Cronenberg weighs in on Roe v. Wade turmoil at Cannes: U.S. has gone bananas (Ld)

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Paris, May 24 (IANS) David Cronenberg called the United States "completely insane" because of the country's Supreme Court potentially overturning Roe v. Wade, which has kept basic abortion rights legal since its 1973 ruling. He was speaking at the Cannes press conference for his film 'Crimes of the Future', reports 'Variety'.

The director's new film, which is a return to his body horror roots, addresses "who owns whose body," Cronenberg said.

"I did write [the script] 20 years ago, but you could feel, even then, that this was coming," 'Variety' quoted Cronenberg as saying. "A kind of oppressive ownership and control. It's the constant in history ... . That means, once again, the body is reality. You control people's bodies -- that's speaking, expressing themselves, that's control."

The Canadian director's film premiered on Monday, causing walkouts during the screening and drawing praise at the same time from the noted actress Isabelle Huppert.

At his press conference, he said that in his country "we think everybody in the U.S. is completely insane, that the U.S. has gone completely bananas, and [we] cannot believe elected officials are saying what they're saying. Not just about Roe v. Wade but everything else. It's strange times."

The film tells of an advanced society where "the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, and the body undergoes new transformations and mutations," according to an official synopsis quoted by 'Variety'. Viggo Mortensen plays a celebrity artiste who shares the metamorphosis of internal organs as performance pieces, with the help of his partner Lea Seydoux.

At its Monday premiere, dozens of attendees walked out of the Grand Palais, unable to bear the film's unflinching depictions of body horror.

--IANS

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