Febiofest 2018 | Josef Rauvolf: David Cronenberg – Naked Lunch

2DORCS15
Director:David Cronenberg
Cast:Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands
Length:115 minutes
Genre:Drama

Febiofest 2018 | Josef Rauvolf: David Cronenberg – Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch | MFF FEBIOFEST 2024; David Cronenberg, 1991, versions: OR,CS, languages: eng

Lecture by Josef Rauvolf before screening with discussion after movie.

Director: David Cronenberg • Scenario: David Cronenberg • Camera: Peter Suschitzky • Haircut: Ronald Sanders • Music: Ornette Coleman, Howard Shore • Cast: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure, Nicholas Campbell, Michael Zelniker, Robert A. Silverman, Joseph Scoren

The film is based both on the eponymous work by William S. Burroughs and the writer’s life. The main character, William Lee (the writer’s actual pseudonym), works as an exterminator. As he is spiraling deeper and deeper into drug addiction, he is no longer able to discern reality from fantasy; a fantasy where typewriters turn into talking bugs and he himself becomes a protagonist of a strange story of espionage. Peter Weller, who portrays the main character, managed to faultlessly imitate both Burroughs’s voice and mannerisms. – The film received eight Canadian Genie Awards (best motion picture, direction, adapted screenplay, cinematography, art direction, supporting actress, sound editing and overall sound), a New York Film Critics Circle Award for screenplay and two National Society of Film Critics Awards for screenplay and direction. (source: Czech Television)

Febiofest 2018 | Lecture by Josef Rauvolf on David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch. The novel Naked Lunch written by the American writer and artist Willian S. Burroughs (1914 – 1997) not only provoked shocked reactions in the time of its publication – the book was even subject to a trial in 1964 – but also significantly transformed the perception of what constitutes as a literary subject and what methods of writing can be used. Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs’s friend, declared later on: „Naked Lunch is one of the most important books of the twentieth century. It is predominantly great fun in its use of unbridled humor. It is a wonderful satire on numerous modern American myths – advertising, the police, diplomacy and the government. It is a guide on how to defy totalitarian brainwashing, and once you read Naked Lunch, you become cleverer and cleverer as you read on. You grow more skeptical.” The allegedly unfilmable novel was brought to silver screen in 1991 by the Canadian director David Cronenberg, who made sure not to avoid even the sharper aspects of Burroughs’s magnum opus. (Josef Rauvolf)

Length: 115 min

Year: 1991

Country of origin:

  • United Kingdom
  • Japan
  • Canada

Language version:

OR - Original version (english)
CS - Czech subtitles

Lecture by Josef Rauvolf before screening with discussion after movie.

Director: David Cronenberg • Scenario: David Cronenberg • Camera: Peter Suschitzky • Haircut: Ronald Sanders • Music: Ornette Coleman, Howard Shore • Cast: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure, Nicholas Campbell, Michael Zelniker, Robert A. Silverman, Joseph Scoren

The film is based both on the eponymous work by William S. Burroughs and the writer’s life. The main character, William Lee (the writer’s actual pseudonym), works as an exterminator. As he is spiraling deeper and deeper into drug addiction, he is no longer able to discern reality from fantasy; a fantasy where typewriters turn into talking bugs and he himself becomes a protagonist of a strange story of espionage. Peter Weller, who portrays the main character, managed to faultlessly imitate both Burroughs’s voice and mannerisms. – The film received eight Canadian Genie Awards (best motion picture, direction, adapted screenplay, cinematography, art direction, supporting actress, sound editing and overall sound), a New York Film Critics Circle Award for screenplay and two National Society of Film Critics Awards for screenplay and direction. (source: Czech Television)

Febiofest 2018 | Lecture by Josef Rauvolf on David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch. The novel Naked Lunch written by the American writer and artist Willian S. Burroughs (1914 – 1997) not only provoked shocked reactions in the time of its publication – the book was even subject to a trial in 1964 – but also significantly transformed the perception of what constitutes as a literary subject and what methods of writing can be used. Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs’s friend, declared later on: „Naked Lunch is one of the most important books of the twentieth century. It is predominantly great fun in its use of unbridled humor. It is a wonderful satire on numerous modern American myths – advertising, the police, diplomacy and the government. It is a guide on how to defy totalitarian brainwashing, and once you read Naked Lunch, you become cleverer and cleverer as you read on. You grow more skeptical.” The allegedly unfilmable novel was brought to silver screen in 1991 by the Canadian director David Cronenberg, who made sure not to avoid even the sharper aspects of Burroughs’s magnum opus. (Josef Rauvolf)

Year: 1991

Country of origin:

  • United Kingdom
  • Japan
  • Canada

Language version:

OR - Original version (english)
CS - Czech subtitles