ABSTRACT
David Cronenberg is recognized globally as an iconic Canadian filmmaker and sometimes actor, and his self-reflexive attitude toward the film and media industries comes across and is portrayed in such foundational cyberpunk films as Videodrome (1983) and eXistenZ (1999) where he demonstrates an awareness of the conditions of power and control in production. These are themes evoked generally in cyberpunk culture, of which Cronenberg is deemed to be an early pioneer thanks to Videodrome, a film that (along with the later eXistenZ) portrays the materiality of the body immersed in new media spaces, and planes of corporate control. Specifically, Cronenberg portrays the business models of media systems and cultural industries embedded in the urban and commercial landscapes of late-twentieth-century capitalism. In essence, while cyberpunk often relies upon the metaphor of fluid and mutable bodies surfing virtual realities and fulfilling cyberspatial fantasies, Cronenberg’s films show technologies mediating our reflections about embodiment. Thus, the themes of bodily invasion and loss of control that permeate his visual worlds address the mutual evolution and the hybridity of the human-machine, which mark his distinct appeal for cyberpunk culture.
