- The limousine as petri dish in Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis
It’s been a while now since David Cronenberg opened a film with a proper credits sequence, as opposed to printing a few titles and leaving the remaining credits for the end. Until recently, the credits sequence had been a mainstay of his work. The Canadian filmmaker often said in interviews that he valued the convention since it created a buffer zone between reality and the world of the film. These sequences create the impression that Cronenberg’s leading the audience down the proverbial rabbit hole, the music of Howard Shore (who’s scored all the director’s films, save one, since The Brood) heightening the air of curiosity. When the narrative begins, we’re distinctly someplace else. It never feels like a shock when the film presents us with some ungodly transformation, as every Cronenberg movie inevitably does. On a gut level, we know we’re not looking at regular people.
