Crash

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colinr0380
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#101 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:40 am

Given that they have just released Harley Cokliss' Dream Demon, perhaps this bodes well for Arrow to add in the 1971 BBC version of Crash starring Ballard himself! (Though I'd just as much like to see that segment of Channel 4's 1993 Without Walls series "New Nightmares" which features readings from Crash over footage of crash test dummies and carnage from Maximum Overdrive!)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat Aug 15, 2020 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

M Sanderson
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#102 Post by M Sanderson » Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:50 am

That would be an astonishing extra. But I also think Jonathan Weiss’ extraordinary Atrocity Exhibition is an absolute must have.

Weiss apparently was frustrated at the lack of acclaim for this singular Ballard adaptation. But it was since endorsed by Tim Lucas in Sight & Sound.

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colinr0380
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#103 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:35 am

I would argue that The Atrocity Exibition deserves a full separate release all by itself, especially since the Reel23 DVD edition has two great commentaries tracks on it, one just by Weiss and the other with Weiss and Ballard in conversation. Its the best Ballard adaptation to the screen so far and certainly deserves to get better seen, even if I am fully prepared for its free associational, almost avant-garde narrative structure to put a lot of viewers off.

It is especially important because the film keeps that kind of anthology structure of the original material by splitting its narrative off into separate numbered topics (and resurrecting its characters again to play their parts in a new configuration), but topics that sort of end up blending into, commenting on and enriching each other thematically. The section on the car crash ("the car crash as a fertilising event") is just one section among others that take in plastic surgery ("the geometry of her face as a diagram for murder"), death in space ("nightmares of anxiety") and the nature of celebrity figures moving into existing only in imagery ("virtual death"). So you get the free flowing associations going back and forth between violence in war and in peacetime ("World War III as a conceptual event"), weapons used to drop bombs on Hiroshima or send rockets into space, or the celebrity section taking in Marilyn Monroe's untimely death raising her to icon and the Kennedy assassination being arguably the most famous automobile-based death!

It contains the kernel of what would later be expanded out specifically into Crash, but also shows that the idea of car crashes as an exciting (inciting?) event is just one of many 20th century preoccupations that were swirling around the Ballardian universe! Which mostly come down to humanity in their attempts to connect ironically often only finding ever more coldly technological ways of fulfilling their desires and/or meeting their ends.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat Aug 15, 2020 4:16 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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Adam X
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Re: Arrow Announcements, Speculation & Wild, Irresponsible Conjecture

#104 Post by Adam X » Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:10 pm

Feego wrote:
Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:00 pm
Adam Grikepelis wrote:
Fri Aug 14, 2020 11:56 am
Hooray! That solves the conundrum over buying it from Germany when (last I checked) they’re not shipping outside their border.
I don't know where you're based, but I placed an order from Amazon Germany just last week and it shipped to the U.S. The order wouldn't go through just a few days earlier, with a message stating that they couldn't ship to my location, but on August 9 the message was gone and I successfully ordered. Shipping was steep (21 euros, almost as much as the item I ordered!), but it shipped from Poland to Germany to Ohio to Texas in just four days!
Australia. The last I'd checked was probably late July, but the postal system still didn't seem to be shipping outside Germany for the general public. Might have to look into it, cheers.
UPDATE: No, still can't.
Last edited by Adam X on Tue Aug 18, 2020 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Robin Davies
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#105 Post by Robin Davies » Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:52 am

A documentary about the incredible controversy surrounding the release of Crash would be a very welcome extra. The day after the London Film Festival screening there was an interview with Ballard and Cronenberg at the NFT. I seem to remember seeing cameras there but I haven't seen any film of the event.

