Making the Mugwump
April 18, 2013
Film Info
- Canada
- 1991
- 115 minutes
- Color
- 1.78:1
- English
- Spine #220
In this adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory, once-thought-unfilmable novel Naked Lunch, directed by David Cronenberg, a part-time exterminator and full-time drug addict named Bill Lee (Peter Weller) plunges into the nightmarish Interzone, a netherworld of sinister cabals and giant talking bugs. Alternately humorous and grotesque—and always surreal—the film mingles aspects of Burroughs’s novel with incidents from the writer’s own life, resulting in an evocative paranoid fantasy and a self-reflexive investigation into the mysteries of the creative process.
Cast
| Bill Lee | Peter Weller |
| Joan Lee/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 |
| Written by | David Cronenberg |
| Produced by | Jeremy Thomas |
| Based on the book by | William S. Burroughs |
| Coproducer | Gabriella Martinelli |
| Director of photography | Peter Suschitzky |
| Production designer | Carol Spier |
| Music | Howard Shore |
| Edited by | Ronald Sanders |
| Costume designer | Denise Cronenberg |
| Casting by | Deirdre Bowen |
Disc Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
- High-definition digital transfer, approved by director David Cronenberg, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary featuring Cronenberg and actor Peter Weller
- Naked Making Lunch, a 1992 documentary by Chris Rodley about the making of the film
- Special effects gallery, featuring artwork and photos alongside an essay by film writer Jody Duncan
- Collection of original marketing materials
- Audio recording of William S. Burroughs reading from his novel Naked Lunch
- Gallery of photos taken by poet Allen Ginsberg of Burroughs
- Film stills gallery (DVD only)
- PLUS: A booklet featuring reprinted pieces by film critic Janet Maslin, critic and novelist Gary Indiana, filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley, and Burroughs
Current Posts
Photo Galleries
Photo Galleries
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: Burroughs
By April 09, 2013
The revolutionary, radical, and controversial writing of William S. Burroughs constituted a . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: So Deep in My Heart That You’re Really a Part of Me
By April 09, 2013
David Cronenberg and William S. Burroughs: it was a meeting of the mutant minds years in the . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: Drifting In and Out of a Kafkaesque Reality
By April 09, 2013
This review originally appeared in the December 27, 1991, edition of the New York Times. Read more »
Video
Photo Galleries
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: Burroughs
By April 09, 2013
The revolutionary, radical, and controversial writing of William S. Burroughs constituted a . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: So Deep in My Heart That You’re Really a Part of Me
By April 09, 2013
David Cronenberg and William S. Burroughs: it was a meeting of the mutant minds years in the . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: Drifting In and Out of a Kafkaesque Reality
By April 09, 2013
This review originally appeared in the December 27, 1991, edition of the New York Times. Read more »
Photo Galleries
Photo Galleries
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: Burroughs
By April 09, 2013
The revolutionary, radical, and controversial writing of William S. Burroughs constituted a . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: So Deep in My Heart That You’re Really a Part of Me
By April 09, 2013
David Cronenberg and William S. Burroughs: it was a meeting of the mutant minds years in the . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Naked Lunch: Drifting In and Out of a Kafkaesque Reality
By April 09, 2013
This review originally appeared in the December 27, 1991, edition of the New York Times. Read more »
Video
Photo Galleries
News
Aces in the Hole
June 23, 2010
Two of our favorite artists, filmmaker David Cronenberg (Naked Lunch, Videodrome) and novelist . . . Read more »
Clippings
Lunch at Midnight
February 22, 2009
“If there’s such a thing as an ideal time of day to expose yourself to the deranging, . . . Read more »
My Criterion
“A flawed effort, but a heroic one nonetheless. Adapting Burroughs to the screen is no easy feat. ”
