The Occupy demonstrations were happening when David Cronenberg and crew shot Cosmopolis, which includes a couple of scenes of Occupy-like mayhem. It therefore seemed to him, he told the grinning French interviewer who always talks to talent before the Cannes press conferences, as if Cosmopolis had taken on the echo of a documentary.

In its use of conspicuous rear-projection CG to show what’s happening beyond the confines of Robert Pattinson‘s white stretch limo, Cosmopolis is obviously conveying the cut-off, insulated, vacuum-like atmosphere inside Eric Packer‘s head. The idea is clearly to not present reality as commonly digested. Tell me how that squares with Cronenberg’s comment. It was Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel that predicted the Occupy demonstrations. All Cronenberg did in this particular respect was follow DeLillo’s lead.