Splice

Disturbante. E non è un termine che uso spesso, associato ad un film.
Splice sembra aver diviso molto il (poco) pubblico che - specie in America - pare non averlo digerito molto.

Peccato, perché è uno dei rari esempi recenti di fantascienza fatta come si deve: con uno spunto interessante e capace di stupire. E con le palle, cosa davvero non da tutti, di questi tempi in cui ci si appiattisce regolarmente sul minimo sindacale, per non pestare i piedi a nessuno.

Brillante coppia di genetisti mette a punto un paio di singolari creature capaci di sintetizzare tutta una serie di molecole utili all'industria farmaceutica. Un inopportuno cambiamento manda però a gambe all'aria la presentazione agli azionisti ed i due cadono in disgrazia.
Riusciranno però a portare avanti un loro personalissimo piano, creando qualcosa di davvero nuovo che contiene in sé anche geni umani.
Come prevedibile si affezioneranno alla creatura, che cresce e cambia in fretta, trascinando i due scienziati (che già non erano sanissimi di loro, se vogliamo ) in un incubo senza fine.

Come detto: disturbante. La piega che ad un certo punto prende il film rasenta il sordido, e non faccio fatica a credere che parecchi abbiano storto il nasino delicato.
VM 14 meritatissimo, per la cronaca.

Molto ben diretto (giù il cappello a Vincenzo Natali), creativo ed inventivo alla David Cronenberg e con un make-up intrigante, il film soffre però anche di una serie di indubbi difetti: partenza piuttosto lenta, qualche dialogo rivedibile, un po' di ingenuità assortite e - soprattutto prove attoriali scadenti.
Così-così Sarah Polley e continuo a pensare malissimo di Adrien Brody; mooolto brava invece Delphine Chanéac nel ruolo della creatura adulta.

Detto ciò, avercene di film del genere.

Voto: 9. NB: se poi vi fa cacare, non fatevela con me.
Tags: fantascienza, horror, drammatico, thriller, Vincenzo Natali, creatura, genetica, genetisti, scienziati, coppia, gene, mutazione, multinazionale, affetto, granaio, fuga, omicidio, veleno, ali, anfibio, morte, gatto, violenza, stupro, sesso, esperimento, madre, fratello, nudo, chimera, etica, gravidanza, sangue.

Chanéac, Delphine

---

Data di nascita: 14 November 1978

Ultimi lavori:

• Mens Insana (2011) .... Eva Von Nagel (rumored) [attrice]
• L'amour vache (2010) (TV) .... Lili [attrice]
• The Big Black (2010) .... Eve [attrice]
• Splice (2009) .... Dren [attrice]
• Verso (2009) .... Anja Lagrange [attrice]
• "Madame Hollywood" (2007) .... Sybille [attrice]
• Trenhotel (2007) (TV) .... Chloé [attrice]
• Incontrôlable (2006) .... Laura [attrice]
• "Laura, le compte à rebours a commencé" (2006) (mini) .... Laura [attrice]
• The Pink Panther (2006) .... Ticket Checker (as Délphine Chaneac) [attrice]

---

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

Cronenberg, David

---

Nome di battesimo: Cronenberg, David Paul
Data di nascita: 15 March 1943
Altezza: 5' 9" (1.75 m)
Coniuge: Carolyn Zeifman::(1979 - present) 2 children, Margaret Hindson::(1970 - 1977) (divorced) 1 child

Ultimi lavori:

• A Dangerous Method (2011) .... [regista]
• London Fields (2010) .... (writer) [scrittore]
• The Plan (2008/I) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
• Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007) .... (segment "At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World") [regista]
• Eastern Promises (2007) .... [regista]
• A History of Violence (2005) .... [regista]
• Spider (2002) .... (producer) [produttore]
• Jason X (2001) .... Dr. Wimmer [attore]
• Short6 (2001) .... (writer) (segment "Camera") [scrittore]
• The Judge (2001) (TV) .... Det. Stobel [attore]

Biografia:
David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father was a journalist, and his mother was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early age (he wrote and published eerie short stories, thus following his father's path) and for music (playing classical guitar until he was 12), Cronenberg graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Literature after switching from the science department. He reached the cult status of horror-meister with the gore-filled, modern-vampire variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship in independent filmmaking and in Canadian television programs. Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981) after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood (1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a prophetic critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal filmmaking identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of famous American horror movie. With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a mere genre movie-maker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are prominent in the provocative Crash (1996) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ (1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. In the last two filmic projects Spider (2002) and A History of Violence (2005), Cronenberg avoids expressing his teratologic and oniric expressionism in favour of a more psycological exploration of human contradictions and idiosyncrasies.

Trivia random: Deferred his own salary to make Spider (2002).
Citazione random: I have no rules. For me, it's a full, full experience to make a movie. It takes a lot of time, and I want there to be a lot of stuff in it. You're looking for every shot in the movie to have resonance and want it to be something you can see a second time, and then I'd like it to be something you can see 10 years later, and it becomes a different movie, because you're a different person. So that means I want it to be deep, not in a pretentious way, but I guess I can say I am pretentious in that I pretend. I have aspirations that the movie should trigger off a lot of complex responses.