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Dr Amicus
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#106 Post by Dr Amicus » Sun Aug 16, 2020 5:58 pm

Robin Davies wrote:
Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:52 am
A documentary about the incredible controversy surrounding the release of Crash would be a very welcome extra. The day after the London Film Festival screening there was an interview with Ballard and Cronenberg at the NFT. I seem to remember seeing cameras there but I haven't seen any film of the event.
I was there and, now that you say it, I think you may be right - I'm pretty sure that they at least recorded the audio. But it was rather a long time ago... It was a great interview, hosted by Chris Rodley IIRC, and the cherry on the cake was being able to get them both to autograph items later (I have an autographed novel and screenplay) although it was rather tempered by admitting to Ballard that I had only ever read one of his short stories and didn't understand a word of it. Since then I've rectified that, but it was both embarrassing and amusing at the time.

A good resource on the controversy is The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Censorship by Martin Barker et al, very interesting with some detailed audience research.

Calvin
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#107 Post by Calvin » Sun Aug 16, 2020 6:22 pm

It was filmed and is available to licence from the BFI so will hopefully end up on this release.

Turbine were in touch with Harley Cokeliss who was keen to see his Crash restored and released, but couldn't manage to negotiate with the BBC. Hopefully Arrow have better luck, but in general the BBC don't seem to play ball with UK labels either with some exceptions. Hopefully Arrow do see fit to include Cronenberg's early TV play The Italian Machine.

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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#108 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:26 pm

Guessing little to no chance they get the commentary track from Criterion?


M Sanderson
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#110 Post by M Sanderson » Sat Aug 22, 2020 3:39 am

colinr0380 wrote:
Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:35 am
I would argue that The Atrocity Exibition deserves a full separate release all by itself, especially since the Reel23 DVD edition has two great commentaries tracks on it, one just by Weiss and the other with Weiss and Ballard in conversation. Its the best Ballard adaptation to the screen so far and certainly deserves to get better seen, even if I am fully prepared for its free associational, almost avant-garde narrative structure to put a lot of viewers off.

It is especially important because the film keeps that kind of anthology structure of the original material by splitting its narrative off into separate numbered topics (and resurrecting its characters again to play their parts in a new configuration), but topics that sort of end up blending into, commenting on and enriching each other thematically. The section on the car crash ("the car crash as a fertilising event") is just one section among others that take in plastic surgery ("the geometry of her face as a diagram for murder"), death in space ("nightmares of anxiety") and the nature of celebrity figures moving into existing only in imagery ("virtual death"). So you get the free flowing associations going back and forth between violence in war and in peacetime ("World War III as a conceptual event"), weapons used to drop bombs on Hiroshima or send rockets into space, or the celebrity section taking in Marilyn Monroe's untimely death raising her to icon and the Kennedy assassination being arguably the most famous automobile-based death!

It contains the kernel of what would later be expanded out specifically into Crash, but also shows that the idea of car crashes as an exciting (inciting?) event is just one of many 20th century preoccupations that were swirling around the Ballardian universe! Which mostly come down to humanity in their attempts to connect ironically often only finding ever more coldly technological ways of fulfilling their desires and/or meeting their ends.
i was kind of hoping (dreaming?) we’d get Crash with Atrocity Exhibition, as an LE. And then separate releases to follow - as with Videodrome and Stereo / Crimes of the Future & other Early Cronenberg. Gives everyone a chance to see it even though few will buy the experimental movies alone.

Another great pairing of commercial and experimental was Hooper’s undervalued TCM2 with the remarkable Eggshells with a booklet from a critic who appreciates experimental early cinema.

Agree with all your points on Weiss’ film.

It is for me one of the great works of surrealism and an amazing interpretation of Ballard.

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willoneill
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#111 Post by willoneill » Mon Aug 24, 2020 11:37 am

I saw the new restoration projected on Saturday night, and it looked and sounded really great. t's still clearly a mid-90s film, but it was a very sharp image. The colour palate didn't look noticeably different from my years of cable and DVD viewings, so I don't think there were any major changes in that regard.

