Creeping with Cronenberg by MATTHEW HAYS Now celebrated as an undeniably great filmmaker, one who is embraced as part of the Canadian cinematic canon, it would be easy to forget that for a long time, David Cronenberg was written off by our nation's critics. Seen as sleazy and sordid, his early, no-budget films are in fact my favourite in his oeuvre. Rabid and Shivers, in particular, were shot in such a raw style, their surrealism and nastiness were made all the more nauseating. This week, Cinéma du Parc presents us with the golden opportunity to see some of the key works of the twisted mind of Cronenberg, at a retrospective that will last throughout the month and into October. Highlights include: Videodrome has James Woods investigating several horrific, TV-related murders. These aren't your average snuff movies, it seems, but rather some kind of discovery of a whole new media S/M dimension. Woods is soon playing naughty games with Deborah Harry while desperately seeking the answers. This one's great for the campy special f/x: watch as what appear to be tinned shrimp fly out of Woods' stomach during a seizure. The match proved effective when pulp horror novelist Stephen King supplied the idea for Cronenberg's '83 film, The Dead Zone, in which Christopher Walken plays a man who, after awakening from a lengthy coma, begins to have prophetic visions. Throw a filthy and hyperambitious political archetype (Martin Sheen) into the mix, and you've got a taut bit of well-told suspense. Jeff Goldblum takes the central role in The Fly, Cronenberg's excellent remake of the Vincent Price classic. The newer version ups the ante with gross-out f/x guaranteed to set off your gag reflex. Another highlight is the arm-wrestling match. No Cronenberg retrospective would quite cut it without Dead Ringers, in which Jeremy Irons pulls off a magnificent dual performance as twin physicians, who spiral into paranoia and delusion with the help of self-prescribed meds. Genevieve Bujold is terrific as the miffed patient, who manages to get bedded by both docs, unbeknownst to her. A truly beautiful Iranian film can be seen beginning this Friday, Sept. 8 at the Ex-Centris, where The Color of Paradise will screen. Director Majid Majidi (The Children of Heaven) follows a blind eight-year-old boy as he treks across the Iranian countryside with his rather distant father. The boy still manages to appreciate his life despite his disability and general hardship he faces. This film typifies the best of Iran's national cinema. The Color of Paradise plays in original Farsi with French subtitles. Four anthologies of British and Canadian video production will be screened this Friday and Saturday, Sept. 8-9, at the Cinémathèque québécoise (both begin at 7:30 p.m.). Video artists Catherine Elwes and Nelson Henricks will be present. Elwes will also deliver a talk about the work at Concordia University's VA Building (1395 René-Lévesque W., Rm. 323), on Friday, Sept. 8 at 1 p.m. COMMENTS: mhays@mtl-mirror.com