---

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

Natali, Vincenzo

---

Data di nascita: 6 January 1969

Ultimi lavori:

• Splice (2009) .... (screenplay) (story) [scrittore]
• Rip Cage (2007) .... Marcus Fiehls [attore]
• Paris, je t'aime (2006) .... (segment "Quartier de la Madeleine") [scrittore]
• Getting Gilliam (2005) .... [regista]
• Tideland (2005) .... (director: making of documentary 'Dreamland') [misc]
• Nothing (2003) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
• Cypher (2002) .... [regista]
• Made in Canada, Volume 1: Best of the CFC (2002) (V) .... [regista]
• Cube (1997) .... (written by) [scrittore]
• Elevated (1997) .... (writer) [scrittore]

Trivia random: The Twilight Zone Episode: "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" was an inspiration for his film "Cube".

---

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

Brody, Adrien

---

Data di nascita: 14 April 1973
Altezza: 6' 1" (1.85 m)

Ultimi lavori:

• Detachment (2011) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
• Midnight in Paris (2011) .... [attore]
• Sweet Baby Jesus (2011) .... Joe (rumored) [attore]
• Waco (2011) .... Steve Schneider [attore]
• High School (2010) .... Psycho Ed [attore]
• Predators (2010) .... Royce [attore]
• The Experiment (2010/I) .... Travis [attore]
• Wrecked (2010) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) .... Rickity the Field Mouse (voice) [attore]
• Giallo (2009) .... (producer) [produttore]

Biografia:
The son of Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy and retired history professor Elliot Brody, Adrien Brody grew up an only child in the Woodhaven section of Queens, New York, where he accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice. He credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the camera. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York. Despite a strong performance in The Thin Red Line (1998), time constraints forced the director to edit out much of Adrien's part. In spite of his later work with Spike Lee and Barry Levinson, he never became the star many expected he would become until Roman Polanski called on him to play a celebrated Jewish pianist in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He pulled off a brilliant performance in The Pianist (2002), drawing on the heritage and rare dialect of his Polish grandmother, as well as his father, who lost family members during the Holocaust, and his mother, who fled Communist Hungary as a child during the 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union.

Trivia random: Was dressed by Zegna for the Academy Awards.
Citazione random: [On playing hero Jack Driscoll in Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005)] I've always wanted to do something like King Kong. It's a phenomenal role that any actor would kill for. I've been looking for this kind of iconic leading man guy for years, but they are hard to find.
Salario massimo: $2,750,000, per The Village (2004)

---

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

Polley, Sarah (I)

---

Data di nascita: 8 January 1979
Altezza: 5' 2" (1.57 m)
Coniuge: David Wharnsby::(10 September 2003 - present)

Ultimi lavori:

• Take This Waltz (2011) .... (producer) [produttore]
• Trigger (2010/II) .... Hillary [attrice]
• Mr. Nobody (2009) .... Elise [attrice]
• Splice (2009) .... Elsa Kast [attrice]
• Away from Her (2006) .... (written by) [scrittore]
• Beowulf & Grendel (2005) .... Selma [attrice]
• Don't Come Knocking (2005) .... Sky [attrice]
• The Secret Life of Words (2005) .... Hanna [attrice]
• Dawn of the Dead (2004) .... Ana [attrice]
• Siblings (2004) .... Tabby [attrice]

