This year, David Cronenberg’s “Crash” is celebrating its 24th anniversary. And as it approaches its quarter-century mark, the film is getting a brand-new 4K restoration release with all the bells and whistles. This has renewed interest in the filmmaker’s cult film that has a bit of a checkered history when it comes to awards. You see, even though “Crash” won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, the filmmaker believes he was slighted by none other than Francis Ford Coppola in the judgment.
READ MORE: David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash’ Is Getting An Uncut, NC-17 4K Restoration
Speaking to the Canadian Press, Cronenberg reflected on the 1996 Cannes premiere of “Crash” and the controversy that surrounded the screening. According to reports, people were disgusted by the graphic nature of Cronenberg’s film and many gave it bad reviews in the process. However, the film did go on to win the Special Jury Prize and did so without the support of the Cannes jury president, Francis Ford Coppola.
“Coppola was totally against it,” said Cronenberg. “I think he was the primary one. When I’m asked why [‘Crash’] got this Special Jury Award, well, I think it was the jury’s attempt to get around the Coppola negativity because they had the power to create their own award without the president’s approval. And that’s how they did it, but it was Coppola who was certainly against it.”
READ MORE: The 10 Best Films Of 1996
While you may think that Cronenberg might be overreacting to the idea that Coppola was against his film and is taking it a bit personally, the filmmaker also said that Coppola didn’t even want to hand him the award and gave the responsibility to someone else, even though he was the jury president. Cronenberg saw that as a little petty and still doesn’t agree with Coppola’s actions.
“Because later I was president of the [Cannes] jury as well,” he explained. “You always end up with awards that maybe you don’t think are justified, but your team jury members do. You have to be gracious about it. I don’t think he was very gracious.”
Regardless of the Cannes experience, as mentioned, “Crash” has grown into a cult classic amongst cinephiles, especially fans of Cronenberg. And though it’s always impossible to know the future trajectory of a film after its first premiere, perhaps Coppola might want a redo about his reaction because many would say he got it wrong. At least Cronenberg would agree.
As for the future, Cronenberg isn’t retired. But that doesn’t mean that he has something that is right around the corner.
“I’ve found streaming series quite intriguing because suddenly you have a more novelistic approach to storytelling,” he said. “That’s brought me back to being interested in cinema of some kind, whether it’s TV series or another feature, I don’t know. I do have a few projects, but who knows if they’ll ever get made because of COVID or just the normal problem of financing difficult films.”
Hopefully, one of those projects gets made soon. We need more David Cronenberg in our lives.