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Cronenberg takes two on Russian mafia at Toronto film fest
2007-09-11
Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg came close to the bloody underworld he depicts in his latest movie "Eastern Promises," about the deadly Russian mafia. The crime thriller with ripped-from-the-headlines details of the Russian mafia premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this week. During the making of the film, Russian journalist Alex Litvinenko was poisoned to death. A building near Cronenberg and actor Viggo Mortensen's residence at the time was swarmed by British forensic police, who found traces of polonium-210, the substance that killed Litvinenko. "Rather than scaring us, it energized us," Cronenberg told broadcaster CTV. "We felt we are really are on to something that has got a lot of profundity involved." In the somber film, there are no scenes of London pubs, Big Ben or Hyde Park. Rather, Cronenberg aims his camera at the gritty streets of the city, home to new immigrants, crime clans and lost souls. He "shows you a London that you don't see in movies, even crime movies," commented Viggo Mortensen, who plays the mysterious Nikolai, the driver for a Russian restaurateur (Armin Mueller-Stahl) who has deep ties to the mafia. The film also stars Naomi Watts. Mortensen also starred in Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" (2005), but is maybe best known for his role as Aragorn in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. "I certainly tried to make the movie as depressing as possible," Cronenberg told reporters at the Toronto film festival. "I thought it was too hopeful sometimes." He defended a controversial and violent bath scene, telling CTV: "My understanding of violence is that it's totally physical." "It's all about the human body -- the destruction of the human body. So, given those two things, this was a necessary scene and necessary to be shown in the way that I do," Cronenberg said. His previous films include "Videodrome" (1983), "Dead Ringers" (1984), "Naked Lunch" (1991) and "Crash" (1996), which won a special jury prize at Cannes, and "Chacun son cinema," which is also screening at the film festival. "Eastern Promises" is expected to be released in North America in the coming weeks, then in Europe and Russia.
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