: Despite its polarizing subject matter, it won the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for its "audacity and originality".
), a "prophet" of the highway who views car crashes as a "liberation of sexual energy" rather than destructive events. Staged Trauma crash-1996-
Visually, crash-1996- is a masterpiece of controlled mood. Cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (who also shot The Empire Strikes Back ) drains the world of warm colors. The palette is all gray steel, blue-black sky, green hospital lighting, and the red of taillights—which here looks like blood. The camera frames cars as bodies: close-ups of gear shifts, hood ornaments, and chrome bumpers become erotic close-ups. : Despite its polarizing subject matter, it won