The past week, the Criterion Collection announced its year-end slate of new film restorations that will be heading home as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings during the month of December.
Kicking of the four-film parade on Dec. 1 is director David Cronenberg’s 1997 film adaptation of the 1973 controversial “symphorophiliac” novel by J.G. Ballard, Crash.
The signal from the beginning was that Crash was an arthouse film. His remake of The Fly was a huge hit, Naked Lunch is still being talked about today and his films with Viggo Mortensen — A History of Violence and Eastern Promises — are commercial action flicks. He has made some terrific horror and sci-fi film as well … Rabid, Scanners, The Dead Zone, Videodrome.
But Crash opened at the Cannes Film Festival (May, 1996), an arthouse-signal to be sure. It captured the Jury Special Prize for Cronenberg, played some addition festival dates and rolled out theatrically in the domestic market in 1997. Pulled in about $3.3 million in ticket sales … and of note, this new 4K restoration marks the Blu-ray debut of Crash (it will also be available as a double-disc DVD edition from Criterion).
Crash is, by any standard, a strange movie. You have James Spader living a meaningless life with his wife, played by Deborah Kara Unger (Silent Hill: Revelation, Between Strangers, Salton Sea, etc.), and then gets into a car crash, where he meets Holly Hunter — they strike up a relationship. However, it is the cult-like influence of Bob Vaughan (played by Elias Koteas), who “recruits” scarred and disfigured crash survivors as his “followers,” that brings Spader’s character to the edge of insanity.
Bonus goodies include a vintage commentary with David Cronenberg (circa 1997) and the 1996 Cannes Film Festival press roundtable (featuring Cronenberg, writer J. G. Ballard and members of the cast … Holly Hunter, James Spader, Deborah Kara Unger, Rosanna Arquette and Elias Koteas. There are also Behind-the-Scenes footage of Crash (unspecified).
Rounding out the December-end-of-the-year slate from the Criterion Collection are French New Wave director Robert Bresson’s 1967 film, Mouchette (4K film restoration, Dec. 8 … double-disc DVD), Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes by William Greaves (also Dec. 8 … also a double-disc DVD release) and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 2000 Best Foreign Language nominee, Amores Perros (new 4K restoration … double-disc DVD release).
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