2012 film
Cosmopolis
is a 2012
drama film
written, produced, and directed by
David Cronenberg
. It stars
Robert Pattinson
,
Paul Giamatti
,
Samantha Morton
,
Sarah Gadon
,
Mathieu Amalric
,
Juliette Binoche
,
Jay Baruchel
and
Kevin Durand
. It is based on
Don DeLillo
's
2003 novel
.
On 25 May 2012, the film premiered in competition for the
Palme d'Or
at the
2012 Cannes Film Festival
.
[8]
The film was released in Canada on 8 June 2012,
[9]
and began a
limited release
in the United States on 17 August 2012 by
eOne Films
.
[10]
It is Cronenberg's first script since
eXistenZ
in 1999. It received polarizing reviews on both
Rotten Tomatoes
and
Metacritic
and
performed poorly at the box office.
Plot
[
edit
]
Twenty-eight-year-old billionaire and currency speculator Eric Packer rides slowly across
Manhattan
amid traffic jams, in his state-of-the-art luxury
stretch limousine
office, to his preferred barber. Various visitors discuss the meaning of life and inconsequential trivia. The traffic jams are caused by a visit of the
President of the United States
and the funeral of Eric's favorite musician, a
rap artist
whose music he plays in one of his two private elevators. Despite devastating currency speculation losses over the course of the day, Packer fantasizes about buying the
Rothko Chapel
.
He meets his wife, Elise, in her taxi, for coffee, in a bookstore, as well as outside a theater. She declines sex with him. Packer has sex with two other women. When a day of poor trading destroys a large part of his wealth, his wife takes this as a reason to dissolve their union.
Anti-capitalist activists demonstrate on the street. They wave rats and declare, "A spectre is haunting the world: the spectre of capitalism". They spray-paint Packer's limo and later subject him to a
pieing
. Packer learns that an assassin has targeted him but seems uninterested in who the person might be.
In Eric's car, his doctor performs his daily medical checkup. Eric worries about the doctor's finding that he has an asymmetrical
prostate
. As the currency speculation wipes out most of his fortune, Eric's world begins to disintegrate. Eventually he kills his bodyguard. At the destination, the barber, who knew his father, cuts Eric's hair on one side. The barber and limo driver discuss their respective careers driving cabs. The barber gives Eric his gun because he threw away the bodyguard's.
Eric follows a path of further self-destruction, visiting his potential murderer, former employee Richard Sheets, a.k.a. Benno Levin. Eric seems ready to commit suicide, but instead deliberately shoots himself in the hand. Sheets, who feels adrift in the capitalist system, explains that Eric's mistake in speculating was looking for perfect symmetry and patterns in the currency market: he should have looked for the lopsided?his body with its asymmetrical prostate was telling him this. As Sheets points the gun to Eric's head, Eric seems to have overcome his fear of death as he waits for Sheets to pull the trigger. Eric's fate is left unknown.
Cast
[
edit
]
- Robert Pattinson
as Eric Packer
- Sarah Gadon
as Elise Packer (nee Shifrin), Eric's wife
- Paul Giamatti
as Benno Levin
- Kevin Durand
as Torval, Eric's Chief of Security
- Abdul Ayoola
as Ibrahim Hamadou, Eric's driver
- Juliette Binoche
as Didi Fancher, Eric's art consultant, with whom Eric has an affair
- Emily Hampshire
as Jane Melman, Eric's Chief of Finance
- Bob Bainborough
as Dr. Ingram, Eric's physician
- Samantha Morton
as Vija Kinsky, Eric's Chief of Theory
- Zeljko Kecojevic
as Danko, Eric's veteran bodyguard
- Jay Baruchel
as Shiner, Eric's Head of Technology and Cyber Security and startup partner
- Philip Nozuka
as Michael Chin, Eric's young Systems Analyst
- Mathieu Amalric
as Andre Petrescu aka The Pastry Assassin
- Patricia McKenzie
as Kendra Hays, Eric's new bodyguard, with whom Eric has an affair
- K'naan
as Brutha Fez, a rap artist who is one of Eric's favorite musicians
Production
[
edit
]
News about a film adaptation of
Cosmopolis
first emerged on 10 February 2009.
Screen Daily
called it
Paulo Branco
's "most ambitious project to date" and estimated the budget at $10m?12 million.
[11]
On 26 July 2009,
David Cronenberg
was announced as the director.
[
relevant?
]
The film was scheduled to begin filming in 2010, produced by Branco's production house Alfama Films and Cronenberg's Toronto Antenna Ltd.
