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Why has it taken so long for the film to be released in the States?
Cronenberg:
Ted Turner's company bought New Line Cinema, which was supposed to have autonomy. But Turner saw the movie, freaked out, and leaned on the people at Fine Line [the New Line subsidiary that was handling the film] not to release it. They had an argument, basically. The film was supposed to be released on October 4, as it was in Canada, and it wasn't. It was stalled, and then Turner came out in public and admitted that he hated the film and had tried to put the brakes on it. He lost the argument, so now he's just rolling his eyes heavenward and saying, 'It's out of my hands.' I think that's what he really wanted all along - to be able to say, 'I didn't want to release it, so it's not my fault.' He feels that teenagers who see the film are going to do bad things. Teenagers are gonna have sex in cars? I mean, my God, what a revelation! Ted Turner sort of positions himself as a liberal vis a vis Rupert Murdoch, but if he's the liberal champion of the U.S., you guys are in big, big trouble.
[Ed. note: AC's attempts to elicit a response from Mr. Turner were unsuccessful.]
You've collaborated with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky several times now. Why does that relationship click so well?
Cronenberg:
It's always a mystery when two people click in a collaboration that's as intimate as the one between a director and a cinematographer. It's a matter of temperament and all of the other usual things. I love the European elements of Peter's character, and his approach to filmmaking as a very serious art form. He's not humorless at all, but he does take it seriously. My own approach to filmmaking has basically been split between Hollywood and Europe. Toronto is literally positioned in the middle of those places. I've always been drawn to the more European structures and looks for my films, and that's what Peter has.
How involved do you get with the lighting of your films? How do you and Peter break things down on the set?
Cronenberg:
We allow each other to talk about anything with each other. He can talk to me about casting, and I can talk to him about where he's putting his flags. I primarily talk to him in terms of the effect that's being achieved, rather than getting technical about how he should or shouldn't do it. We're in the age of really good color monitors, and I think they're a big help in terms of lighting. I think [figuring out how things will look in the finished film] still requires interpretation, but [the monitor images] are getting closer and closer to looking the way things really will look on the screen. We can look at a frame and talk about what's going on in it and what the light's doing.
The book takes place in London of the future, but you set the film in Toronto. Did you feel that the new location fit the mood of the story? How did you try to maximize the city's futuristic qualities? Crash reminded me a bit of the look that Godard created for Alphaville, in which 1960s Paris was lit and shot so that it appeared to be futuristic.
Cronenberg:
There are a few levels of things that I can discuss in response to that question. First of all, although Ballard's book is set in London technically, and he uses English names for a lot of the roadways and overpasses, the setting felt like North America to me when I read the story. The cars in the book weren't Morris Oxfords, they were '58 Buicks. When I told Ballard my take on that, he completely agreed with me. He has a yearning for America, especially when it comes to a car like a '63 Lincoln. A '63 Lincoln on an English road is a strange anomaly. It's not at home there, but it is in Toronto. The car is iconic, symbolic and metaphorical in the film, but not in the same way [as in the book]; a guy riding a Harley through the streets of London is a statement of a particular kind, but it's quite different if he's riding it through the streets of L.A.
I felt that the book was always spiritually set in North America, and so did Ballard. In a way, by the time I was ready to make the movie, that had already been unconsciously decided on my part; New York is a special case, and so is L.A., so what do you do, go to Chicago? Toronto was the perfect place.
The visuals in this film seem a bit less elaborate and low-key than the wild images of some of your previous films.
Cronenberg:
I think it is a very elaborate scheme, but it's invisible. The logistics were actually quite complex, because we wanted a very controlled look. We were shooting outside, and we didn't have the budget to light five miles of road, so we had to integrate the available light. Some of the locations were chosen for the type of light we would be dealing with. We had to combine what was available with the elements we could control in the foreground. Often we were carrying lights on a trailer towing a car, and the lighting would just precede the frame. So it looked as if we'd lit lots of road, but we were really only lighting the section we were on, as we moved.
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