The director Martin Scorsese called a “Beverly Hills gynaecologist”
There are few names in the world of cinema that are as ubiquitous with the very medium of film as Martin Scorsese. The American filmmaker is simply one of the greatest Hollywood has ever known, and given his legendary status in the world of cinema, many would consider him an intimidating force, especially when tasked with meeting him face-to-face.
However, in a complete reversal, Scorsese had once expressed his nervousness at meeting a fellow contemporary icon, which is some feat considering the stature that he himself holds. However, the director David Cronenberg seems to have had quite an effect on his colleague.
The Mean Streets and Goodfellas director had once written that Cronenberg’s films were what made him anxious to meet his fellow filmmaker, claiming that he looked like a “gynaecologist from Beverly Hills”. While this is likely a mere physical description from Scorsese, there’s also likely some creative truth in his words too.
After all, the films of Cronenberg are often obsessed with the human body, sometimes from a sexual perspective. Cronenberg has been called the ‘father of the body horror’, and his early works such as The Fly, Scanners, Videodrome and later efforts, including Crash and Crimes of the Future, explore the strange meaning and limits of the body.
J.G. Ballard had also once referred to Cronenberg as a “gynaecologist”, although he admitted that Cronenberg had described himself as such. The filmmaker had adapted Ballard’s 1973 erotic novel Crash into a 1996 film of the same name, so it’s fair to say that Ballard knows him well.
“Cronenberg has modestly described himself as looking like a Beverly Hills gynaecologist,” Ballard once told The Guardian. “Having worked with him on the making of Crash, I know that in person, he is good company, with the reassuring manner of a neurosurgeon explaining how he is going to remove the inoperable tumour buried deep in your brain.”
Ballard’s comments suggest that the “gynaecologist” tag describes Cronenberg’s artistic outlook rather than his physical appearance or personality. The writer added: “Remarkably for a filmmaker working entirely within commercial cinema, he has remained faithful to his central project, and his films constitute a sustained autopsy into the nature of existence.”
Perhaps the “gynaecologist” in Cronenberg represents his examination of society, particularly from a sexual and corporeal perspective, which is fair to say of most of his films. So, too, can we deduce from Scorsese being nervous about meeting him and Ballard’s words that he’s one of the most-respected filmmakers out there and is well deserving of his strange title.