[12]
Branco said Cronenberg had written the screenplay and had moved on to casting in September 2009.
[13]
On 13 January 2010, Cronenberg said he was still committed to the film but had not started production.
[14]
Principal photography
took place in
Toronto
and was completed in July 2011.
Colin Farrell
was initially cast in the main role but left due to scheduling difficulties with
Total Recall
.
[15]
He was later replaced by Pattinson.
Marion Cotillard
was involved in the project but also left because of scheduling conflicts.
[16]
Music
[
edit
]
The film's musical score is composed by Cronenberg's norm composer
Howard Shore
. He associated with the Canadian
indie rock
band
Metric
for the second time after their collaboration on a song for
Twilight Saga: Eclipse
soundtrack
. Metric composed three songs for the film, along with Somali-Canadian rapper
K'naan
performing one song.
[17]
The album was released on 4 June 2012.
[18]
Reception
[
edit
]
Rotten Tomatoes
reports that 67% of 189 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.10/10. The consensus says, "Though some may find it cold and didactic,
Cosmopolis
benefits from David Cronenberg's precise direction, resulting in a psychologically complex adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel."
[19]
Metacritic
assigned the film a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
[20]
Justin Chang of
Variety
wrote: "An eerily precise match of filmmaker and material,
Cosmopolis
probes the soullessness of the 1% with the cinematic equivalent of latex gloves. ... Pattinson's excellent performance reps an indispensable asset."
[21]
Robbie Collin
of
The Telegraph
gave the film four stars out of five, stating, "It's a smart inversion of Cronenberg's 1999 film
eXistenZ
: rather than being umbilically connected to a virtual world, Packer is hermetically sealed off from the real one. At its heart is a sensational central performance from Robert Pattinson as Packer. Pattinson plays him like a human caldera; stony on the surface, with volcanic chambers of nervous energy and self-loathing churning deep below."
[22]
Ross Miller of
Thoughts On Film
also gave the film four out of five stars stating that, "If, like me, you're in-tune with the tone, style and direction of the film then it provides for a fascinating and intellectually nourishing experience."
[23]
Owen Gleiberman
of
Entertainment Weekly
stated, "
Cosmopolis
includes its own version of the
Occupy
hordes: scruffy, vengeful protesters who run around the streets, and into restaurants, brandishing the bodies of dead rats. ... Pattinson, pale and predatory even without his pasty-white vampire makeup, delivers his frigid pensees with rhythmic confidence."
[24]
A very positive review came from
The London Film Review
, which said "The fact is, Cronenberg made a movie for YOU. The 99%. A movie that reflects, comments on[,] satirizes and parodies our time."
[25]
However,
Todd McCarthy
of
The Hollywood Reporter
criticized the film, writing, "Lifeless, stagey and lacking a palpable subversive pulse despite the ready opportunities offered by the material, this stillborn adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel initially will attract some Robert Pattinson fans but will be widely met with audience indifference."
[26]
Cahiers du Cinema
named it the year's second-best title, while
Sight & Sound
listed it as the eighth-best film of 2012.
[27]
[28]
Keith Uhlich of
Time Out New York
named
Cosmopolis
the tenth-best film of 2012.
[29]
Film critic
Amy Taubin
named
Cosmopolis
one of her ten favorite films of all time when she participated in the
2012
Sight & Sound
critics' poll
.
[30]
Accolades
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"
Cosmopolis
"
.
Lumiere
. Retrieved
18 July
2023
.
- ^
Alex Hudson (15 May 2012).
"Metric and K'naan's Contributions to David Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis' Soundtrack Revealed"
.
Exclaim.ca
. Ian Danzig
. Retrieved
9 September
2012
.
- ^
Cosmopolis by Howard Shore Metric Benno
, Sound track geek, May 2012, archived from
the original
(
JPEG
)
on 28 December 2013
, retrieved
3 June
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"
Cosmopolis
"
.
Library and Archives Canada
. 25 November 2016
. Retrieved
18 July
2023
.
- ^
"
COSMOPOLIS
(15)"
.
British Board of Film Classification
. 11 May 2012
. Retrieved
25 May
2013
.
- ^
"
Cosmopolis
(2012)"
. Movieinsider. June 2012
. Retrieved
2 January
2013
.
- ^
"
Cosmopolis
(2012)"
. Box Office Mojo
. Retrieved
31 October
2012
.
- ^
"2012 Official Selection"
.
