Infectious films reflect deepest, darkest fears
Viruses a catchy device in the cinema Fear, disgust, transformation all themes
If movies are themselves an infectious disease — it strikes today, causes otherwise healthy citizens to miss work, interferes with sleep and requires sitting in darkened rooms — well, movies also reflect our deep dread of disease, mutation and mortality.
Life-affirming movies about individuals with life- threatening and terminal diseases have mostly been sidelined to cableTV channels, although Time To Leave, a film by François Ozon about a young gay man with terminal cancer, is likely to be well received at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. But movies about malevolent, mutating viruses, infectious diseases and virulent plagues are as relevant as today’s news, with all the relentless warnings about an impending pandemic. “We are obsessed with disease,” says Canadian filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald. “ Look at Toronto and SARS.” The writer/ director, wunderkind of the 1997 TIFF with The Hanging Garden, returns this year with 3 Needles, three dramas on three continents linked by the same disease: AIDS.
“Disease holds a power and fascination for me,” explains Fitzgerald. “ I have shockingly little interest in gangsters, cars, explosions . . .
Besides, he firmly believes that “ we will look back on this time and this plague will be the defining characteristic of our time.”
Fitzgerald watched a slew of movies about infectious diseases while preparing to make 3 Needles, with Lucy Liu, Chloë Sevigny and Sandra Oh.
“ Infectious disease is a huge character in many, many movies,” he says.