Biografia:
Sarah Polley is an actress and director renowned in her native Canada for her political activism. Blessed with an extremely expressive face that enables directors to minimize dialog due to her uncanny ability to suggest a character's thoughts, Polley has become a favorite of critics for her sensitive portraits of wounded and conflicted young women in independent films. She was born into a show business family: her father, Michael Polley, appeared with her in the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and on the television series "Road to Avonlea" (1989); and her mother, Diane Polley, was an actress and casting director. It was her mother's connections that launched Sarah, at her own insistence, on an acting career at the age of four, following in the footsteps of her older brother Mark Polley. A second brother, John Buchan, is a casting director and producer. Her career as a child actress shifted into high gear when she was cast as the Cockney waif Jody Turner in Lantern Hill (1990) (TV), for which she won a Gemini Award, the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy, in 1992. Produced by Kevin Sullivan, the film was based on the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables (1985) (TV). When Sullivan created a television series based on Montgomery's work, he cast Polley in the lead role of Sara Stanley in "Road to Avonlea" (1989). The series propelled Polley into the first rank of Canadian TV stars and made her independently wealthy by the age of 14. Her personal life was deeply affected by the death of her mother Diane from cancer shortly after her 11th birthday, a development that ironically paralleled the fictional life of her character Sara. Highly intelligent and politically progressive at a young age, Polley eventually rebelled against what she felt was the Americanization of the series after it was picked up by the Disney Channel for distribution in the US, eventually dropping out of the show. Though she does not blame her parents, she remains publicly disenchanted over the loss of her childhood and, in October 2003, said she is working on a script about a 12-year-old girl on a TV show. Polley, who picked up a second Gemini Award for her performance in the TV series "Straight Up" (1996), subsequently quit acting and high school to turn her attention to politics, positioning herself on the extreme left of Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party. The publicity ensuing from her losing some teeth after being slugged by an Ontario policeman during a protest against the Conservative provincial government, plus the stinging cynicism from some other activists unimpressed by her celebrity, led her to lower her political profile temporarily and return to acting in Atom Egoyan's film The Sweet Hereafter (1997). It was her appearance as Nicole, the teenage girl injured in a school bus accident who serves as the conscience of the small town rent by the tragedy, that first brought her to the attention of critics in the US. In Canada, the role was heralded by critics as her successful breakthrough to adult roles. It was her second film with Egoyan, who wrote the part with her in mind when he adapted the novel by Russell Banks, who, ironically, is American. Predictions of an Academy Award nomination and future stardom were part of the critical consensus, and she received her first Best Actress Genie nomination from Canada's Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and the Best Supporting Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics. It was the buzz created at the Sundance Festival, where her starring role in the film Guinevere (1999) was showcased, when the entertainment media crowned her the it-girl of 1999. Intensely private and extremely ambivalent about the personal cost of celebrity and the Hollywood ethos Fame is the Name of the Game, Polley could be seen as rebelling against the expectations of mainstream cinema when she embarked on a career path that took her out of the spotlight thrown by the harsh lights of the Hollywood hype/publicity machine after shooting the film Go (1999). She dropped out of Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), the US$60 million mega-hyped vehicle that was supposed to make her a mainstream star in the US, choosing to return to Canada to make the CDN$1.5 million The Law of Enclosures (2000) for Genie Award-winner John Greyson, a director she admires greatly. The film grossed poorly in Canada and was not released in the US, but it did garner Polley her second Genie nomination for Best Actress. While her replacement in Almost Famous (2000) went on to win an Oscar nomination and a career above the title in glossy Hollywood films, she took a wide variety of parts, large and small, in independent films, including significant roles in the ensemble pieces The Claim (2000) and The Weight of Water (2000); bit parts in eXistenZ (1999) and Love Come Down (2000); and the lead in No Such Thing (2001). Her choice of projects showed her to be a questing spirit more focused on learning the art of her craft than on stardom. She has said that her choice of film roles, eschewing mainstream Hollywood movies for chancier, non-commercial independent fare, was the result of an ethical decision on her part to make films with social importance. A less-observant viewer might think that the rebel Polley played in her political life that had previously manifested itself in her profession was now driving her to the verge of career suicide in terms of popularity, marketability, and choice of future roles. However, that interpretation does not recognize the extraordinary talent that will always keep her in demand by directors, if not casting agents, with an eye on the opening weekend box office. One must understand Polley's career progression in light of her attendance at the Canadian Film Centre's directors program and her production of short films, including Don't Think Twice (1999) and the highly praised I Shout Love (2001). Polley is a cinema artist. This woman wants to make, and will make films. Thus, we can understand her career choices as a desire to work with and understand the technique of some of the best directors in film, including David Cronenberg, Michael Winterbottom, and Hal Hartley. Polley is as renowned for her intelligence as for her remarkable talent. The problem of the intelligent person in the acting field is that the actor, as artist, in not ultimately in control of their medium, and it is artistic control that is the hallmark of the great artist. The controlling intelligence on a movie set is the director, and her attendance at the Canadian Film Centre has given her a new perspective on acting. The actor, she says, should not try to give a complete performance for the camera (that is, control the representation on film) but must remember that the function of the actor is to give the director as much coverage as possible as a film, as well as a performance, is made in the editing room. According to Polley, this realization, that the film actor exists to serve the director, has given her new enthusiasm for acting. Thus, her career, and her career choices, can be seen as a quest for knowledge about the art of cinema, a journey whose fruition we will see in her future feature work as both actor and director.

Trivia random: Her father, Michael Polley, said of his famously independent daughter in 1997, "She was at her best when she was out of kilter with society in some way."
Citazione random: I always think it's a bit of a joke when I get described as an activist. Really, for two or three months of my year I organise stuff, but I'm not as involved as I used to be.

---

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

Splice (2009)

---

Regista: Vincenzo Natali
Scrittore: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, Doug Taylor
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Valutazione: 6.4/10 (9122 voti)
Durata: 104 min
Paese: Canada, France, USA
Lingua: English, French

Cast:

• Adrien Brody .... Clive Nicoli
• Sarah Polley .... Elsa Kast
• Delphine Chanéac .... Dren
• Brandon McGibbon .... Gavin Nicoli
• Simona Maicanescu .... Joan Chorot
• David Hewlett .... William Barlow
• Abigail Chu .... Child Dren

Trama:
Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.

Trivia random: Delphine Chanéac, who plays the creature Dren, shaved her head for this film.
Citazione random: Elsa Kast: [crying] What do you want? What do you want?
Dren: Inside... you...

---

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.