what was that
did anyone understand this film,
i liked it but i didnt get the point,
can anybody explain it for me
Good question. I don't know if you have the DVD edition of the film, but I would recomend you listen to Egoyan's commentary. It doesn't give answers set in stone, but enough hints are dropped to start formulating an interpretation. Personally I think it's basically a warning about the seductiveness of image itself and the danger of simply taking everything at face value. this, eventually leads to the three main characters (McManus, Khanjian and Rose) being on the point of a nervous breakdown as they can no longer exercise control over their lives.
As I say, that's just my interpretation, but let me know if this is at all useful.
L8r.
D.
Be careful with commentaries. This is the kind of movie (and really, this applies to any Egoyan movie), where you should sit and think and come up with your own interpretation of the film. In fact, Egoyan put so much more into this movie than I would have noticed if I hadn't listened to his commentary, but the fact that I didn't know it didn't take away from it. I think he even talks on the commentary about how he doesn't want people to count on his commentary for interpretation, because if some of his ideas/messages didn't come across, then so be it. I would go so far as to say that there's SO much in this movie (and really, the only other one of his films I found to be this way was The Adjuster), that each person who watches it will only get certain parts of the message/meaning. Which is fine.
Listen to the commentary, but don't get caught up and only quote it when talking about the movie.
"The way things are going, they're gonna crucify me." - John Lennon
My personal interpretation is that the movie is about alienation, loneliness, and the basic human desire for companionship and warmth. All of the characters are cold, obsessed with finding what they feel will complete their lives (The woman and her dead brother, the actor and his career, the maid and her love for the actor). They wander through their lives with no thought of anything other than that one single obsession. As the movie progresses, it seems as if each character falls deeper and deeper into madness, to the final, rather shocking ending. I like how the movie makes you think, keeping you on the edge.
shareThose a very good generalizations, but can you be a bit more specific? I assume it was the writer who killed herself in her hotel room, but why did we see her pointing a gun to her head in the studio? Was she really there, or was she just a vision of what thought he was responsible for – and if so, did she kill herself before or after that scene was filmed? And the very ending, where the maid caresses the actor's fact, I assume was a fantasy based on her obsession with him, not an actual physical connection. Am I grasping at straws here?
Regardless, this is an intriguing early effort from a director who always captivates me.
No, it was not the writer Clara who killed herself in the hotel room. There are scenes with her and Lance that take place after that body is found. It was presumably one of the tricks that Lance serviced in the room, but we don't know anything more about them.
I think at the end when we see Clara put the gun to her head, it's supposed to represent that she is committing suicide at that moment, but what we see there is Lance's jumbled perception with things blurring together.
That commentary track (it's also on the recent blu-ray edition along with a new commentary done by Egoyan and Arsinee Khanijian) is pretty explicit in explaining the themes and what is going on. Much more than I expected, as usually directors like Egoyan hate explaining things. He does express some reticence about the whole thing, but that "these things are expected now" referring to commentary tracks on DVD's.
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