Word: although
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Exotica, which takes place in the forbidden world of an erotic dance club and also brings together an eclectic group of characters, was celebrated by most critics as Egoyan's final maturation into one of the industry's foremost independent filmmakers. Although Egoyan keeps a special place in his heart for his early films, he does view Exotica as a kind of culmination. "I definitely saw Exotica as a summation of many of my recurrent themes-at the time, I believed that I had gone as far as I could with original material and it was time to move onto...
...room and create a place that is supposed to be reminiscent of a home. And a hotel staff function much like actors do, putting on a performance of serving people." Indeed, the world of hotels functions prominently in two of his films--Speaking Parts and The Adjuster. Although being a busboy is far less glamorous than directing movies, Egoyan says the experience was invaluable. "Hospitable trade is a wonderful place to examine human interaction and to learn about human nature. You meet all sorts of people, experience all sorts of personalities. It really was an incredible experience...
...Egoyan chose to major in international relations at the University of Toronto, yet he always had a connection to the arts. "Although I was studying international relations, I was part of the film club and, most importantly, had access to film equipment," Egoyan points out. "I loved drama and playwriting and I became totally fascinated with the different ways [that] you could tell a story. And when I began to actually shoot things, I became convinced that the camera was like another character-I found film to be an incredible means of expression...
...Film Archive will also be screening five of Egoyan's short films-Howard in Particular, Peep Show, Open House, En Passant, and A Portrait of Arshile-on Saturday night. Although these films were basically released "off the radar" as Egoyan puts it, they are still important works to him on a personal level. "I've always been interesting in the way thinking has become a kind of ritual and how we do many things without being consciously aware of it. I think there's certainly a facet of absurdity in human nature and I wanted to explore its impact...
...funding did nothing to change his style or approach to storytelling. "Mel was very great about it," Egoyan says. "I had the freedom to tell the story exactly how I wanted to tell it and never felt the slightest pressure to make the film more marketable or viewer-friendly. Although Felicia's Journey was tied to Hollywood, it was still a very small-scale, independent feature." In a lesser director's hands, Felicia's Journey could easily have devolved into a standard Hollywood thriller, but Egoyan's thoughtful approach to the material and his sense of subtlety and restraint made...