| As the Calgary International Film Festival is poised to open with Atom Egoyan’s latest film, Ararat – allegedly his most personal work to date – it’s worth looking at what makes the director’s appearance significant to the festival and the cinephiles whom his work splits into two distinct groups.
Love him or hate him – and Egoyan is a polarizing influence on any conversation about contemporary cinema – he is one of a handful of Canadian filmmakers who can claim to be a household name. Films including Exotica, which won the International Critics Prize at Cannes in 1994, and The Sweet Hereafter, which garnered the director further accolades on the French Riviera as well as a couple of Oscar nominations, have solidified his reputation as an artist who’s both intelligent and bankable – a rare combination, indeed.
There’s no questioning Egoyan’s intellectual capacities – his films are often noted for their fugal narrative structures (Egoyan has a background in classical composition) and they also reveal a fascination with the ways in which reality is mediated by technology, not least of all by film itself. But he’s one of those filmmakers who’s more talked about than understood. Here are a few reasons why:
Family Viewing (Canada, 1988): Although Egoyan made his feature film debut with Next of Kin in 1984, it was Family Viewing that established him as the enfant terrible of Canadian cinema in the late ’80s. If you saw this film, you’re probably still squeamish about committing family activities to video tape. With its dark satire of an average middle-class family coming apart at the splices, if you will, this examination of the ways that we construct identity by manipulating and rearranging memories was unsettling, indeed. Despite its title, you won’t want to see this one with your parents – unless you enjoy long uncomfortable silences.
The Adjuster (Canada, 1991): Another piercing send-up of Canadian suburbia – complete with hypocritical moral majority film critics who get off on the porn they censor – The Adjuster was a real head-scratcher about... well, what was it about? All I know is that it should have done for showhomes what Family Viewing did for home movies. God forbid Calgary developers let prospective homeowners get a glimpse of this – if they did, it would surely put an end to the city’s suburban sprawl.
Calendar (Canada, 1993): This is Egoyan’s best work, his only film with enough personality to be truly memorable. With a uniquely Julian way of showing the passage of time, Calendar chronicles the dissolution of a romantic relationship via answering-machine messages from afar. Granted, the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg had already summed up the film’s message in a short pop song some years earlier, but why squabble when a certifiable egghead finally reveals his sensitive side?
Exotica (Canada, 1994): What better way for a father to console himself following the death of his daughter than by enjoying a lap-dance at a strip joint? I know it’s a stark commentary on the way that people substitute sex for love and voyeurism for intimacy, but Exotica never fails to remind me of my own personal humiliation by an exotic dancer when I was just a narrow-minded 18-year-old who wouldn’t watch her, uh, performance. It’s not Egoyan’s fault, but this film opened up old wounds – I wonder how many others would say the same? Don’t worry, my experience now makes a funny story – unlike Exotica, which remains very creepy, albeit in a touching way (no pun intended).
The Sweet Hereafter (Canada, 1997): Speaking of creepy and touching.... With its story of sexual repression and tragedy in smalltown somewhere, The Sweet Hereafter brought Egoyan international acclaim. Ian Holm’s performance as an overly litigious lawyer makes one believe that all the clichés about solicitors might very well be true.
Felicia’s Journey (Canada/ U.K., 1999): The less said about Felicia’s Journey, the better, no? But, really, must Egoyan’s wife, Arsinée Khanjian, show up in everything he directs? And when you finally get a really big budget, why blow any of it shooting a tacked-on Hollywood ending? |
