- Title: FRANCE: CANNES FILM PREMIERE OF DAVID CRONENBERG'S MOVIE " HISTORY OF VIOLENCE"
- Date: 16th May 2005
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 16 2005) (REUTERS) SCU SOUNDBITE (English) FILM DIRECTOR DAVID CRONENBERG SAYING: "I intended the audience to be complicit in those acts of violence. It is a set up. I set it up. Josh the writer set it up that the violence should be completely justified. Should be committed by a man that we like and have connected to in the movie, and therefore we applaud him, therefore we are complicit in that violence. Once we have established that, then I can take you to some very strange places where you have to question that complicity. So it was deliberate."
- Embargoed: 31st May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CANNES FRANCE AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA9W2AQ9XWKF4T2P0BQUP1XG655
- Story Text: David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" get critics talking at the 58th Cannes Film Festival.
Questions of trust, salvation and forgiveness are themes that take center stage in David Cronenberg's blood feast, 'History of Violence'.
"I intended the audience to be complicit in those acts of violence," the Canadian director told Reuters in Cannes.
"It is a set up. I set it up. Josh the writer set it up that the violence should be completely justified. Should be committed by a man that we like and have connected too in the movie, and therefore we applaud him, therefore we are complicit in that violence. Once we have established that, then I can take you to some very strange places where you have to question that complicity."
Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) and his lawyer wife, Edie (Maria Bello), are happily raising two pleasant kids in Millbrook, Ind., when their world is rocked by an act of extreme violence.
Adapted from a novel written by John Wagner, History of Violence is arguably the most commercially accessible film made by this filmmaker, historically known for his dark and bizarre tails.
"One of the things I was drawn to, by this script was, was it's kind of classic American western feel, we're really thinking a bit of John Ford or maybe East of Eden.
There was something about that mythology that's very potent for Americans."
History of Violence takes actor Viggo Mortensen one-step close to discarding the shackles of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
"In a small town, where he lives he kills two men in his diner, protecting other people, one assumeshe's applauded for it and in the town as well, which is somewhat uncomfortable. Because of the attention it brings to him and it is an odd moment when people say well-done Tom. And what it points out for me at least, and is one of the issues of the movie is how people will sometimes on mass give up their right their choice to think for themselves,..
it's almost like someone has taken action, made a decision, shown themselves to be a man of action in this case, well done I'll have you think for me then."
The ease in which Mortenson's character is able to commit extreme acts of violence which is seemingly out of character to the environment that he lives in, poses questions on how violence is intrinsically part of the American psyche.
The director agrees saying, "It's a comment on America and violence, and then it's a resonances are absolutely universal."
Joining Cronenberg on the red carpet in Cannes for the film's world premiere were cast members Maria Bello, William Hurt and Ashton Holmes. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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