There was also a short Cronenberg introduction at the beginning, filmed in portrait mode from his own phone from the driver's seat of a Tesla. Two anecdotes (spoiler-tagged not for the plot, but in case you want to experience the intro yourself):
SpoilerShow
Cronenberg stated that he was genuinely surprised by the films's contentious reaction at Cannes (which ... really? he were surprised?!); also, Cronenberg said that he once asked J.G. Ballard what the best way to watch the film would be, and Ballard said "in a car going 100 miles an hour". Cronenberg chuckled and said the film would probably look great on the 17 inch screen of his Tesla.

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eerik
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#112 Post by eerik » Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:36 am

30th November 2020

Technology and sexuality meet in a head-on collision in Crash director David Cronenberg s controversial adaptation of writer J.G. Ballard s hugely transgressive 1973 novel starring James Spader and Holly Hunter.

Spader stars as James Ballard, an advertising executive whose deviant sexual desires are awakened by a near fatal automobile accident with Dr Helen Remington (Hunter). Soon the pair, alongside Ballard s wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger), are drawn into an underground world of car crash fetishism presided over by renegade scientist Vaughan (Elias Koteas). Danger, sex and death become entwined as eroticism and technology join together in a disturbing, deadly union.

Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for originality, daring and audacity, Crash remains an incredibly subversive and confrontational piece of cinema Cronenberg himself describes it as a dangerous film now newly refurbished in a stunning 4K restoration.

ULTRA HD 4K BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 4K restoration of the uncut NC-17 version from the original 35mm camera negative, supervised by writer-director David Cronenberg and director of photography Peter Suschitzky
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in High Dynamic Range
5.1 and 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary with film scholar Adrian Martin
Cronenberg Challenge new interview with director of photography Peter Suschitzky
Mechanical Animals new interview with executive producer Jeremy Thomas
The Shore Thing new interview with composer Howard Shore
License to Drive new interview with casting director Deirdre Bowen
Archival ""Behind the Scenes"" featurette
Archival interviews with David Cronenberg, J.G. Ballard and actors James Spader, Holly Hunter, Deborah Kara Unger and Elias Koteas
Cronenberg: Concrete Cowboy brand new video essay by Caelum Vatnsdal on Cronenberg s use of Toronto as a filming location
Original Trailers
Fully illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Vanessa Morgan and Araceli Molina, alongside a reprinted excerpt from Cronenberg on Cronenberg
Fold-out double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx

Calvin
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#113 Post by Calvin » Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:58 am

In comparison to the German Turbine release, this looks like it adds the commentary by Adrian Martin and video essay by Caelum Vatnsdal but drops the 52 minute Talk with Viggo Mortensen & David Cronenberg and Cronenberg's short films 'Camera', 'The Nest' and 'At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World'.

It's a bit surprising that there's no mention of the controversy upon its UK release, with a Daily Mail-led campaign to ban it, the BBFC having to consult a Queen's counsel before passing it, and it still being banned by Westminister Council.

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Dr Amicus
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#114 Post by Dr Amicus » Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:24 am

Calvin wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:58 am
It's a bit surprising that there's no mention of the controversy upon its UK release, with a Daily Mail-led campaign to ban it, the BBFC having to consult a Queen's counsel before passing it, and it still being banned by Westminister Council.
The LFF Screening was, I believe, the only screening in Westminister - my favourite moment of the banning by the Council was when the leader of the Council (gloriously named John Bull) stated that they particularly objected to one line in the film, which he promptly read out! (It's the one about a car crash being a fertilizing event not a destructive one)

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yoloswegmaster
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#115 Post by yoloswegmaster » Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:26 am

With this receiving 4K UHDs in Germany, France, and the U.K, I'm interested in knowing if this is a hot-seller.

