I tend to write during the day and socialize with my mom and watch TV at night, so today was the first convenient day to do it this week. On a side note, for those who asked- yes, I plan to cover every one of Cronenberg's films, as well as his short films and all the episodic TV I could track down. I may also cover his son's two films as well, plus the recent remake of Rabid for good measure.
However, I won't be doing this all in a consecutive row- I'll be breaking it up from time to time with other stuff, like my ongoing coverage of the horror anthology series Into the Dark (count on the next one soon, as both eps from both seasons are centered around the 4th of July), my Movie Round-Ups (I almost have enough movies watched for a new one of those) and my new series, My Favorite Things, in which I take a look at- you guessed it- some of my favorite things, as in movies, books, music, etc.
I learned the hard way from my review of Quentin Tarantino's oeuvre (see here for the first in that series, for those who missed it) that it can get somewhat monotonous to review the same director's films that way, to say nothing of time-consuming, so I'm splitting this one up a bit just to keep myself interested and to give those of you who may not be as die-hard a fan of Cronenberg as I am a break here and there. That one had 15 entries, & I expect this one to run considerably longer, as DC has been at it quite a bit longer than QT- we're possibly as many as 30 entries in all. 😩
So, strap yourselves in- it's gonna be a long & winding road... Next up...
After making his first two shorts, David Cronenberg decided to take a "gap year" to travel to Europe and explore unfamiliar surroundings, like many a young college student before him. Upon returning to Canada, he finished school in 1967, graduating at the top of his class. More determined than ever to make feature films, he somehow managed to finagle the budget to do so a few years later from the Canadian government by pretending he was instead writing a novel! Not sure how that worked, but whatever gets things done, I guess.
Unlike his previous shorts, which were shot on 16mm, this one was shot on proper 35mm film, and you can immediately tell the difference upon watching Stereo. Unfortunately, the camera he used, the Swiss Bolex, was so noisy that the film had to be shot silent, with the dialogue, such as it is, recorded later on.
That said, the film is shot in luxurious black & white and looks just fantastic, even by today's standards, but particularly in comparison to his earlier work- and even in contrast to some of his work to come. Cronenberg shot the film himself, along with writing, producing, editing and directing the film- the classic student filmmaker overachiever, as it were, though technically Cronenberg had already graduated by then.
Unfortunately, the film is heavily marred by the lack of dialogue, and the overbearing presence of narration. What's worse, the narration is filled with pseudo-scientific psychobabble that isn't grounded much in reality- and might even be intended as parody to a certain degree- and there are enormous gaps in between said tirades, and no musical score, which means long stretches of silence throughout.
This is not a movie you want to watch in bed if you're tired, as I made the mistake of doing when I was rewatching it for the first time since I bought it some time ago, when I first started college myself, as part of the double-disc set for Cronenberg's Fast Company. It's also a bonus feature on the Criterion version of Scanners and on the Arrow UK release of Videodrome, and is available as part of the Arrow release, seen above, David Cronenberg's Early Works, which also features his first two short films and Crimes of the Future.
I ultimately ended up watching it twice, first in its original incarnation, which you can see here at the time of this writing, and again in a fan-edit I found on YouTube, which shaves off nearly twenty minutes of the already-short running time of an hour and three minutes, and features a curated soundtrack, both of which make a world of difference, I can tell you.
I think I enjoyed it way more the second time around, so if you find the original version impenetrable and boring, give that fan-edit a go-round instead- trust me, you won't even notice what's missing. Check that version out here. The music may not be to everyone's taste- it's of the electronica/synth-pop variety, i.e. Gary Numan, Jean-Michel Jarre and Covenant- but it more or less suits the neo-futuristic look and vibe of the film. I'm about to get into spoiler territory, insofar as I can, so you probably want to watch at least one of these if you've never seen the film.
Stereo is presented as a sort of documentary- I hesitate to call it a "mockumentary," as that implies it's comedic in nature, like Cronenberg's first two shorts, which it decidedly is not. Think of it more like an audio-visual presentation given by several psychology professors on the subject at hand, which is induced telepathy. Note the film's beleaguered subtitle, Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic, with CAEE representing the (fictional) "Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry" and "tile 3B" being one example of a "mosaic" of others filmed for the experiment.
Basically, the idea is that a group of scientists, basing their work on the theories put forth by a (fictional) Dr. Luther Longfellow, have performed brain surgery on a group of willing participants, some of who even agreed to have part of their larynx removed, thus removing the ability to speak.
In addition, the part of the brain that controls formulating speech has been messed with as well, meaning that the test subjects mostly communicate via gestures and actions. This may well be Cronenberg's way of working around the fact that he has no proper dialogue in the film, however, TBH. Leave it to DC to think outside the box when adversity comes his way.
As such, we passively observe said group of test subjects, as we see how the experiment to bestow telepathy on them proceeds. I won't get too bogged down in minutiae, but it's safe to say it doesn't go that well. Several members of the group end up committing suicide, and another drills a hole into his forehead- shades of Scanners. In fact, the whole endeavor feels like a test run for Cronenberg's Scanners, though it also touches upon other themes he would return to time and again over the course of his career, notably the effects of mind experimentation on human sexuality.
