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    David Cronenberg sides with digital: 'I have no particular affection for film whatsoever'

    David Cronenberg sides with digital: 'I have no particular affection for film whatsoever'

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    David Cronenberg unequivocally offered his stance on the movie industry's move away from film and towards digital today, telling the Toronto Sun at the Cannes Film Festival that "it's about time that film died its natural death and it's doing that."

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    David Cronenberg
    David Cronenberg

    David Cronenberg unequivocally offered his stance on the movie industry's move away from film and towards digital today, telling the Toronto Sun at the Cannes Film Festival that "it's about time that film died its natural death and it's doing that." The seasoned filmmaker (director of movies like The Fly, Videodrome, and A History of Violence) was at Cannes for the premiere of his upcoming sci-fi film, Cosmopolis, as well as that of his son's first feature, Antiviral. Both films were shot using (RED competitor) Arri Alexa cameras, of which Cronenberg said: "what you do as a director, how you work with the actors and what the lens do and what the light does is exactly the same" between digital and film. Like others in the digital camp, the director extolled the convenience of the medium, saying that most film developers have shut down, forcing him to send film canisters off to LA. There you have it, then, one fewer person on Christopher Nolan's side, a director who opted for film in The Dark Knight Rises because of the picture quality edge and IMAX resolution afforded by the over century-old medium. What's the one thing Cronenberg will miss? "The smell when you open those film cans."