oscar jubis
07-31-2003, 09:05 AM
ARARAT, the winner of 5 Genies(Canadian Academy awards) including best picture of 2002 is now available on home video. The film was written and directed by Atom Egoyan, the maker of Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, two of the classic dramas of the 1990s.
Johann has championed the film in this site but many included myself were denied the opportunity to follow his recommendation. ARARAT received a very limited North American release Nov/Dec 2002, grossing only $1.6 million. At least the 2-disc dvd is full of worthy features and does not seem diminished by the smaller screen.
ARARAT is about a film crew making an epic about the WWar I genocide of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Raffi, an 18 y.o. driver of Armenian descent, is returning from Turkey with footage of Armenian sites he took after shooting was completed in Toronto. Raffi is detained and questioned at the airport by customs officer Christopher Plummer. This officer has a gay son whose lover plays the villain in the film. Raffi's mother is an art critic hired as a consultant to incorporate a new character (master painter Arshile Gorky) into the screenplay. ARARAT not only shows scenes of the epic as these are being shot, but also flashes back to show Gorky as a boy in 1915 and as an artist struggling with tragic memories in 1935.
ARARAT is extremely ambitious,a muti-layered film that is nonetheless engaging as narrative and easy to follow. There are many subplots not mentioned here. The achronological structure allows for the necessary distance to ponder the difficulties inherent in creating art with a historical dimension, the struggle to come to terms with familial legacy, and the mechanisms and consequences of the denial of history. To this day, Turkey continues to turn down pleas from the world community to acknowledge the holocaust depicted here. Egoyan, true to self, chooses to explore complex issues rather then jerk our tears, though the 1915 scenes are devastating. Egoyan depends on Michael Hanna's evocative musical score to provide emotional counterpoint.
ARARAT is an absolute must-see. Why can't an awarded, English-language(mostly) movie receive a proper release in North America? Simply the most ourageous recent example of what's wrong with the marketing and distribution of film here. A denied genocide has resulted in a neglected film.
Rent it and tell us about it.
Johann has championed the film in this site but many included myself were denied the opportunity to follow his recommendation. ARARAT received a very limited North American release Nov/Dec 2002, grossing only $1.6 million. At least the 2-disc dvd is full of worthy features and does not seem diminished by the smaller screen.
ARARAT is about a film crew making an epic about the WWar I genocide of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Raffi, an 18 y.o. driver of Armenian descent, is returning from Turkey with footage of Armenian sites he took after shooting was completed in Toronto. Raffi is detained and questioned at the airport by customs officer Christopher Plummer. This officer has a gay son whose lover plays the villain in the film. Raffi's mother is an art critic hired as a consultant to incorporate a new character (master painter Arshile Gorky) into the screenplay. ARARAT not only shows scenes of the epic as these are being shot, but also flashes back to show Gorky as a boy in 1915 and as an artist struggling with tragic memories in 1935.
ARARAT is extremely ambitious,a muti-layered film that is nonetheless engaging as narrative and easy to follow. There are many subplots not mentioned here. The achronological structure allows for the necessary distance to ponder the difficulties inherent in creating art with a historical dimension, the struggle to come to terms with familial legacy, and the mechanisms and consequences of the denial of history. To this day, Turkey continues to turn down pleas from the world community to acknowledge the holocaust depicted here. Egoyan, true to self, chooses to explore complex issues rather then jerk our tears, though the 1915 scenes are devastating. Egoyan depends on Michael Hanna's evocative musical score to provide emotional counterpoint.
ARARAT is an absolute must-see. Why can't an awarded, English-language(mostly) movie receive a proper release in North America? Simply the most ourageous recent example of what's wrong with the marketing and distribution of film here. A denied genocide has resulted in a neglected film.
Rent it and tell us about it.