Camera

This is an extraordinary fable about aging and about film-making.

This old actor, unhappy with the route of his career is also the symbol of the great problem faced by the elder ones: looking back and not finding something to be proud about.

However youth comes to rescue him, giving him a chance to always be remembered by spectators and to feel useful to a new generation.

Especially well achieve by Cronenberg is the camera motion and positioning, which seems that of a child discovering all the potential of the found camera.

Pure brilliance!

This 6 minute short film directed by David Cronenberg, which can be viewed on the Criterion Collection 2-disc DVD of "Videodrome" has an elder actor (Genre great Leslie Carlson) coming to terms with his own waning mortality after a group of young children find an old Panavision camera and wish to film him with it. He goes into a monologue about how he distrusts this camera equating it with death. For some reason I felt it was Cronenberg himself trying to express his thoughts and fears. The short itself is a tad impenetrable and difficult to derive any specific meaning from and although I did think it was good. it's not one of his better works. Despite (or maybe because of) this short being so introspective) or perhaps I just wasn't used to this kind of work to come from David.

My Grade: C+

Camera (2000)

*** (out of 4)

An elderly actor (Leslie Carlson) is discussing cinema when some children enter his apartment with an old movie camera.

This six-minute short from David Cronenberg isn't the greatest thing that the director ever did but it is an interesting piece to his filmmography. I honestly can't say I know what the director was going for but it's got a rather surreal nature to where you're watching it, not knowing what it's trying to do yet when it's over you find yourself thinking more about it. Obviously morality is something I think plays a role in the film. The elderly man talks about getting old and how he once had a dream about growing older due to a camera. The lead performance by Carlson is very good and there's no question that he draws you into the material.

A great short, one of the two best created by Canadian auteurs to serve as Preludes for the 25th Anniversary of the Toronto Film Festival. (The other MUST-see from the group is Guy Maddin's "Heart of the World".)

It is not a two-character piece (as misstated elsewhere), but a somewhat rambling, splendidly written monologue "filmed" by an intriguing on-screen crew of unlikely film makers. Warm, funny, ironic and profound (not qualities normally associated with Cronenberg), yet a wee bit little creepy (and with this director, could it be anything else?), it will haunt your memories. Inspired by a dream, it captures the irrational clarity and lurking unease of the dream state in a way that may remind you of Altman's "Three Women" or Lynch's "Eraserhead". This feeling of lucid drifting is a feat that many films attempt but few achieve.

All in all, "Camera" is a splendid few minutes of film, not easy to find, but well worth seeking out.

A man with an expressive face sits in a chair and laments his aging. While he is there, a group of elementary aged kids bring a big, professional movie camera into the house. He is to be the subject. He talks about how his life is coming to an end and he doesn't seem to have the desire to do much about it. Meanwhile, those kids literally put that camera to its appropriate use. An unusual but thoughtful film.