If you make enough movies with a) phallic slimy things in them or b) Viggo Mortensen, then you, too can win France’s highest honor. David Cronenberg has done both–indeed, some might argue that they are the same thing. And so it is that the French are awarding him the Legion d’Honneur. The Canadian director of The Fly and Eastern Promises joins an elite group that includes Gustave Flaubert, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, and Celine Dion.
“The distinction underlines Mr. Cronenberg’s achievements to date and recognizes the service he has rendered to French culture and to cultural relations between France and Canada,” read a statement issued from the Toronto consulate general. Cronenberg will pick up his Medal of Knight from France’s ambassador to Canada on April 1. Cronenberg continues his noble tradition of pushing back sexual boundaries and stirring the viscous of body horror by wrestling Robert Ludlum’s The Matarese Circle into a vehicle for Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise.
Tags: David Cronenberg, Denzel Washington, Eastern Promises, The Fly, The Matarese Circle, Tom Cruise, Viggo Mortensen
SquallyShowers 
March 31, 2009 at 3:27 pm |
[…] Promises did not exactly hurtle into the top tier of director David Cronenberg’s work. But the newly-minted knight didn’t get to where he is by giving a damn what you think. He’s gone from turning […]