Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersSundance Film FestivalIndependent Spirit AwardsBlack History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Naked Lunch

  • 19911991
  • RR
  • 1h 55m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
53K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,377
1,071
Naked Lunch (1991)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer1:40
1 Video
90 Photos
Drama
After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife, and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant... Read allAfter developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife, and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife, and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
53K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,377
1,071
    • David Cronenberg
    • William S. Burroughs(novel)
    • David Cronenberg
  • Stars
    • Peter Weller
    • Judy Davis
    • Ian Holm
    • David Cronenberg
    • William S. Burroughs(novel)
    • David Cronenberg
  • Stars
    • Peter Weller
    • Judy Davis
    • Ian Holm
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 184User reviews
    • 130Critic reviews
    • 67Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:40
    Watch Official Trailer

    Photos90

    Peter Weller in Naked Lunch (1991)
    Peter Weller in Naked Lunch (1991)
    Peter Weller in Naked Lunch (1991)
    David Cronenberg, Peter Weller, and William S. Burroughs in Naked Lunch (1991)
    Joseph Scorsiani¹ as Kiki and Peter Weller as Bill Lee in Naked Lunch(1991)
    Joseph Scorsiani¹ as Kiki in Naked Lunch(1991)
    Joseph Scorsiani¹ as Kiki in Naked Lunch(1991)
    Julian Sands as Yves Cloquet, Joseph Scorsiani¹ as Kiki, and Peter Weller as Bill Lee in Naked Lunch(1991)
    David Cronenberg directing Peter Weller and Joseph Scorsiani¹ in Naked Lunch(1991).
    Naked Lunch (1991)
    Peter Weller in Naked Lunch (1991)
    Naked Lunch (1991)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Peter Weller
    Peter Weller
    • Bill Lee
    Judy Davis
    Judy Davis
    • Joan Frost…
    Ian Holm
    Ian Holm
    • Tom Frost
    Julian Sands
    Julian Sands
    • Yves Cloquet
    Roy Scheider
    Roy Scheider
    • Dr. Benway
    Monique Mercure
    Monique Mercure
    • Fadela
    Nicholas Campbell
    Nicholas Campbell
    • Hank
    Michael Zelniker
    Michael Zelniker
    • Martin
    Robert A. Silverman
    Robert A. Silverman
    • Hans
    Joseph Scoren
    Joseph Scoren
    • Kiki
    • (as Joseph Scorsiani)
    Peter Boretski
    Peter Boretski
    • Creature Voices…
    Yuval Daniel
    • Hafid
    John Friesen
    • Hauser
    Sean McCann
    Sean McCann
    • O'Brien
    Howard Jerome
    • A.J. Cohen
    Michael Caruana
    Michael Caruana
    • Pawnbroker
    Kurt Reis
    • Exterminator #1
    Louis Ferreira
    Louis Ferreira
    • Exterminator #3
    • (as Justin Louis)
      • David Cronenberg
      • William S. Burroughs(novel)
      • David Cronenberg
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    eXistenZ
    6.8
    eXistenZ
    Videodrome
    7.2
    Videodrome
    Dead Ringers
    7.2
    Dead Ringers
    Crash
    6.4
    Crash
    Scanners
    6.7
    Scanners
    Spider
    6.8
    Spider
    The Brood
    6.8
    The Brood
    The Dead Zone
    7.2
    The Dead Zone
    M. Butterfly
    6.7
    M. Butterfly
    Shivers
    6.4
    Shivers
    The Fly
    7.6
    The Fly
    Cosmopolis
    5.1
    Cosmopolis

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The shooting of the author's wife is not a fictional incident. Source novelist William S. Burroughs did indeed accidentally shoot his wife Joan in the head in 1951 in Mexico in a "William Tell" stunt that went disastrously wrong. Mexican law at the time meant that Burroughs only served thirteen days in prison for killing his wife.
    • Goofs
      The glass shot off Judy Davis' head changes to a plastic glass. First instance as the glass is falling off her head after the shot and then at end of film it is a plastic glass Ms Davis balances on her head. It remains plastic until it falls to floor and changes back into glass.
    • Quotes

      Bill Lee: Exterminate all rational thought. That is the conclusion I have come to.

