Stereo

In his first feature-length film, David Cronenberg begins to explore many of the themes that would remain constant across his substantial and diverse body of work—the relationship between sexuality and violence, the otherness of the body, and the mysteries of the unconscious. Foremost among these topics, as Stereo suggests, is perhaps psychoanalysis itself, both as a philosophical discourse and as a symbolic system subject to translation into cinematic language. Crafted in the style of midcentury educational films, Stereo purports to be directed towards pupils of the (sadly) fictional institution known as the Canadian Academy of Erotic Inquiry. We learn of an experiment carried out by the “aphrodisiast” Dr. Luther Stringfellow, who sought to cultivate telepathic abilities in his subjects by means of sexual exploration. But as with most works by Cronenberg, what is shown is often secondary to how it is shown. For Stereo, the young Cronenberg drew upon his already considerable talents as a cinematographer, editor, and worldbuilder to explore the depths of the human psyche.