User reviews

"The Italian Machine" is an odd bit of Canadian television from director David Cronenberg, who would eventually graduate to much more notorious, hard-edged horror fare. This half-hour short follows a group of Three Stooges types (including actors he would later utilize in "Rabid" and "The Brood") obsessed with the art of motorcycling, who flip out when they discover an extremely rare Italian cycle has been purchased by an eccentric art collector; they then hatch a plot to steal the bike, posing as photographers for a techno-savvy modern-art magazine. "The Italian Machine" is a strange, fitfully funny short that, in spite of its light, frivolous tone, offers a window into themes Cronenberg would mine in his future efforts, such as man's fixation on technology, strange characters, and the human body as a vain, degraded vessel for 'art.' Much more tolerable than the director's early student films...

Cronenberg produced, i believe 3 shorts for this series. The Italian machine probably the best. not a gore fest like contemporary fans might expect. All three shorts are psychological thrillers in nature. The Italian machine is about a bunch of biker dudes who track the life of an expensive bike and find that it is recently purchased by some yuppie art snobs. disgruntled by the idea that rich bourgeois are going to use the bike as a center piece rather than ride it, they decide to investigate... interesting po-mo (post modern) discussion of art ensues.

Also in the series (only available from Euro-films...as pirated off Asian television, i believe) is cronenbergs "carnival of souls"-esquire adventure, where a boarding house serves as a vehicle for purgatory. http://www.eurofilmsltd.com/catalog/d/cronenberg.html