• Egoyan’s fifth film is his greatest accomplishment in film form to date—this low-budget (he’s back to the 16mm/video oscillating like 1987’s Family Viewing), short film (74 minutes) casts a hypnotic structural spell
  • The film bounces back and forth rhythmically between long static shots of beautiful churches and buildings in Armenia and a series of bad dates for our lead character (Egoyan himself) presumably after his marriage has fallen apart. So the static (great compositions) shots of the buildings (he’s making a calendar) are flashbacks of his marriage falling apart. In those segments he’s off camera with his wife and their Armenian driver/tour guide (she’s translating to Egoyan)

Egoyan’s Calendar casts a hypnotic structural spell

  • Again, it is an impressive achievement in film form- Breaking the Waves-like (and this is three years prior) breaking the structure up between grainy video and film (16mm in this case). Egoyan alternates the photographs of the buildings (the flashbacks) off of a series of bad dates that go exactly the same way (pouring wine, women asking to use the phone). The calendar is on the wall (so this is after the photography). There is repetition and numbering (Peter Greenaway) as we go through the 12 months.

There is repetition and numbering (Peter Greenaway) as we go through the 12 months

  • Opens on a long take- strong composition of a church on a hill
  • A meditation on envy— losing your cultural roots (Egoyan’s character cares nothing for the stories and history of these buildings/churches- just their aesthetic beauty)- also- he’s an incredible prick—condescending to the Armenian guide/driver

Egoyan’s fifth film is his greatest accomplishment in film form to date– the compositional beauty of his “calendar” photos is impressive, but he’s also alternating two strands of a narrative (both creative, repetitive), using 16mm and video

  • Highly Recommend- top 10 of the year quality.