Technology and sexuality meet in a head-on collision in Crash—director David Cronenberg’s controversial adaptation of writer J.G. Ballard’s hugely transgressive 1973 novel starring James Spader and Holly Hunter.
Spader stars as James Ballard, a film producer whose deviant sexual desires are awakened by a near fatal automobile accident with Dr. Helen Remington (Hunter). Soon the pair, alongside Ballard’s wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger), are drawn into an underground world of car crash fetishism presided over by renegade scientist Vaughan (Elias Koteas). Danger, sex and death become entwined as eroticism and technology join together in a disturbing, deadly union.
Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for originality, daring and audacity, Crash remains an incredibly subversive and confrontational piece of cinema—Cronenberg himself describes it as “a dangerous film”—now refurbished in a stunning 4K restoration.
SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENTS
4K restoration of the uncut NC-17 version, supervised by director of photography Peter Suschitzky and approved by director David Cronenberg
High Definition Blu-rayTM (1080p) presentation
5.1 and 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary with film scholar Adrian Martin
Interviews with Suschitzky, executive producer Jeremy Thomas, composer Howard Shore and casting director Deirdre Bowen
2019 Q&A with Cronenberg and actor Viggo Mortensen at TIFF
1996 Q&A with Cronenberg and source novel writer J.G. Ballard at the National Film Theatre in London
Behind-the-scenes footage and contemporary press interviews
Architect of Pain: The Cronenberg Project—video essay by Caelum Vatnsdal on Cronenberg’s use of architecture and location
Crash! (1971, 18 mins)—short film originally broadcast as part of the BBC’s Review series, starring J.G. Ballard and loosely adapted from his 1970 novel The Atrocity Exhibition
Two short films inspired by Ballard and the novel Crash: Nightmare Angel (Zoe Beloff, 1986, 33 mins) and Always (crashing) (Simon Barker and Jason Wood, 2016, 14 mins)
Two Cronenberg short films: The Nest (2013, 10 mins) and At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World (2007, 4 mins)
Original Trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
