The Cinema at the End of the World: dimensions of an antifuturistic discourse in David Cronenberg's filmography (1996-2022)

• Grant number: 25/07549-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Gabriel Ferreira Zacarias
• Grantee: João Pedro Nunes dos Reis
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Since the second half of the twentieth century, the perception of linear progress, characteristic of modernity, has given way to a feeling of hesitation, resulting in a loss of expectation for the future on the historical horizon. In this context, uncertainties associated with new technologies, changes in the dynamics of capitalism and the environmental degradation were the focus of different social diagnoses that reflect this unprecedented relationship with time, intensifying fear for the future over the decades. The analysis of David Cronenberg's cinema is proposed here by recognizing an antifuturistic discourse present in his filmography, which reflects the concerns of his own historical context. From the emphasis on Crash (1996), Cosmopolis (2012) and Crimes of the Future (2022), it is possible to see the affinity between the elements of this discourse and the director's recurring themes, such as the limits of the body, the human-machine connection, the grotesque and, mainly, dissident sexualities. Therefore, the potential occupied by Cronenberg's work in the dispute of a collective imaginary about the future is considered invaluable, enabling to identify where his specificities as a filmmaker position him in relation to the intellectual perspectives and cultural perceptions of his own conjuncture. (AU)