If you like Severance, you’ll love John Frankenheimer’s horrific tale of rebirth!
Based on David Ely’s 1963 sci-fi novel, this subversive cult classic is a landmark in experimental narrative and visual style. The psychological horror story follows a disaffected middle-aged banker who pays a secretive corporation to undergo a procedure and assume a completely new body and identity to live out his dream life as an artist (Rock Hudson).
Imagine a Twilight Zone episode, on acid. Thanks to masterful cinematography by the great James Wong Howe, a pioneer of the medium, the movie pulsates with frenetic paranoid energy. Wong Howe’s innovative shooting style employs fisheye lenses, multiple hand-held cameras and grotesque extreme close-ups which, combined with art director Ted Howarth’s distorted perspective set design, contribute to the unsettling effect (and garnered him an Oscar nomination for Best Black & White cinematography). Also of note: acclaimed cinematographer John A. Alonzo (Chinatown, Harold & Maude, Scarface) got his big break working under Wong Howe as a camera operator.
Presented with an introduction by series host Nathalie Atkinson.
About the Series
Created and hosted by culture writer and film critic Nathalie Atkinson, a columnist for The Globe and Mail and Zoomer magazine, Designing the Movies makes elements like art direction, costume and sets the lens for analysis. Each screening is introduced with a slide show and an expert talk or special guest Q&A. Follow us on FB and Instagram.