David Cronenberg is one of my favourite directors exploring the
pitfalls of the human psyche against the background of scientific progress.
His recent most movies Cosmopolis and A Dangerous Method showed
the darker sides of Robert Pattinson and Keira Knightly, however, he is more
famous for his 70/80 horror movies like Videodrome, The Fly, Shivers and Rabid.
I recently saw his debut
from 1969. Stereo documents an experiment in which a group of young volunteers
who are being endowed with telepathic abilities are encouraged to develop through sexual
exploration. It is hoped that telepathic groups, bonded in polymorphous sexual
relationships, will form a socially stabilising replacement for the
"obsolescent family unit".
Sounds like hippies? I wouldn‘t bet on it.
The movie is experimental and very strict in a formal sense:
there is no live sound, but a voice-over spoken by different narrators who
sound as if they are taking turns reading from the same medical journal. It is brilliantly shot in black and white and sustains a claustrophobic
mood over the whole 65 minutes.
The link is a 10 minute fan edit adding some music from This
Mortal Coil and Raison D’Etre. But I also recommend to watch the whole movie if
you have a chance.
