ATOM EGOYAN
Added: 03.11.2016
Recipient of Cinematographer – Director Duo Award (shared with Atom Egoyan)
Paul Sarossy and Atom Egoyan - the Canadian filmmaking duo started working together with
1989's Speaking Parts, while their last film, so far, was 2015's Remember. During more than
three decades of their collaboration, they shot twelve features and several other projects,
including a television adaptation of Samuel Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape. They understand
each other without any words, just like the best cinematographer – director duets in the history of
cinema, but the most important feature of their collaboration is the fact that after all these years of
telling engrossing stories they did not lose the ability to talk to each other and thus influence each
other's visions. As a result, they are able not only to create absorbing, multilayered images that
surprise with their visual complexity and speak louder than words, but also to keep things afresh
in each and every project they dedicate their time and experience to. They have shot films in four
different decades but not even once did they repeat themselves, or rest on their laurels, but
instead every time developed an exciting and unique visual language.
During its twenty three previous editions Camerimage Festival had acknowledged many
distinguished filmmakers with the Cinematographer – Director Duo Award. It will be our
pleasure to welcome Paul Sarossy and Atom Egoyan into this wonderful company.
Atom Egoyan and Paul Sarossy,
photo credit: Rafy
Everyone who saw at least some of the films made by Egoyan and Sarossy knows perfectly
well that they often tell stories that are neither easy, nor even pleasurable to absorb, for they are
concerned with the greatest human flaws and weaknesses, as well as putting their protagonists
in the most extreme emotional situations. The stories of individuals and whole communities that
do not cope with the unprocessed traumas and sudden events affecting the whole worldview in a
matter of seconds. The films of emotional and psychological isolation which most often assume
the “broken” perspective of the characters – the narrative is non-linear, the key plot pieces of
information flash by, barely noticed in the ordinariness of the world depicted on the screen, and
the catharsis does not appear in the most suitable moments. At the same time, however, there
are no shallow assessments or judging people by their actions in Egoyan and Sarrosy's films,
rather a desire to humanize the characters, understand why they became who they are.
Still from "Exotica"
Hence, their films need great cinematography which will be the audiences' guide – even if
unconsciously – through the narrative twists and turns, depicting in a strictly visual manner the
depths of the protagonists' personalities. As in two of their most important films of the
1990s: Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. The first one tells a story of several desperate loners
who seek mental refuge in carnal desires, whereas their individual worlds collide in the visually
stylized erotic club, a place where emotional cruelty mixes with moments of tenderness. Egoyan
and Sarossy show their characters in such a way the viewers' perspective changes from one
minute to the next, while we get to know their real intentions only in the finale. In The Sweet
Hereafter, for which Egoyan was nominated for two Academy Awards® (Best Director, and Best
Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published), the most important
event is not depicted before the middle of the narrative, when we already know everything there
is to know about it. And yet, we are still not prepared for what we see. It is a bus accident in which
fourteen children die, while the film itself tells a story about different ways of coping with the loss,
as experienced by their loved ones.
Still from "The Sweet Hereafter"
In both films Sarossy's camera lets us take a peek into the characters' souls, gradually revealing
what they try to hide from the world, quite often also from themselves. During the most emotional
scenes the camera does not resort to cheap tricks, but instead lets them all resonate in their full
capacity, regardless of how difficult and painful they might be. In the moments of silence and
reflection, it creates a space to breathe and at the same time it shows how the characters are
consumed by their loneliness that cannot be solaced in any way imaginable. The same could be
observed in the two most commercial projects of the duo: neo-noir Where the Truth Lies and
erotic thriller Chloe. The former saw Egoyan and Sarossy at their best with playing with color,
light and darkness to create for Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth a world of glamor and sensual
illusions in which their characters lost their true identity. The latter is a story of a woman who
suspects her husband cheats on her, so she hires a classy escort to seduce him and prove her
point – the camera stresses the perverse relations between the characters before they
themselves become aware of them, thus providing the audience with an advantage that is crucial
to the overall reception. In Egoyan and Sarossy's films everyone, including the viewer, is both
the manipulator and the manipulated.
Still from "Where the Truth Lies"
Throughout the Canadian duo's films (though, it is worth mentioning that Sarossy has Estonian
and Hungarian roots, while Egoyan is half-Armenian, half-Egyptian, therefore the theme of
problems with assimilation is quite important to the overall meaning of their films), the truth, or a
truth, is flawed and does not set anyone free. It is a part of the process which is far more complex.
Their most recent feature film, Remember, sees an old Holocaust survivor committing a crime in
the name of settling the score which is several decades old, but neither the audience, nor the
protagonist knows if this vendetta has a real purpose, or it is simply a fabrication of the withering
human mind. In turn, in Ararat, Egoyan's most personal project to date, the duo reminded the
world of the Armenian Genocide which happened a hundred years ago throughout the Ottoman
Empire – though they did it from a point of view of a fictional Armenian film director who wants to
shoot a film about this tragic event, but he encounters numerous obstacles. Including the different
morality of our times, and the modern technology's trap of trivializing the truth in favor of an
attractive fiction. Similar thing was achieved in Adoration, a tale of a young boy who writes a
school essay based on a deliberate lie – but the moment it hits the internet it stops being a lie
and becomes an event that requires individual interpretation and thus evokes genuine and true
emotions.
Still from "Chloe"
Atom Egoyan was always interested in what makes human being a human being, in all of our
species' defense mechanisms, both conscious and subconscious, the ability to overcome the
obstacles or use them to build physical, mental, or technological walls. From the very beginning
of his career, Paul Sarossy was fascinated by the endless possibilities of creating new and
original storytelling techniques through the visual tools of cinematic language. They met at a film
school in the beginning of the 1980s, but nothing sparked back then. Thus Egoyan shot his first
two films with Peter Mettler. But when the cinematographer could not work on Speaking Parts, as
he was preparing his directorial feature debut, Egoyan started looking for a replacement. During
that time Sarossy had only shot a B-movie Revenge of the Radioactive Reporter. But despite the
initial anxiety, they decided to trust each other, and started the collaboration that enabled them –
from Speaking Parts and 1991's The Adjuster to 2014's The Captive and the previously
mentioned Remember – to create their own style. The rest, as they say, is history. Its makers will
soon arrive in Bydgoszcz to take part in Camerimage and receive the Cinematographer –
Director Duo Award.