David Cronenberg

Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch

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.

Film Info

  • Canada
  • 1991
  • 115 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.78:1
  • English
  • Spine #220

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • High-definition digital transfer, approved by director David Cronenberg, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • 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
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Janet Maslin and essays by critic and novelist Gary Indiana, filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley, and Burroughs

Cover by Neil Kellerhouse

Purchase Options

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • High-definition digital transfer, approved by director David Cronenberg, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • 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
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Janet Maslin and essays by critic and novelist Gary Indiana, filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley, and Burroughs

Cover by Neil Kellerhouse

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

Current

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Naked Lunch: Drifting In and Out of a Kafkaesque Reality
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