Crimes of the Future


Crimes of the Future is a 1970 Canadian science fiction film written, shot, edited, and directed by David Cronenberg.
Like Cronenberg's previous feature, Stereo, Crimes was shot silent with a commentary added afterwards. The commentary is spoken by the character Adrian Tripod. The film is set in 1997.

Summary

Crimes of the Future details the wanderings of Adrian Tripod, sometime director of a dermatological clinic called the House of Skin, who is searching for his mentor, the mad dermatologist Antoine Rouge. Rouge has disappeared following a catastrophic plague resulting from cosmetic products, which has killed the entire population of sexually mature women.
Tripod joins a succession of organisations, including Metaphysical Import-Export and the Oceanic Podiatry Group, and meets various individuals and groups of men who are trying to adjust themselves to a defeminized world. One man parodies childbirth by continually growing new organs which are removed from his body. Eventually Tripod comes upon a group of paedophiles that is holding a 5-year-old girl, and they urge him to mate with her. Tripod senses the presence of Rouge in the girl.

Cast

, in his 1988 book Nightmare Movies, has described Crimes of the Future as being "more fun to read about in synopsis than to watch", and as proving, along with Stereo, that "it's possible to be boring and interesting at the same time".
The film has a score of 60% from five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.8/10.

Home video

The film has been included as a special feature in multiple releases of other Cronenberg films, including in standard definition on Blue Underground's Blu-ray release of Fast Company, in high definition on Criterion release of The Brood and also in high definition on a bonus disc in Arrow Video's UK Blu-ray release of Videodrome, The bonus disc from Videodrome was later released on its own as David Cronenberg's Early Works.