Naked Lunch (1991) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

“Exterminate all rational thought.” Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory, “unfilmable” novel is finally realized onscreen by director David Cronenberg. Part-time exterminator and full-time drug addict Bill Lee (Peter Weller) plunges into the nightmarish netherworld of the Interzone, pursuing a mysterious project that leads him to confront sinister cabals and giant talking bugs. The fruit of an unholy union between two masters of the hilarious and the macabre, Naked Lunch mingles aspects of Burroughs’s novel with incidents from his own life, resulting in a compendium of paranoid fantasies and a searching investigation into the mysteries of the writing process.

Cast

Bill Lee	Peter Weller
Joan Lee and Joan Frost	Judy Davis
Tom Frost	Ian Holm
Yves Cloquet	Julian Sands
Dr. Benway	Roy Scheider
Fadela	Monique Mercure
Hank	Nicholas Campbell
Martin	Michael Zelniker
Hans	Robert A. Silverman
Kiki	Joseph Scorsiani

Credits

Director	David Cronenberg
Producer	Jeremy Thomas
Based on the book by	William S. Burroughs
Co-producer	Gabriella Martinelli
Director of photography	Peter Suschitzky
Production Design	Carol Spier
Music	Howard Shore
Editing	Ronald Sanders
Costume designer	Denise Cronenberg
Casting by	Deirdre Bowen

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director David Cronenberg and enhanced for widescreen televisions
Audio commentary by Cronenberg and actor Peter Weller
Naked Making Lunch, a London Weekend Television documentary about the making of the film, directed by Chris Rodley
Illustrated essay about the special effects in Naked Lunch by the editor of Cinefex magazine, Jody Duncan, featuring artifacts from Cronenberg’s archive
Film stills gallery
A collection of original marketing materials
William S. Burroughs’ audio recording of excerpts from Naked Lunch
A collection of archival stills of William S. Burroughs from the Allen Ginsberg Trust
PLUS: A 32-page booklet featuring essays by film critic Janet Maslin, Chris Rodley, Gary Indiana, and a piece by William S. Burroughs

From the Current

LUNCH AT MIDNIGHT

Feb 22, 2009

“If there’s such a thing as an ideal time of day to expose yourself to the deranging, hallucinatory visions of the Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, midnight might well be it,” writes critic and Criterion contributor Terrence Rafferty in a terrific New York Times tribute to those “mind...

Naked Lunch: “Burroughs”

by Gary Indiana Nov 10, 2003

Burroughs’ work tends to affect people like a Rorschach test. It separates cultural conservatives from avant-gardists, social reactionaries from libertarians. Or, to use one of Burroughs’ favorite distinctions, members of the Johnson Family from the Shits. Johnsons have a live-and-let-live, mind...

Naked Lunch:
Drifting In and Out of a Kafkaesque Reality

by Janet Maslin Nov 10, 2003

Naked Lunch, adapted by the dauntless David Cronenberg from William S. Burroughs’ 1959 landmark novel, represents a remarkable meeting of the minds. It’s hard to imagine another filmmaker who could delve so deeply into the monstrousness of Mr. Burroughs’ vision, in the end coming...