Cannes
. Retrieved
19 April
2012
.
- ^
Wilner, Norman (7?14 June 2012).
"
Cosmopolis
"
.
Now
. Vol. 31, no. 41.
Toronto
. Archived from
the original
on 23 November 2012
. Retrieved
26 July
2012
.
- ^
Adam Chitwood (7 June 2012).
"Cosmopolis, Playing The Field and The Words Release Dates"
. Collider.com. Archived from
the original
on 22 February 2014
. Retrieved
7 June
2012
.
- ^
Macnab, Geoffrey,
Paolo Branco plots Cosmopolis
, Screen Daily
.
- ^
"Director David Cronenberg takes on 'Cosmopolis'
"
.
News
. Canada: Yahoo!. 26 July 2009. Archived from
the original
on 30 July 2009.
- ^
Macnab, Geoffrey,
Lawrence 'Larry' Clark to direct trouble teen drama: wild child
, Screen Daily
.
- ^
Ahearn, Victoria (13 January 2010).
"David Cronenberg wants Keira Knightley for Freud-Jung drama 'The Talking Cure'
"
.
The Canadian Press
. 680 News
. Retrieved
5 July
2012
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
Hubschman, Daniel (6 January 2011).
"Robert Pattinson Replaces Colin Farrell In Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis'"
.
Hollywood.com
. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
- ^
Ward, Kate (20 January 2011).
"Marion Cotillard out of David Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis'
"
.
Entertainment Weekly
. Retrieved
26 October
2019
.
- ^
"Cosmopolis"
. Retrieved
19 November
2013
.
- ^
"Cosmopolis [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
19 November
2013
.
- ^
Cosmopolis (2012)
,
Rotten Tomatoes
, retrieved
3 May
2020
.
- ^
"Cosmopolis"
.
Metacritic
.
- ^
Chang, Justin (25 May 2012),
"Cosmopolis"
(review)
,
Variety
, retrieved
29 May
2012
.
- ^
Collin, Robbie (26 May 2012),
"Cannes 2012: Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis"
(review)
,
The Telegraph
, London
, retrieved
29 May
2012
.
- ^
Miller, Ross (14 June 2012),
Cosmopolis movie
(review)
, Thoughts on Film
, retrieved
26 August
2012
.
- ^
Gleiberman, Owen (25 May 2012),
"Cannes: Robert Pattinson plays a lethal finance bad boy in David Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis.' Plus, a Palme d'Or conspiracy theory"
,
Entertainment Weekly
, retrieved
26 October
2019
.
- ^
"Re-review: Cosmopolis"
. Archived from
the original
on 28 August 2012
. Retrieved
26 September
2014
.
- ^
McCarthy, Todd (25 May 2012),
"Cosmopolis, Robert Pattinson, Cannes"
(review)
,
The Hollywood Reporter
, retrieved
29 May
2012
.
- ^
"Top Ten 2012, Decembre 2012 n°684"
.
Cahiers du cinema
.
- ^
"
'The Master' named 2012's best in Sight & Sound critics' poll"
. Retrieved
26 September
2014
.
- ^
Uhlich, Keith (13 December 2012).
"Keith Uhlich's Ten Best Movies of 2012"
.
Time Out New York
.
Archived
from the original on 19 December 2012
. Retrieved
17 June
2020
.
- ^
"Amy Taubin"
.
The British Film Institute
. Archived from
the original
on 30 June 2016
. Retrieved
19 June
2020
.
- ^
Shoard, Catherine (27 May 2012).
"Cannes 2012: Michael Haneke wins second Palme d'Or for Amour"
.
The Guardian
. London
. Retrieved
22 May
2013
.
- ^
"Seven SOCAN members win in 1st Canadian Screen Awards"
. Archived from
the original
on 23 May 2013
. Retrieved
19 November
2013
.
- ^
"Canadian Screen Awards winners: Rebelle cleans up movie awards, Flashpoint tops in TV drama"
.
The Star
. Toronto. 3 March 2013
. Retrieved
19 November
2013
.
- ^
"2012 Awards (16th Annual)"
. 24 December 2012
. Retrieved
22 May
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"2013 VFCC Nominees Announced!"
. 28 December 2012
. Retrieved
22 May
2013
.
- ^
"
'Zero Dark Thirty' wins big with Vancouver critics"
. Retrieved
22 May
2013
.
- ^
"2013 Saturn Award Nominees"
. Archived from
the original
on 10 May 2013
. Retrieved
22 May
2013
.
External links
[
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]
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