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The Fly tickets are now available to be purchased or sold online at Stubhub.com. Where does high art and low art meet? You’d best pose that question to David Cronenberg, the famed cult film director whose visions of insect and flesh-inspired horror have influenced movies for decades now. But while he’s made his name in the world of cinema, he’s branching out into an entirely new field. An opera adaptation of Cronenberg’s best known movie, The Fly, will premiere in September 2008 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Cronenberg directed the opera, and the music was composed by Howard Shore, who was also responsible for the film’s score (as well as many others he’s collaborated on with Cronenberg). There’s a good chance the opera crowd might not be familiar with the gory special effects Cronenberg’s fan base appreciates. For them, this series of articles will be helpful. Each article briefly examines one of the films from the director’s extensive canon. Cronenberg’s 1988 film Dead Ringers represented a major shift for him in terms of subtlety. While his previous films reveled in gory abandon, this cold, clinical drama of two identical twin gynecologists with complimentary personalities was much more subdued. There were still moments of "old Cronenberg"—in particular a scene in which one of the brother’s begins losing his head and creates bizarre instruments to operate on "mutant women"—but otherwise, the film is a quiet character study. And its brilliant one, at that. Jeremy Irons gives an impressive dual performance as the twin Mantle brothers with very distinct characteristics. Beverly is introverted, work-obsessed, and needy. Elliot is a showboat, able to seal deals, give impressive lectures and sweep women off their feet. It’s this last quality that Beverly finds so distasteful. With Elliot enjoying the spoils of his brother’s labor—he’s the one who accepts the awards and is the toast of parties while Bev sits at home and studies—Beverly begins to get jealous. He hesitantly tastes a bit of that world Elliot occupies when a woman steps between them. The complex love affair that develops leads to each brother trying to fill the role the other is tailor-made for, ultimately dissolving the tenuous dynamic that keeps them sane and functioning. While weird and bizarre, the characters the audience gets to really know the characters in Dead Ringers. Though his previous films did have fleshed out characters—no pun intended—they were often living situations so remote from the real world that it was hard to make an emotional connection. That isn’t to say people identify with twin intellectual gynecologists right off the bat, but the feelings the film explores are all very human and relatable. It reveals that tenderness that Cronenberg first exposed for the characters in The Brood. You feel a warmth and empathy for these two doctors, even when they’re shrill or unlikable, and certainly as you realize you’re watching their spiraling, tragic end. There’s love expressed through the camera for them; for how helpless they are when emotions enter their world; for the myopia they’re cerebral perspectives of the world afflict them with; ultimately, for their human frailty. Written by Andrew Good and sponsored by StubHub.com. StubHub sells sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and more to just about any event in the world. Don't miss this Cronenberg classic with The Fly tickets.
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