    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Rush/Naked Lunch/The Prince of Tides/Fried Green Tomatoes/Madame Bovary (1991)
    • Soundtracks
      Vaya Con Dios
      Composed by Larry Russell / Inez James / Buddy Pepper

      Performed by Les Paul and Mary Ford

      Courtesy of Capitol Records

    User reviews184

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    a bug's eye view of the creative process
    Films about writers and the creative process are not generally action-packed, but this unusual piece has plenty of incident. The action takes place largely inside the mind of "William Lee" (William S. Burroughs) whose first book "Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict" dealt with his struggle against heroin addiction. "The Naked Lunch", set in the early 1950s, could be described as telling how that book came to be written. Lee does it tough. After "drying out" he has a job as a pest exterminator, killing cockroaches with powder from a cannister. He discovers that his wife Joan, still an addict, is shooting up with the bug powder and having sex openly with two of his literary friends, Hank and Martin. He then manages to kill her accidentally with his pistol ("I guess it's about time for our William Tell routine"). He flees the country and washes up in "Interzone" (Tangier - then an "international" city).

    He tries to write but suffers from frequent hallucinations. He imagines his typewriter is a giant speaking bug whose mission is to act as his "Interzone" spyforce controller. He becomes involved with another expatriate literary couple, Tom and Joan Frost, and imagines that Tom is trying to kill his wife. Naturally he seduces the wife. Then he discovers he has a taste for gay sex, very easily indulged in locally, where there is a gorgeous willing boy such as Kiki ready to slide off the nearest bar stool. There is competition though from various other slimy types, including a rich gay predatory Swiss expatriate, Yves.

    Somehow, the book gets written, and Hank and Martin show up just as Lee bottoms out in psychotic despair. They help him piece it together and head off back to New York, leaving Lee to "Interzone" and his hallucinations.

    It takes a bit of discipline to watch this film - never has the creative process looked quite so destructive of the writer. Yet the whole thing has a lightness of touch about it. Lee never quite goes right over the edge and is able to observe himself with a certain amount of ironic detachment. At the same time, it is clear that the death of his wife has affected him deeply, both in terms of loss and guilt. The typewriter bugs are a cute touch. Burroughs was the grandson of the founder of the Burroughs office machinery empire, the man who patented the first practical adding machine - the mechanical bug runs in the family it seems. Abusive psychiatry also gets a send up.

    As Lee, Peter Weller has a face as impassive as a homicide cop almost regardless of the turmoil within (after all, he made the role of Robocop his own). But he is a "tough guy" on the point of melt-down. Judy Davis, looking just right, plays with plenty of conviction both Joans (who in Lee's fevered brain are the same person). Ian Holm is good as Tom, the nasty older writer who is quite happy to lend his wife for sexual purposes but woe betide the man who damages his precious Arabic typewriter. Julian Peters as Yves radiated menace but overall was a bit of a cardboard-cutout, not helped by his dress and appearance, which seemed to have come straight from "Brideshead Revisited" (Sebastian in Morocco).

    David Cronenberg as a director has certainly got a reputation for weird films ("The Fly", "Crash") but this offering is relatively restrained It was something of a pity that "Interzone" was a studio set somewhere (Canada?) but this is low-budget stuff after all. Unlike the bugs in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", these ones have a story to tell, though it's a painful one. Like Hunter Thompson, Burroughs was a great prose writer and the film has plenty of good lines. No-one could view heroin addiction with equanimity after seeing this film, but there is no moralising. As bug agent Clark Nova put it in the film:

    "Just remember this. All agents defect, and all resisters sell out. That's the sad truth, Bill. And a writer? A writer lives the sad truth like anyone else. The only difference is, he files a report on it."
    helpful•51
    15
    • Philby-3
    • Jun 16, 1999

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 31, 1992 (United States)
      • Canada
      • United Kingdom
      • Japan
      • English
      • Arabic
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Recorded Picture Company (RPC)
      • Téléfilm Canada
      • Ontario Film Development Corporation
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 55 minutes
      • Color

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Naked Lunch (1991)
    Top Gap
    By what name was Naked Lunch (1991) officially released in India in Hindi?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.