Cosmopolis

Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) drives through Manhattan. His goal: a new haircut. But the city is on the move: The president has arrived. Violent opponents of globalization are demonstrating. And a rapper is being buried to the great sympathy of his fans. While life inside the limousine coagulates into a television picture, Packer has sex with his art dealer (Juliette Binoche), discusses cyber capital with his chief theorist (Samantha Morton) or enjoys his risky dealings with the Japanese yen. Legendary director David Cronenberg (“The Fly”, “Naked Lunch”, “Maps to the Stars”) was invited to the Cannes Film Festival with COSMOPOLIS. It was a "congenial adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel, whose literary imagery is transferred into an atmospherically aseptic chamber play. The spaceship-like limousine becomes the central metaphor for the decline of the ‘i-economy’. A coolly reflective, yet very sensual parable about an egotistical Midas figure who has lost himself in his virtual world. On a meta-level, the rituals of ‘capitalism as religion’, borne by the spirit of self-destruction, are dissected." (Dictionary of International Film) "Cronenberg's direction in COSMOPOLIS is flawless both inside and outside the limousine. The difficulties of shooting in such a confined space, which seems to expand and contract depending on the scene (as if the car were breathing), are obvious, but are rendered invisible by his masterful cinematography. [...] The limo is an extension of Eric: it is both car and body armor, but also provides him with literal windows into a world that comes to life wildly and menacingly throughout the day with anarchist protests, a vision of self-destruction, and revolutionary unrest. From the inside, these images surround Eric like a wraparound movie screen and can seem as artificial as the rear projection in an old Hollywood movie. Each time Eric steps outside, however, these screens disappear and he is left in an increasing frenzy of life and death that confirms his reality with brutal finality." (Manohla Dargis, in: The New York Times)