@DrownInIt Explains the Premise of the Novel “Cosmopolis”

Full disclaimer:

This only covers the novel, I have no idea what Cronenberg plans for the adaptation nor if Cotiallard is still involved though I’d be shocked if in the Rob version, she plays his wife.


Not the kind of movie I’d see (or novel I’d read) w/out Rob but very curious to see what he does with it.






*SPOILERS*







THE STORY–

Eric Packer really truly is the lead. He shares scenes with other people but it’s his story.

There is a lot of potential for Rob to really make an impression on screen if he can nail the remote, commanding businessman. He has a lot to do and a lot of story to convey with not a lot of action/plot.

Richard Sheets aka Benno Levin (Packer’s killer) – probably the second biggest character, a loser who was fired by Packer before the novel’s start and has lost everything, he plans & gets revenge on him.

There are 5 female characters of interest in Packer’s life

Elise Shifrin (his wife) – 25, he’s not that interested in her but she keeps popping up throughout his day, they decide to separate at one point but then briefly reconcile and have sex (for the first time in their relationship) in an abandoned building toward the novel’s end.

Didi Fancher (art dealer/mentor/long term lover) – 47, seems to be the woman he is closest to, goes to see her in the morning, they make love and then have an argument of sorts over his values, we don’t see her again

Kendra Hayes (Packer’s security detail) – in the background throughout, but Packer has one key scene with her where they sleep together in a hotel and then she uses her stun gun on him at his request

Jane Melman (Packer’s chief of finance) – mid 30s, single mom, blonde, sorta pretty, they have a prolonged exchange in the limo abt the future of his company, Packer has a medical exam in the presence of Jane which is probably the most erotic scene in the novel but v brief, it’s implied they both orgasm but they never touch and both remain fully clothed (well he’s getting a prostate exam at the time so he’s dropped trou), Jane seems concerned when she leaves him but anxious to get away

Vija Kinski (Packer’s chief of theory) – bohemian, greying hair, very interesting character and probably the most significant of “Packer’s women” though they don’t do anything beyond talk, she’s with Packer through a detailed protest and is a kind of soothsayer in the novel for Packer, pivotal character

There are 3 major sequences that have great cinematic potential:

-A major anarchist revolution is staged,
-An Indian rapper’s funeral procession complete with whirling dervishes in the street,
-A film sequence that features 300 naked extras all lying on the ground as though they’re dead in which Packer decides to participate
Packer also shoots and kills his chief security guy (Torval) on a basketball court so that could be staged with/for scope.

The majority however is set in Packer’s limo save for the final sequence which is a confrontation between Packer and Benno Levin in the building where Levin is squatting.

IMO, it’s foreshadowed pretty early on that Packer will die- Levin’s confession to the murder is inserted early in the novel, though we’re not certain it’s Packer he’s talking about at the time.

The novel itself is intentionally theoretical and the more Pynchon-esque qualities are going to be hard to get across on film eg; there’s a pastry assassin who pies his victims (including Eric).

There’s a lot of symbolism and rhetoric and DeLillo is a very academic writer so lots of references to other modern novels (Packer as a modern day Gatsby is broached more than once) as well as modernist techniques which I appreciated as a reader but obvs won’t make it to the screen.

It’s a guy, who has everything and sets out to lose it to be free and does a lot of questionable shit in the course of a day and then is killed.

Though- potentially, his death scene could not be in the film.
Throughout the day, he looks into various e-screens and sees things a fraction of a second before they happen. That’s how Packer learns of his death and we know he’s dead from Benno’s earlier confession but the book concludes before he’s actually killed, though he has shot himself in the hand.
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