I'VE GOT SOMETHING I WANT TO PLAY FOR YOU...

While I’m reading textbooks and writing papers over the weekend, perhaps you’ll get a chance to take a look at yet another burgeoning and exciting form of Internet film criticism unfolding over at Jim Emerson’s pad. If there was any doubt left, it turns out there’s a good reason why his blog is named Scanners-- Jim has just posted his latest critically-themed short film entitled Written in the Flesh: A Crash Course in David Cronenberg, a 12-minute journey through the major themes of the director who, as Jim points out, “has more daringly and relentlessly explored what it means to be human” than any other. Here’s Jim on Cronenberg and his own film essay:

“Clips from nine chapters in the ever-mutating cinematic saga of David Cronenberg (The Brood to A History of Violence) are interwoven to illuminate some of the director's major themes: technology (and art) as an extension/expression of the mind and body (guns, game pods, television, cars, computers, typewriters, eyeglasses...); the human appetite for extreme sensations; violence as sex, and sex as violence; the evolution of humankind beyond biology, and the inevitable dissolution of the flesh through mutation, disease, aging; corporate co-option of the intellectual property behind new technologies... all in only 12 minutes!”

As Barry Convex might say, Hold still, readers— Jim has something he wants to play for you…

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And stay tuned! Those who are feverishly awaiting part 2 of my conversation with Don Mancini won’t have much longer to wait. I should have something posted around Midnight tonight!

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