2 posts tagged “independent”

Calendar

it's a testament both to the astonishing power of film as a medium as well as to the talent of armenian-candaian director atom egoyan that the long shots of 'monumental' flocks of sheep in calendar (1993) are so affecting. egoyan's no-budget film about  a woman (the devastating arsinée khanjian, egoyan's wife) who leaves her photographer-husband for their driver / guide on their trip to Armenia where they are photographing stunning churches (for a calendar) is bewitching.

the photographer obsessively plays back his video footage of the trip over and over trying to reconstruct his wife's falling for another man right in front of his lenses. in parallel he has a series of (mostly middle) eastern women (perhaps escorts) over to his place for what seem like auditions to replace his ex-wife.   

as the photographer (played by atom) talks and questions over the video footage, he is at turns cold and distant then jealous, confounded and hurt. as we watch over the footage with him we realize the relationship is broken much earlier than he does, but we learn of her falling in love with the guide with and through the photographer (with some help from messages left on his answering machine by his wife). it surprised me. so much so that i re-watched the movie immediately looking for hints of the burgeoning relationship. the photographer's wife and the guide are on screen together for most of the film and yet their relationship struck me as secondary while initially watching.

familiar egoyan themes of loneliness, miscommunication and video-voyeurism appear with his very distinct 'cold' (chillingly so) and 'distant' approach that paradoxically produces deeply moving films.
haunting musical support from djivan gasparian.
seek this out.