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MichaelB
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#116 Post by MichaelB » Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:40 am

Dr Amicus wrote:
Calvin wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:58 am
It's a bit surprising that there's no mention of the controversy upon its UK release, with a Daily Mail-led campaign to ban it, the BBFC having to consult a Queen's counsel before passing it, and it still being banned by Westminister Council.
The LFF Screening was, I believe, the only screening in Westminister - my favourite moment of the banning by the Council was when the leader of the Council (gloriously named John Bull) stated that they particularly objected to one line in the film, which he promptly read out! (It's the one about a car crash being a fertilizing event not a destructive one)
Not that you’d ever know that it was banned in Westminster - Columbia Tri-Star booked it into the six West End cinemas closest to the border, and happily the flagship ABC Shaftesbury Avenue (or whatever it was called then) was in neighbouring Camden. So in practical terms it made no visible difference.

I daresay the ban’s still in force to this day, but it will only affect theatrical screenings. Swansea famously lifted their ban on Life of Brian after it had played on Channel 4, as it felt a bit pointless by then.

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Roscoe
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#117 Post by Roscoe » Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:58 am

Hoping for a US release -- will I have to import this?

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Dr Amicus
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#118 Post by Dr Amicus » Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:58 am

Didn't the ABC (was it the MGM at that point?) make a big deal about how close it was to Westminster?

Over here, film censorship / classification resides with the parish constables - there are two at any time serving two years in total. They had banned Natural Born Killers (they walked out after 10 minutes - a fact I was told by the projectionist) but their successors DIDN'T ban Crash - I had seen the film and contacted them with my views on the film and how counter productive the NBK ban had been (a lot of pirate videosm locally - and then commercially available for £10 in the local shops).

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eerik
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#119 Post by eerik » Fri Aug 28, 2020 10:15 am

Image

Mario G.
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Re: Forthcoming: Crash (1996)

#120 Post by Mario G. » Fri Aug 28, 2020 10:26 am

Very surprised this is a UK only release. Who could have this in the US? Does Criterion get back on the Cronenberg train with a (disappointingly non-4k) release?

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Roscoe
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Re: Crash (1996)

#121 Post by Roscoe » Fri Aug 28, 2020 11:01 am

Warner Archive as the MOD DVD, still. Any word on whether it was part of a Criterion deal?

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domino harvey
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Re: Crash (1996)

#122 Post by domino harvey » Fri Aug 28, 2020 11:02 am

I’m sure between Criterion and Shout, one of them will release it

bluesforyou
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Re: Crash (1996)

#123 Post by bluesforyou » Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:05 pm

This and King of New York UHD just became my fastest ever preorder. Two films I have wanted to watch for a long time are now getting their best possible home video release. The extras on Crash also look really good, got a new commentary too. Good work from Arrow.

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colinr0380
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Re: Crash (1996)

#124 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:24 pm

The use of it on that cover is probably going to be the only situation where the terrible road sign-looking new BBFC logo will look perfectly appropriate!

Glad to see it it going to be on UHD, although I am still going to cherish my big box ex-VHS rental copy of Crash, mostly because I have fond memories of being too shy and cautious to go into a shop and buy it underage (I was 17 and a half so felt as if I was breaking the law to do so!), when the friend I was with said that she would buy it for me, took my money, marched into the shop and got it apparently no questions asked whilst I stood outside blushing and wringing my hands nervously!

(Of course less than six months later I was buying Boogie Nights and Funny Games from the HMV in Meadowhall in Sheffield, feeling all self righteous after turning 18! But even before that time I was already aware about mail order and the deluge of 18 rated material being delivered to the door had pretty much begun in earnest anyway! But after all the overblown fuss made about it by the tabloids I was really worried that having a copy of Crash in my possession would result in police action!)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:43 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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DeprongMori
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Re: Crash

#125 Post by DeprongMori » Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:29 pm

Hoping whoever releases Crash in the US includes the Cronenberg audio commentary from the Criterion laserdisc. (If it is Criterion releasing it, I do wish they would finally support 4K UHD HDR.)

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