Videodrome

David Cronenberg began with his own childhood: after the Canadian stations signed off he pulled in American signals from Buffalo, afraid of seeing something not meant for the public. CIVIC-TV comes from CITY-TV, the Toronto station with a late night soft pornography slot, and Brian O’Blivion is modelled on Marshall McLuhan, who taught at Cronenberg’s university without ever teaching him. Max does not find the signal; Harlan, who runs the station’s unauthorised dish, brings it to him, so the film opens on supply rather than curiosity. Rick Baker’s 6 months of preparation shrank to 2 with the budget, and some planned effects were never made. The cassette pushed into Max’s stomach slit is a Betamax for size: VHS would not fit. The breathing television ran on an air compressor valved off a piano keyboard, and the swelling screen was rear projection onto stretched latex. 3 endings were shot; the one kept was James Woods’s idea. The film took 8 nominations at the 5th Genie Awards, where Cronenberg won directing in a tie with Bob Clark. A good fit if you can stop separating hallucination from event and want no referee for what really happened after the halfway mark. Not for anyone who will look away when wounds, the abdominal slit and prosthetic organs are held on camera at length.