I Reach Out My Hand and What Do I Feel?: Thematising Digitisation in Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis'

Article sample: 

By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it had become abundantly clear that digital methods of cinematography and distribution had eclipsed the analogue in the mainstream cinema industry. Much of the discourse surrounding this technological shift was steeped in hyperbole, such as George Lucas' comment on the release of his 2002 feature Attack of the Clones: 'Digital is a much more malleable medium than film, by far; you can make it do whatever you want it to do, and you can design the technology to do whatever you want to do. This whole field is really going to ramp up in the next 10 or 20 years'. Soon after the release of Lucas' feature – the first wide-release movie to have been shot entirely digitally – trade magazines such as Entertainment Weekly, Variety and American Cinematographer were reporting that it wouldn't be long before all Hollywood features would be constructed using the format, a prediction largely based on the many economic and practical advantages of shooting on the medium. 

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Senses of Cinema is an online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. We believe cinema is an art that can take many forms, from the industrially-produced blockbuster to the hand-crafted experimental work; we also aim to encourage awareness of the histories of such diverse forms. As an Australian-based journal, we have a special commitment to the regular, wide-ranging analysis and critique of Australian cinema, past and present. Senses of Cinema is primarily concerned with ideas about particular films or bodies of work, but also with the regimes (ideological, economic and so forth) under which films are produced and viewed, and with the more abstract theoretical and philosophical issues raised by film study.