather than opting for static menus (on the first disc, not so on the second), Criterion has created some stylish, artistic menus, which in the true feel of the film, creature cockroaches scurrying across the yellowish page. The disc is beautifully presented – with a stylish cover, and quality packaging. Also included is a good sized (32 page) booklet with essays, and critiques from various writers about the film.
Admittedly this is a film which is not for everyone by any stretch of the imagination. To some it will not be horrific enough, and to some it will be too grotesque to be enjoyed. It is not accessible Cronenberg; mostly owing it’s roots and source novel. These words might put some off buying it but it should do the opposite. Naked Lunch is a stylish visual and mental roller coaster of a movie, which takes some settling (uneasily perhaps) into. Despite being over a decade old, the film has not dated, and if the viewer is able to stomach it, will improve and show its multi-layers and textures with each repeated viewing.
Story: 4 BITCH SLAPS DVD Extras: 4 BITCH SLAPS Picture: 5 BITCH SLAPS Audio: 5 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 4.5 BITCH SLAPS For more information on on other Criterion titles.
- OR -
To Discuss this film or DVD visit our forum.
