David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises
David Cronenberg, Canada's Grea-*test*-('") filmmaker, is now going through a new and very exciting phase in his long career. Having created low-budget Canadian horror films such as Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), Cronenberg would create a holy trinity of body horror in the 1980's with Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), which won him critical acclaim. Into the 1990's, he started to move away from body horror, taking on a more cerebral, philosophical variations of body horror and transformation, this was proved with his adaptations of William Burrough's Naked Lunch (1991) and J.G. Ballard's Crash (1996). However, as he came into the new millennium, his career changed again, starting with the psychological drama Spider (2002), but he went mainstream with A History of Violence (2005), a gruesome, violent and eventually heartbreaking deconstruction of the American Dream, it was his best film in nearly 20 years. Now, Cronenberg has returned to London to do another violent but intriguing tale, Eastern Promises, which like Cronenberg's last film, deals with the hallmarks of violence and ultimately, identity. Set in London during a bleak Christmas, the film has mid-wife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), who deals with the case of a Russian teenager who dies during childbirth, all Anna has to go on, is the girl's diary, written in Russian. Her Russian-born uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski), starts to translate it, but is doubtful of the situation. In the diary is a card, which to Anna, could be a clue to the girl's identity. It takes her to a business called Trans-Siberian, a restaurant that deals with Russian cuisine. She meets it's owner, the charming Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), whose family happens to be part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood, the restaurant is a cover for the violent goings on in this dark underworld. Semyon's son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), is violent and unhinged, but he seems to bond more closely with the family's driver Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen), a mysterious Russian who seems to know alot and is certainly not what he seems... This is an excellent film, with a dark and violent atmosphere that stays brutal and compelling throughout, Cronenberg shows a side to London seldom seen on films, showing areas of London that the tourists would rather stay away from, like Hackney and Fitzrovia. In fact, there hasn't been a film which shows such a dark side to London since Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). But, before you go ahead and call it "Another London Gangster film", it is a different kind of gangster film, it has Cronenberg's unique touch, it even has it's own kind of body horror, which come in the form of tattoos, which are authentic to the Vory V Zakone crime syndicate, Russian criminals would have their life painted out on tattoos, and they would be used as a means of communication, Cronenberg even pics up on Russian lifestyles and traditions, which the family use even in another country. But, it's a very violent tale, showing some very realistic and shocking violence, which is quick and ungratuitous. Such as in a barbers shop, where one victim gets his throat slashed, and Nikolai dealing with the same victim later by thawing his frozen body with a hairdryer and then cutting the ends of his fingers off. Then, Nikolai is beaten up by a couple of thugs in a bath house, which is gruesome and nearly unwatchable. This is Cronenberg's second film with Viggo Mortensen, after A History of Violence, and Mortensen is proving what a good actor he is, he relishes the part of Nikolai, who has a secret agenda of his own, (in a parallel with A History of Violence, a secret about this character is revealed in a hospital.) Naomi Watts gives a good, strong female lead as the midwife trying to get to the bottom of the dead girl's identity, but is emerged in the underworld of the Russian Mafia. But, some of the best scenes come from Vincent Cassel who seems to be having the time of his life as Kirill, a nasty piece of work whose mood changes frequently and violently, and then there's Armin Mueller-Stahl as Semyen, the jovial restauranteur who has his fair share of secrets...
You can always rely on Cronenberg to come up with a good film, and he's come up trumps here, working from a well-researched script by Steve Knight, (who had originally wrote it as a 1 hour BBC drama, before it started to grow beyond it's intended scale), it's not as good as Cronenberg's previous film, but it shows he is confident when dealing with a real and topical subject. For some, it will be seen as another departure for Cronenberg, in the same vein as M. Butterfly (1993) and even Spider (2002), but he has created a brutal tale which deals with violence and identity, which are two themes that are apparant in most of his films.
David Cronenberg, Canada's Grea-*test*-('") filmmaker, is now going through a new and very exciting phase in his long career. Having created low-budget Canadian horror films such as Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), Cronenberg would create a holy trinity of body horror in the 1980's with Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), which won him critical acclaim. Into the 1990's, he started to move away from body horror, taking on a more cerebral, philosophical variations of body horror and transformation, this was proved with his adaptations of William Burrough's Naked Lunch (1991) and J.G. Ballard's Crash (1996). However, as he came into the new millennium, his career changed again, starting with the psychological drama Spider (2002), but he went mainstream with A History of Violence (2005), a gruesome, violent and eventually heartbreaking deconstruction of the American Dream, it was his best film in nearly 20 years. Now, Cronenberg has returned to London to do another violent but intriguing tale, Eastern Promises, which like Cronenberg's last film, deals with the hallmarks of violence and ultimately, identity. Set in London during a bleak Christmas, the film has mid-wife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), who deals with the case of a Russian teenager who dies during childbirth, all Anna has to go on, is the girl's diary, written in Russian. Her Russian-born uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski), starts to translate it, but is doubtful of the situation. In the diary is a card, which to Anna, could be a clue to the girl's identity. It takes her to a business called Trans-Siberian, a restaurant that deals with Russian cuisine. She meets it's owner, the charming Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), whose family happens to be part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood, the restaurant is a cover for the violent goings on in this dark underworld. Semyon's son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), is violent and unhinged, but he seems to bond more closely with the family's driver Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen), a mysterious Russian who seems to know alot and is certainly not what he seems... This is an excellent film, with a dark and violent atmosphere that stays brutal and compelling throughout, Cronenberg shows a side to London seldom seen on films, showing areas of London that the tourists would rather stay away from, like Hackney and Fitzrovia. In fact, there hasn't been a film which shows such a dark side to London since Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). But, before you go ahead and call it "Another London Gangster film", it is a different kind of gangster film, it has Cronenberg's unique touch, it even has it's own kind of body horror, which come in the form of tattoos, which are authentic to the Vory V Zakone crime syndicate, Russian criminals would have their life painted out on tattoos, and they would be used as a means of communication, Cronenberg even pics up on Russian lifestyles and traditions, which the family use even in another country. But, it's a very violent tale, showing some very realistic and shocking violence, which is quick and ungratuitous. Such as in a barbers shop, where one victim gets his throat slashed, and Nikolai dealing with the same victim later by thawing his frozen body with a hairdryer and then cutting the ends of his fingers off. Then, Nikolai is beaten up by a couple of thugs in a bath house, which is gruesome and nearly unwatchable. This is Cronenberg's second film with Viggo Mortensen, after A History of Violence, and Mortensen is proving what a good actor he is, he relishes the part of Nikolai, who has a secret agenda of his own, (in a parallel with A History of Violence, a secret about this character is revealed in a hospital.) Naomi Watts gives a good, strong female lead as the midwife trying to get to the bottom of the dead girl's identity, but is emerged in the underworld of the Russian Mafia. But, some of the best scenes come from Vincent Cassel who seems to be having the time of his life as Kirill, a nasty piece of work whose mood changes frequently and violently, and then there's Armin Mueller-Stahl as Semyen, the jovial restauranteur who has his fair share of secrets...
You can always rely on Cronenberg to come up with a good film, and he's come up trumps here, working from a well-researched script by Steve Knight, (who had originally wrote it as a 1 hour BBC drama, before it started to grow beyond it's intended scale), it's not as good as Cronenberg's previous film, but it shows he is confident when dealing with a real and topical subject. For some, it will be seen as another departure for Cronenberg, in the same vein as M. Butterfly (1993) and even Spider (2002), but he has created a brutal tale which deals with violence and identity, which are two themes that are apparant in most of his films.