In one of the most fascinating- and prescient- bits, one of the narrators remarks on how heterosexuality is the norm only because it is the only way for mankind to reproduce, but how, using the telepathic approach, a new form of anything-goes sexuality emerges, which renders both heterosexuality and homosexuality perverse and makes bisexuality more the norm. The scientist speaking rebrands it "omnisexuality," noting that bisexuality doesn't quite cut it as a descriptor.
Unless you've been living under a rock, or are just too old to care, in the last decade or so, there's been a movement to include a wider variety of sexuality in actual culture (as opposed to sci-fi, as seen in this film) that does indeed include said terminology, perhaps better-known as pansexuality these days. Basically, it just means someone who is open to having romantic relations with anyone, be they male, female, transgender, intersex, et. al. You can read more about that fascinating subject here. Cronenberg was certainly ahead of that particular curve.
I also liked Cronenberg's theories- or rather than of his fictional psychologists, rather- about how proximity is a vital component of telepathic effectiveness. Basically, their powers wax and wane according to their direct proximity to one another, and a romantic element is essential to making telepathic communication effective.
However, they learn this the hard way, when the scientists make the calculated mistake to separate the subjects into individual groups to study the effect it has on their powers, and it completely backfires, resulting in the aforementioned calamities: suicide and self-brain surgery.
There is absolutely a truly fascinating film to be made on these sorts of subject matters- unfortunately, this is not that film, and by Cronenberg's own admission, BTW. It's basically like watching an arthouse film on mute while you're half-listening to a psychology lecture, and I suspect most people will find it just about as entertaining as that as well, which is to say, not very. I mean, the subject matter is certainly intriguing- it's the execution that leaves much to be desired.
On the other hand, there is some lovely imagery to be found on display here- there are any number of still frames that one could have blown-up into a photograph and they would be suitable for framing and displaying in your home, and sure to the subject of much discussion. It's enough to make one wonder if Cronenberg might have missed his calling as a photographer, if not a cinematographer. Just take a look at some of the pictures I've included here as evidence of his inherent talent in that realm.
There are also some memorably interesting sequences. I liked the bit with the chocolate bars in the dining area, and the scene where everyone tears off each other's clothes and has weird pseudo-sex is something to behold, to be sure. The location itself: Scarborough College, aka the University of Toronto- practically deserves a screen credit as a character in and of itself. It's incredibly photogenic, and is filled with creepy nooks and crannies, lending the film an almost Kubrickian vibe.
I also dug what passes as the film's main character, played by Ronald Mlodzik, who along with most of the male cast here, would go on to appear in several future Cronenberg films. The sight of Mlodzik prancing around a modern landscape and building in a full-on Victorian-era-looking suit, complete with cape and cane is bordering on hilarious. Honestly, when he popped out of a helicopter and started roaming around, I thought it was going to be a vampire flick. Possibly a gay-themed one, given his interactions with the men on site, lol.
That said, kudos to Cronenberg for reeling in his more oblivious tendencies about gay people from his previous efforts, where homosexuality was played for laughs. Here, it's basically taken seriously, and then some, given our aforementioned discussion about omnisexuality and the like. As such, it may be a turn-off for some, but buckle in, as Cronenberg's exploration of this particular subject gets worse before it gets better, at least if you're homophobic.
Alas, the film itself is boring as all get-out, seeming endless even clocking in at just barely over an hour. Hell, even the fan-edit, with the added music and nearly twenty minutes cut out- damned if I can tell what didn't make the cut (I seem to recall a bit where everyone was running around the building)- still taxes one's patience a bit, albeit for vastly different reasons, i.e. the music can be a bit overbearing and often drowns out the narration and is sometimes wrongheaded in the user's selections- though, to each their own.
But then again, I'm not a big fan of narration in most cases, anyway. Kubrick himself makes it work in A Clockwork Orange, but most of the time, it's just lazy storytelling. As they say in film school: show, don't tell. If you're not communicating something visually, more often than not, you're not doing it right. I get that sometimes narration and dialogue is necessary, obviously, but over-reliance on it is no bueno, either.
And boy, does Cronenberg lean hard on it here- it's literally all there is, dialogue-wise. And when said narration is THIS dry- yeah, viewers are in for a bit of a slog, no matter how fascinating the subject matter is. So, basically, much like the subject matter itself, Cronenberg's Stereo is a failed experiment.
Yes, the overall underlying idea is interesting- but the execution leaves a LOT to be desired, like I said. And Stereo makes THX-1138 look like Star Wars, lol. (God bless you if you get that joke.) Be that as it may, Cronenberg enthusiasts will definitely want to see it, as it set up a lot of the themes he would spend most of career exploring. But make no mistake, he does far better elsewhere. Hey, we all have to start somewhere, right?
Join me next time for a look at Cronenberg's next stab at a feature-length film: 1970's Crimes of the Future. Will Cronenberg learn from his mistakes here? Or will he produce another snooze-fest? Tune in to find out...
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