Naked Lunch (1991)

Director:

David Cronenberg

Writers:

William S. Burroughs (novel)
David Cronenberg (written by)

Release Date:

11 March 1992 (France)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Tagline:

David Cronenberg and William S. Burroughs invite you to lunch.

Plot:

After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.

Plot Keywords:

Bug | Exterminator | Writing | Writer | Cockroach

Awards:

13 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Peter Weller	...	Bill Lee
Judy Davis	...	Joan Frost / Joan Lee
Ian Holm	...	Tom Frost
Julian Sands	...	Yves Cloquet
Roy Scheider	...	Dr. Benway
Monique Mercure	...	Fadela
Nicholas Campbell	...	Hank
Michael Zelniker	...	Martin
Robert A. Silverman	...	Hans
Joseph Scoren	...	Kiki (as Joseph Scorsiani)
Peter Boretski	...	Creature Voices / Exterminator #2
Yuval Daniel	...	Hafid
John Friesen	...	Hauser
Sean McCann	...	O'Brien
Howard Jerome	...	A.J. Cohen

Also Known As:

David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch (USA) (trailer title)
Hadaka no lunch (Japan)
Le festin nu (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for heavy drug content, bizarre eroticism, and language.

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

Canada | UK | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

New Zealand:R13 | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | Brazil:16 | Italy:VM18 | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 | UK:18 | USA:R | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Film Trustees Ltd.

Trivia:

The Portland, Oregon-based video store Movie Madness purchased one of the Mugwump bodies, and has it displayed, hanging from the ceiling.

Quotes:

[Joan Lee is explaining the joys of injecting oneself with insecticide]
Bill Lee: What do you mean, "it's a literary high"?
Joan Lee: It's a Kafka high. You feel like a bug.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sammy the Screenplay (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

Vaya Con Dios

Filming the Unfilmable... why not?

This film of 'Naked Lunch' is the first of Cronenberg's Trilogy

of filming three of the most challenging literary works of the

20th Century, and arguably the most difficult... as anyone who's

read Burroughs' 1959 novel can attest, in conventional terms it

is a book without a cohesive plot or even structure, largely

assembled from the paranoid rambling letters of the world's most

notorious drug addict. Cronenberg's approach to the material is

ingenious in that he attempts to fictionalize the circumstances

under which the book was written rather than trying to weave a

storyline from the mass of twisted plot threads which comprise

the text. The cast is impeccable, particularly Peter Weller and Judy Davis

as the leads, Ian holm as a psuedo-Paul Bowles, and Cronenberg

regulars Robert A. Silverman as Hans and Nicholas Campbell as

Kerouac-ish Hank. Julian Sands and Roy Scheider don't quite

infuse their roles with the ridiculousness of their counterparts

from the novel, but their cameos are brief and don't detract

from the overall effect. The overall effect being a hypnotic, schizophrenic blend of

biography and folklore, equal parts Cronenberg and Burroughs, a

self-tortured portrait of the creative process. To the

director's credit, he relies on the script (his own) and the

performances over visual trickery or stock travelogue scenery to

set the mood and propel the action. The astonishing soundtrack,

by the superb Howard Shore, underscores the drug-filled malaise

of this Tangerine dream perfectly... it lacks any musical sense

of time and therefore hangs over the proceedings like a

mysterious haze. Haunting, powerful cinema... but most

definitely not for everyone. Wise up the marks before laying

this on them.