Crimes of the Future

Crimes of the Future
DVD cover for Stereo and Crimes of the Future
Directed by David Cronenberg
Produced by David Cronenberg
Written by David Cronenberg
Starring
  • Ronald Mlodzik
  • Jon Lidolt
  • Tania Zolty
  • Jack Messinger
  • Paul Mulholland
  • William Haslam
  • William Poolman
Narrated by Ronald Mlodzik
Cinematography David Cronenberg
Edited by David Cronenberg
Distributed by New Cinema Enterprises
Release date
  • June 1970 (1970-06) (Australia)
  • August 10, 1984 (1984-08-10) (United States)
Running time
 63 minutes
Country Canada
Language English

Crimes of the Future is a 1970 Canadian science fiction film written, shot, edited, and directed by David Cronenberg.[1]

Like Cronenberg's previous feature, Stereo, Crimes was shot silent with a commentary added afterwards. The commentary is spoken by the character Adrian Tripod (Ronald Mlodzik). The film is set in 1997.

Summary

Crimes of the Future details the wanderings of Adrian Tripod (Ronald Mlodzik), sometime director of a dermatological clinic called the House of Skin, who is searching for his mentor, the mad dermatologist Antoine Rouge. Rouge has disappeared following a catastrophic plague resulting from cosmetic products, which has killed the entire population of sexually mature women.

Tripod joins a succession of organisations, including Metaphysical Import-Export and the Oceanic Podiatry Group, and meets various individuals and groups of men who are trying to adjust themselves to a defeminized world. One man parodies childbirth by continually growing new organs which are removed from his body. Eventually Tripod comes upon a group of paedophiles that is holding a 5-year-old girl, and they urge him to mate with her. Suddenly the secret police arrive and they are all arrested and incinerated, but Tripod and the girl manage to escape before this happens.

Cast

  • Ronald Mlodzik as Adrian Tripod
  • Jon Lidolt
  • Tania Zolty
  • Paul Mulholland
  • Jack Messinger
  • Iain Ewing
  • William Haslam
  • Brian Linehan
  • Raymond Woodley (credited as Ray Woodley)

Reception

Kim Newman, in his 1988 book Nightmare Movies, has described Crimes of the Future as being "more fun to read about in synopsis than to watch", and as proving, along with Stereo, that "it's possible to be boring and interesting at the same time".

The film has a score of 60% from five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.8/10.[2]

Home video

The film has been included as a special feature in multiple releases of other Cronenberg films, including in standard definition on Blue Underground's Blu-ray release of Fast Company[3], in high definition on Criterion release of The Brood[4] and also in high definition on a bonus disc in Arrow Video's UK Blu-ray release of Videodrome,[5] The bonus disc from Videodrome was later released on its own as David Cronenberg's Early Works.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Crimes of the Future". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ "Crimes of the Future (1970)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Fast Company (Blu-ray)". DVDtalk. May 20, 2009. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  4. ↑ "The Brood". Criterion Collection.
  5. ↑ "Videodrome UK Blu-ray Release Detailed". Blu-ray.com. June 20, 2015. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  6. ↑ "Upcoming Arrow Video Blu-ray Releases". Blu-ray.com. May 6, 2016. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
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