One of the great things about living in Toronto, is that we have places like The TIFF Bell Lightbox. TIFF is the Toronto International Film Festival which is among the most important fests in the world. The Lightbox hosts exhibitions and screenings year round and recently hosted a retrospective and exhibition of the work of Canadian Horror Icon David Cronenberg.
For those of you not familiar with his work he is the man who directed Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in The Fly. Considered one of the most talented directors in Canada, the exhibit featured props, production notes, costumes, behind the scenes footage and countless puppets, make up effects, models and various other viscera (including the pod from The Fly and the skeletal braces from Crash). The exhibit was like nothing I have ever seen before. To see props like the mutant surgical tools from Dead Ringers, the insectoid type writers and creatures that populated his adaptation of Naked Lunch.
The exhibit gave just as much love to the dripping contagion of his body horror to the delicate details of his subversive period pieces like M. Butterfly and Dangerous Method and his uber violent thrillers like Eastern Promises and A History of Violence. The entire exhibit a love letter to not only the master himself but also the themes that run throughout his work and the different ways they manifest.
They didn’t allow any photography so I didn’t get any pics to share but here are some pics snatched from the web. Check out this behind the scenes look with interviews with the people responsible for the exhibit and event some words from Cronenberg himself.
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