Dead Ringers, 1988, David Cronenberg (Foto: Attila Dory)

Peter Suschitzky | David Cronenberg

March 22 to April 6, 2017

British cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (*1941) has been the prime collaborator of David Cronenberg (*1943) for three decades now. Together, they created eleven feature films, all of which will be shown in this series. Peter Suschitzky will visit Vienna on this occasion.

The son of Viennese-born cameraman and photographer Wolf Suschitzky (Get Carter), who had emigrated from Vienna in the early 1930s, Peter was practically born into the trade: since the 1960s he worked with auteur filmmakers as different as Kevin Brownlow, Ken Russell, Peter Watkins and John Boorman, at the same time filming blockbuster spectacles such as the second Stars Wars film The Empire Strikes Back. But his encounter with Cronenberg led to a "vocational marriage," in Suschitzky's words: "I prefer to work on intimate movies – intense movies like his." Dead Ringers (1988), the first film they made together, is a perfect example of this often disquieting intensity. It is a visually groundbreaking film as well, in terms of the depiction of Jeremy Irons' double role as disturbed gynecologist twins.

The "Cronenberg/Suschitzky method", which is based on intuitive (mutual) understanding, has proven itself in ten further films, including modern classics such as Crash (1996), A History of Violence (2005) and Cosmopolis (2012), 90 percent of which had to be filmed inside a limousine: "New challenges every time," says Suschitzky, creating an oeuvre all of a piece in its clarity, precision and unmistakable voice.

On March 26 and 27, Peter Suschitzky will speak about his métier and his exceptional "long-term relationship" with David Cronenberg at the Film Museum.

The project is realized in cooperation with Stadtkino Wien and the Diagonale. On March 31, Peter Suschitzky will also be present for the theatrical launch of Peter Stephan Jungk's new documentary film "Auf Edith's Spuren"; on April 1, he will be a guest at an homage to his father organized by SYNEMA and the Diagonale in Graz.
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