Based on JG Ballard’s cult novel, this uncompromising and controversial film from director David Cronenberg is set among a group of urban sophisticates so morally exhausted that they need to invent perversions to keep what sensuality they have left alive – thus car accidents become sadomasochistic turn-ons.
In a bleak and passionless world of multi-lane freeways, television commercial producer James Ballard (James Spader) and his wife Catherine (Deborah Unger) lead hollow but complex sex lives.
Following a near-fatal car crash, James is drawn into a life where sex and danger are interlinked when he meets Dr Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) who seeks to release his sexual tensions by crashing into cars on the freeway.
While in no way pornographic or exploitative, Cronenberg’s daring intellectual wake-up call is potent adult food for thought and a landmark 1990s fantasy.
Described by the Evening Standard as “beyond the bounds of depravity,” the film sparked off hysterical reactions in the British tabloids and a ban by Westminster Council as The Daily Mail began a campaign against it (‘ban this car crash of a film’ screamed the headline).
James Ballard
James Spader Dr Helen Remington
Holly Hunter Vaughan
Elias Koteas Catherine Ballard
Deborah Unger Gabrielle
Rosanna Arquette Colin Seagrave
Peter MacNeill Airport hooker
Yolande Julian Vera Seagrave
Cheryl Swarts
Director
David Cronenberg
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James Ballard
