"My next movie is going to have lots of violence and exploding bodies," David Cronenberg said at a press conference in Cannes in 2002, when he competed with the dark, restrained drama SPIDER.

    He kept his promise. In 2005, Cronenberg returned to Cannes with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. The movie's title more than hints at violence - and the title pretty much says it all. Cronenberg is however careful to emphasize that the press shouldn't write anything about what happens during the movie's first fifteen minutes, so the surprises won't be ruined for the audience.

    Viggo Mortensen plays Tom Stall, a nice guy working in a café in a small town where he lives with his wife and two children. One day, two psychopaths enter the café with the intent of killing the staff. Stall manages to disarm the madmen - and kills them. This makes Stall a hero and he's all over the news. A couple of days later, two other men arrive to the café and mistake Tom Stall for somebody else.

    David Cronenberg doesn't want us to write more than this - but what follows is a story featuring loads of brutal violence, broken bones, blood, entrails and close-ups of open wounds.

    "Even though A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE was filmed in Toronto, it's a very American tale," David Cronenberg says. "It's about the typical Wild West myth. But all countries have their own violent history, the movie could take place in any country."

    Cronenberg has made a few movies before featuring action scenes involving fist fights and guns, but this time it feels more like a "real" action movie when Viggo Mortensen kills people. The plentyful action scenes are well staged and well choreographed.

    "Action is not a new, undiscovered area to me," he says, "but this movie contains a few new things, and the tone of it is new.

    The reactions after the press screening were mixed. When the end credits began rolling, both applauds and booings were heard, but you also noticed lots of members of the audience screaming - with laughter, especially during the most violent scenes.

    "I'm not surprised people laughed," David Cronenberg comments. "There's a dark humor in certain scenes, and I really think it's possible to be funny and serious at the same time. And then, most people like scary, evil things as entertainment, it's a paradox. Another possible reason for the laughs may be that laughter defends the audience against shocking scenes.

    Besides violence, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE contains quite a lot nudity and sex, and in one scene, violence and sex are combined. 

    "Sex and violence have always worked well together," David Cronenberg laughs. "It's like bacon and egg! There's always a little tendency of violence in sexuality, and theres sex in violence. Sex and violence always work well togeher om film, and sex and violence is always dramatic. When I make movies like this one, I discover new details about myself..."

    David Cronenberg makes dark, violent and shocking movies, but in reality, he's a very funny guy - a real entertainer cracking jokes the whole time. He also claims he's a lazy director who doesn't tell the actors what to do.

    A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is based on a graphic novel by Brits Vince Locke and John Wagner; the latter belongs to the men who created the extremely popular, futuristic action comic Judge Dredd, but screenwriter Josh Olson rewrote quite a lot and added more, well, character to the characters. Cronenberg joined the project rather late and got the gig thanks to the enthusiastic Olson.

    "The first screenplay was a mess," Cronenberg says, "but I decided to make the movie, and make it as good as possible."

    A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is a dark drama featuring action scenes, rather than an action film. So, what does Conenberg want with his movie?

    "I want to discuss the nature of violence and its consequences, how people are affected by violent occurences." 

(This interview was conducted in May 2005)