David Cronenberg’s “Crash” is celebrating its 24th anniversary this month and a brand-new 4K restoration will be released to coincide with the birthday. If you haven’t seen this provocative cult classic, which revolves around a mosaic of characters who get turned on by car crashes, then now’s the time as it has aged liked fine wine over the years.
“Crash” won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes back in 1996, its press screening has now become the stuff of legend, but Cronenberg believes that if it weren’t for Francis Ford Coppola, who was the Jury President at the time, then his film may have very well won the Palme d’Or. Speaking to the Canadian Press, Cronenberg revealed the lack of support he got from Coppola during Cannes 49:
“Coppola was totally against it,” said Cronenberg. “I think he was the primary one. When I’m asked why [‘Crash’] got this Special Jury Award, well, I think it was the jury’s attempt to get around the Coppola negativity because they had the power to create their own award without the president’s approval. And that’s how they did it, but it was Coppola who was certainly against it.”
In fact, Coppola’s disdain for the film went so far as to not even wanting to hand the Jury Prize to Cronenberg and, instead, gave the responsibility to someone else, even though it was technically his duty to do it. Cronenberg saw that as a little petty and still doesn’t agree with Coppola’s actions.
“Because later I was president of the [Cannes] jury as well,” he explained. “You always end up with awards that maybe you don’t think are justified, but your team jury members do. You have to be gracious about it. I don’t think he was very gracious.”
Yes, “Crash” was an incredibly controversial film when it premiered at Cannes, where people were repulsed by the graphic violence and sex in Cronenberg’s film and ensuingly gave it bad reviews (it still has a rotten rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Regardless, “Crash” has become one of the most important films of the ‘90s and is now seen as a major achievement by many film scholars and writers.