I was always aware of Atom Egoyan's film called Ararat, which painted a memorable image of the truth about the Armenian Genocide in every foreigner's heart and mind, but as I researched more about him, I found out that he also directed many other feature films, such as Chloe in 2009, featuring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried. Although his film, Ararat, led to the rise of his publicity, his film Chloe, helped him to become recognized by the entire audience who seek much interest in such productions.
Atom Egoyan is an Armenian originated director, writer, producer, and screenwriter. He has won numerous prizes at International film festivals, including four winning awards in Cannes Film Festival, two Academy award nominations, and many other awards for screenplay and creativity. His films range from twelve feature films to about seven short films.
He was born in Cairo, Egypt, and later on moved to Canada with his family where he grew up. Even though his parents were full-blooded Armenian, nobody spoke Armenian at home, and he developed his Armenian culture on his own. He pursued an interest in reading and writing in his early teenage years, in inspiration of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. At the age of 18, he joined Trinity College at The University of Toronto, where he began to form strong bonds with his Armenian roots and joined an Armenian community on campus. He created his first short film, Howard in Particular, in college. Some of his other works include Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, The Adjuster, Ararat, Where the Truth Lies, and many more. His most recent work, Chloe (2009), is a psychological drama film based on sexuality and jealousy. The film features Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried. Egoyan has a sense of diverse qualities which he presents in his films through creativity and wisdom.
Firstly, Egoyan's movies usually involve characters with complicated desires and emotions, evil behaviors, and promiscuous and seductive traits. For instance, Chloe deals with a complicated love affair triangle and the power of feminine sexuality. The evil character of Chloe is clear, as she was invited to the life of the couple when she seduced and took advantage of the man. Also, his film called Exotica, deals with a nightclub called Exotica where Christina performs and her ex-boyfriend watches her in jealousy, and everything else with his life revolves around customers and employees of Exotica. A third example is Where the Truth Lies, starring Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, and Alison Lohman. This is another good example of one of his famous erotic characters in one of his films, as Alison Lohman is a deceiving journalist. Moreover, Family Viewing is another film of Egoyan, observes the brutality and sentiment of the breakdown and restoration of a dislocated family, through collections of video images-television, pornography, and home movies.
Secondly, Egoyan's films seem like they have traumatized. He combines traumatism with shock. Despite the awkwardness and twist the characters build within his films, Egoyan presents them creatively and attractively that drive the audience into shock and admiration towards the characters. For instance, here is a bizarre and awkward situation from one of Egoyan's first films called, Next of Kin, in which a young man named Peter Foster acts as an Armenian family's long lost son, after they had given him up their real son to foster home while still an infant. He used this as an escape of his real identity assigned to him in his own life with his family, which he was not satisfied with. Another example is The Adjuster (1991). Egoyan quotes in the movie's synopsis, "I wanted to make a film about believable people doing believable things in an unbelievable way." In one scene in the film, the colleague of a female film censor, in a dark screening room, pushes the colleague's hand up her skirt, then laughs manically. This here is quite an awkward situation which has left audiences uneasy, specifically in London.
Thirdly, his films are characterized by international roles. Egoyan does not only use American actors and actresses from Hollywood, but also brings international personalities within the set. Arsinee Khanjian is an Armenian actress and Egoyan's wife, who plays many roles in his movies. In addition, most of the characters in his movies come from a foreign background. For instance, Adoration revolves around a French character and Felicia's Journey involves Felicia who comes from an Irish background.
Atom Egoyan's style is mostly derived from the qualities he gives his characters and the way he uses them in his films. Egoyan is talented in terms of creating different characters of different backgrounds, which is a more interesting approach to films, as it adds a foreign aura and appeals to a wider range of audience, rather than being just another American film.
Works Cited
Clarke, Cath. "The double life of Atom Egoyan."Guardian 21 Jan. 2010: p5. Print.
The European Graduate School. "Atom Egoyan-Biography". 2010. Retrieved from http://www.egs.edu/faculty/atom-egoyan/biography/. 15 Nov. 2010
Ego Film Arts. Films.(n.d). Retrieved from http://www.egofilmarts.com/. 15 Nov. 2010.
Photos courtesy of Google.
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