an exchange of thoughts on COSMOPOLIS [7/10] 24.12.12

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what made it special / made it dangerous
so I’ll bury it / and forget
~
Kate Bush, Cloudbusting

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Vladan Petković: You haven’t reviewed Cosmopolis, have you? I just saw it last night and I’m not sure what I think about it. It’s terribly talky but they’re saying some interesting stuff (“My prostate is asymmetrical” is priceless), and it becomes hypnotic in a way. The cast is also very good. Pattinson can act!

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NY: I saw it twice this summer. It’s in my UK top ten of the year — sneaking in at #9! Definitely counts as one of 2012’s more pleasant surprises — and as a considerable relief, as I was fairly sure Cronenberg was on a steady downward slide to respectability after the great pinnacle of A History of Violence, both Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method striking me as the kind of middling fare that a Stephen Frears might have had his name on. I don’t think it’s coincidental that this “return to form” happens to be the first time Cronenberg has taken a screenplay credit since eXistenZ and I would therefore hope that he’ll be writing most it not all of his future projects from now on.That said, he’s always been a bit of an opportunist when it comes to taking jobs — remember how close he came to doing Beverly Hills Cop with Stallone back in the day, and of course he was seriously mentioned as a candidate for the Hunger Games sequel earlier this year.I know Cosmopolis rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way and left many cold — which is part of why I like it.

I tweeted something about its noli me tangere vibe straight after seeing it for the first time, and it’s refreshing to experience that Cronenberg cerebral chill again after so long.Of course, it’s episodic and a bit this-and-that-and-this-then-that-then-that but the individual vignettes mostly pull their weight — the only one I’m really not sure about is the Amalric cameo — and there are many more peaks that troughs: I love Durand’s character and performance, and that “Nancy Babich” scene with the gun is some kind of classic.The “Brutha Fez” stuff is hilarious, notwithstanding the fact that (for me) K’naan’s Mecca is one of the tracks of the year. Speaking of music, the ‘Metric’ song played over the end credits struck me first time as strangely bland, then second time as perfect and hypnotic. And as we know nobody cuts to black with the savage elegance of Cronenberg!

So, on balance, I’m a fan.

I loved the Brutha Fez and particularly the Nancy Babich scene. That’s what I call a jump! Also the assassination of the head of the monetary fund in North Korea is hilarious. The Paul Giamatti role seems like typecasting, but it had to be someone you’d recognize in the scene by the ATM, and then why not him for the typical role- it is even nicely self-ironic.The Korean assassination – another highlight (glimpsed in that amazing teaser-trailer that edited together all the action to make it look like a violent thriller). Hilarious and horribly gory – and therefore very Cronenberg, who’s often much funnier than his critics (and the critics full stop) admit.Giamatti appears so fleetingly at the ATM that I suspect many viewers might not even recognise him at all – then again, this is probably a deliberate ploy on the part of Cronenberg and his editor (looks up the name… ah yes, Ronald Sanders of course) to keep us off-balance, or to reward second-time viewers (or maybe to be clever-clever post-modern about such touches.)

Have you read the book, by the way? It’s supposedly not one of Delillo’s best, seems to have generally gotten negative reviews (vindicates the Hitchcock idea of bad books making the best films). And did you see the amusing footage of Cronenberg and Pattinson ringing the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange [YouTube link] ? Even if the picture didn’t work at the box office, I love that kind of “infiltration” of the “real” world by the likes of Cronenberg and Ballard. Buñuel would have approved!Of course, that stunt was mainly due to Pattinson’s involvement. I’m still deciding about his performance — he generally holds his own, until the Giamatti bit which reminded me of that scene of Tom Cruise in the car with Vanessa Redgrave from the first Mission Impossible: our boy’s thespy limitations are being exposed, second by second, and he feels it like a dental drill.

I haven’t read De Lillo’s book, but I heard the same stuff you did. And I’m going to look up the publicity stunt now. I recognized Giamatti instantly… maybe because I knew he was in the film.

Forewarned is forearmed!