When he acquires a different kind of show for his station, a sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a terrifying new reality.
Director: David Cronenberg.
Writer: David Cronenberg.
Stars: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits.
Plot
Max Renn is the president of CIVIC-TV, a Toronto UHF television station specializing in sensationalistic programming. Displeased with his station's current lineup (which mostly consists of softcore pornography and gratuitous violence), Max looks for something that will break through to a new audience. One morning, he is summoned to the clandestine office of Harlan, who operates CIVIC-TV's unauthorized satellite dish which can intercept broadcasts from as far away as Asia. Harlan shows Renn Videodrome, a plotless television show apparently being broadcast out of Malaysia which depicts the brutal torture and eventual murder of anonymous victims in a reddish-orange chamber. Believing this to be the future of television, Max orders Harlan to begin unlicensed use of the show. Max experiences a hallucination, the first of many. Appearing on a talk show, he defends his station's programming choices to Nicki Brand, a psychiatrist and radio host, and professor Brian O'Blivion, a pop-culture analyst and philosopher who will only appear on television if his image is broadcast into the studio, onto a television, from a remote location. O'Blivion delivers a speech prophesying a future in which television supplants real life.
Max dates Nicki, who is sexually aroused when he shows her an episode of Videodrome and coaxes him into having sadomasochistic sex with her while they watch it. Max goes once again to Harlan's office, where Harlan tells him that the signal delay which caused it to appear to be coming from Malaysia was a ploy by the broadcaster and that Videodrome is being broadcast out of Pittsburgh. Hearing of this, Nicki excitedly goes to Pittsburgh to audition for the show under the guise of a business trip, but never returns. Max contacts Masha, a softcore pornographer, and asks her to help him find out the truth about Videodrome. Through Masha, Max learns that not only is the footage not faked, but it is the public "face" of a political movement. Masha further informs him that O'Blivion knows about Videodrome.
Clasificación [ CM DVD 00354 Disponible en DVD, 4 Piso BJB)