Movies - Naked Lunch

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	Movies - Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch is a 1991 film by the Canadian director David Cronenberg.

Adaptation

Based on the fiction and autobiographical accounts of William S. Burroughs (including, but by no means limited to, Naked Lunch itself), the plot follows a writer, William Lee (played by Peter Weller), who travels to Interzone. The film also stars Ian Holm, Judy Davis and Roy Scheider.

Interzone is from Burroughs' novel, a North-African B-Movie fantasy and a drug-induced dreamworld. The name is a reference to the "International Zone" created for Tangier after 1923, and still in effect in the 1940s and 1950s when Burroughs and other artists were living there.

The story interweaves comic and fantastic elements from Burroughs' fiction with elements from his life to make a narrative which captures the spirit of the novel.

The film went on to garner seven Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director.

Plot

William Lee (a pen name of Burroughs) is an drug addicted exterminator who finds that his bug powder is being stolen by his wife for recreational purposes. The police arrest Lee, at which point he begins to hallucinate due to the bug powder exposure. Lee believes he is a secret agent, and a giant bug (Lee's controller) gives him the mission of killing his wife, Joan Lee. Lee then accidentally kills his wife after finding her sleeping with Hank, one of his two writer friends (who are based on Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac).

After his wife's death, Lee flees to Interzone and spends his time writing reports on his mission, that end up being the book 'Naked Lunch'. While in Interzone, the typewriters Lee uses are themselves living creatures, usually giving Lee advice on his mission. Clark Nova, Lee's typewriter, tells Lee to find Doctor Benway, by means of seducing Joan Frost who is a double of his dead wife, Joan Lee.

After finding out that Doctor Benway is the head of a drug manufacturing ring, producing "the black meat", Lee completes his report and flees Interzone to Annexia with Joan Frost. Upon meeting the Annexian border patrol, to prove that he his a writer as he claims, he shoots Joan Frost in the head, in the same manner that he shot his late wife, Joan Lee. After seeing this, the border patrol welcomes Lee to Annexia.

Awards

Genie Awards: 1992 Best Motion Picture, Best Director - David Cronenberg, Best Supporting Actress - Monique Mercure, Best Art Direction - Carol Spier, Best Cinematography - Peter Suschitzky, Best Overall Sound - Peter Maxwell, Brian Day, Don White, David Appleby, Best Sound Editing.

Trivia

In an episode of The Simpsons, Bart, Milhouse and Nelson sneak into a theater showing the film. They walk out afterwards looking very confused, and Nelson remarks, "I can think of at least two things wrong with that title."
Although the film takes great liberties with Burroughs' work, one segment, in which Lee recounts the story of "The Talking Asshole" is presented verbatim from the novel.
The character Tom Frost (Ian Holm)'s typewriter is a "Martinelli", apparently named after co-producer Gabriella Martinelli. When he lends the machine to Lee, Frost says of the typewriter, "Her inventiveness will surprise you."

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