#Existenz 1999

[dailyflicks]

eXistenZ (1999) dir. David Cronenberg

[danime25]

David Cronenberg movies be like

[filmjunky-99]

e x i s t e n z, 1999 🎬 dir. david cronenberg 'Vinokur'

[letterboxd-worth-a-damn]

[cannibalspicnic]

Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and David Cronenberg behind the scenes of eXistenZ (1999)

[annacase]

[sacredwhores]

David Cronenberg - eXistenZ (1999)

[closetofcuriosities]

Existenz - 1999 - Dir. David Cronenberg

[splatteronmywalls]

[prdzx]

eXistenZ by David Cronenberg 1999 with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law

[filmjunky-99]

e x i s t e n z, 1999 🎬 dir. david cronenberg 'Carlaw/ transCendenZ'

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[adamwatchesmovies]

eXistenZ (1999)

David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ is centered around a video game that doesn’t feel like any game we would ever play - and not because of its violent or disturbing content. This makes it a bit messy if seen as a criticism of Doom and similarly controversial games from the '90s. You'll find it more enjoyable as a snippet of a disturbing world that has nothing to do with our own, at least at a glance...

In the near-future, the most popular pastimes are virtual reality games played via biotechnological consoles that plug into bio-ports inserted into players’ spines. Antenna Research’s Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is demonstrating her latest game, "eXistenZ", to a focus group. Suddenly, the demonstration is interrupted by an assassination attempt. Going on the run with her security guard and publicist, Ted Pikul (Jude Law), they must evade the Realists, fanatics who want Allegra dead for her "crimes against reality".

Above everything else, eXistenZ is concerned with one question: “How real is too real?”. In the real world, Allegra Geller seems so wooden. She’s just been shot but she's more concerned about eXistenZ than her safety. The pod containing the only copy of the game has become damaged and she’s obsessed with getting it repaired. When we see her inside a game, she’s a completely different person. It’s like the real-world version of her is fake and vice versa. Maybe the Realists are onto something when they call this technology dangerous. You thought the entry ports in the back of people’s skulls in The Matrix were unsettling? This movie takes it on a whole other level. There’s something infinitely more disturbing about seeing Allegra manipulate the boils on a fleshy device that looks like it was surgically removed from a living being. The fact that the cords have to be lubricated before being inserted into people’s spines, can become infected and bleed when cut makes you all sorts of uneasy. Then, there’s the obvious addictive nature of these virtual reality games. It's grotesque.

In most films, it’s easy to tell the real world from the fake one. Even if you don’t have a hazy border around the edges of the screen, the second something is amiss, your guard goes up. eXistenZ begins with its weirdness at an 8. Going up to a 9 is not a big leap, which makes it difficult to discern whether the latest jaw-dropping sight is just a dream, the next level of a game or the next step in a bizarre journey. With games within games, it becomes impossible to tell virtual reality from actual reality - a fact highlighted by the very last scene. Technology this convincing is dangerous and the only people who seem to realize this are the antagonists.

This unsettling, gooey picture has a strong visual identity that makes it unforgettable. eXistenZ is so strange, so committed to its grotesque vision of the future that even if you don’t subscribe to what at first appears to be an anti-video game agenda, you get sucked into this world and are hungry for more… even if your stomach is going to feel very very queasy.

Your instinct is to say that writer/director David Cronenberg has something to say about video games but I’m not so sure. See, eXistenZ (the game, not the movie) is unlike anything in our world. There aren’t any objectives and no health bars or power-ups. People play roles in its story but it would be wrong to compare it to even the most sophisticated RPGs 1999 had to offer. Initially, you wonder why anyone would want to play it. Later, you understand the appeal: it's fake. Why live in the real world with limits when you can live in the imaginary world where anything is possible? That could easily become addictive.

Most films about technology age poorly but time has been kind to eXistenZ. The special effects hold up, and the ideas seem more relevant now than ever. How much time do we spend watching photos and videos of people who've made them more appealing than real life via filters or other special effects? Why have we become so much more comfortable interacting with people through apps than in person? Granted, what we’re doing isn’t gross like it is in the movie, but to someone who isn’t acclimated to it, whole evenings spent in front of glowing screens might seem as perverse as the bags of flesh the people in this film cling onto so dearly. (On DVD, May 7, 2022)

[trans-comrade]

Cronenberg was way to hopeful for gamers sex lives when he made eXistenZ

[sacredwhores]

David Cronenberg - eXistenZ (1999)

[closetofcuriosities]

Existenz - 1999 - Dir. David Cronenberg