Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David Cronenberg

“It is necessary to identify two point of views [in Crash]: that of the characters […] and that of the audience”, Paul-Marie Battestini writes in his work on David Cronenberg’s film. It may nevertheless be fruitful to question the possibility of a third perspective, that of the cars on which Crash a...

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Main Author: Guilhem Billaudel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2023-06-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/14492
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author Guilhem Billaudel
author_facet Guilhem Billaudel
author_sort Guilhem Billaudel
collection DOAJ
description “It is necessary to identify two point of views [in Crash]: that of the characters […] and that of the audience”, Paul-Marie Battestini writes in his work on David Cronenberg’s film. It may nevertheless be fruitful to question the possibility of a third perspective, that of the cars on which Crash and Cosmopolis focus, inasmuch as they are essential and close to being actual characters. This article attempts to observe the changing status of vehicles within the carnal, economic and affective relations displayed in the two films. Crash et Cosmopolis shall not, however, be apprehended as exceptions, neither in relation to North-American film history nor to Cronenberg’s work itself. Attachment, dependency and eroticism as represented here are but the outcome of the way film history has given an increasingly complex and central focus to the car, paralleling its ever-growing fetishization within Western culture. When narrating the quest for the perfect car-crash in a group of fin de siècle fetishists or the physical and mental dissolution of a trader locked in his limousine, Cronenberg always makes the car become more than a prop or a means of transportation. A death machine, a magnifying glass, a coffin-to-be or a metaphorical cradle, it is the true protagonist of works focusing on desire and its variations. Beyond the pleasure/pain and protection/destruction binaries, it is therefore essential to question the way Cronenberg explores the possibility of a focal shift, from the “new flesh” to a machine-centered perspective.
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spelling doaj-art-67894f45871d430e9015f7ae9f0b9bbb2025-01-30T13:47:16ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022023-06-013410.4000/sillagescritiques.14492Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David CronenbergGuilhem Billaudel“It is necessary to identify two point of views [in Crash]: that of the characters […] and that of the audience”, Paul-Marie Battestini writes in his work on David Cronenberg’s film. It may nevertheless be fruitful to question the possibility of a third perspective, that of the cars on which Crash and Cosmopolis focus, inasmuch as they are essential and close to being actual characters. This article attempts to observe the changing status of vehicles within the carnal, economic and affective relations displayed in the two films. Crash et Cosmopolis shall not, however, be apprehended as exceptions, neither in relation to North-American film history nor to Cronenberg’s work itself. Attachment, dependency and eroticism as represented here are but the outcome of the way film history has given an increasingly complex and central focus to the car, paralleling its ever-growing fetishization within Western culture. When narrating the quest for the perfect car-crash in a group of fin de siècle fetishists or the physical and mental dissolution of a trader locked in his limousine, Cronenberg always makes the car become more than a prop or a means of transportation. A death machine, a magnifying glass, a coffin-to-be or a metaphorical cradle, it is the true protagonist of works focusing on desire and its variations. Beyond the pleasure/pain and protection/destruction binaries, it is therefore essential to question the way Cronenberg explores the possibility of a focal shift, from the “new flesh” to a machine-centered perspective.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/14492desirebodyfilmgendermachinecars
spellingShingle Guilhem Billaudel
Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David Cronenberg
Sillages Critiques
desire
body
film
gender
machine
cars
title Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David Cronenberg
title_full Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David Cronenberg
title_fullStr Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David Cronenberg
title_full_unstemmed Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David Cronenberg
title_short Corps (é)conduits : La construction d’un regard-machine dans Crash (1996) et Cosmopolis (2012) de David Cronenberg
title_sort corps e conduits la construction d un regard machine dans crash 1996 et cosmopolis 2012 de david cronenberg
topic desire
body
film
gender
machine
cars
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/14492
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