The strange case of Atom Egoyan 2010, 87 minutes

POSITIF. march 2011.

The bluray DVD version of Atom Egoyan's movie's CHLOE comes with a documentary about the director, and what a documentary it is! EGOYAN: A MYSTERY, directed by Alain Mazars in 2010, with the help of N.T Binh for the writing and interviews, is alone worth buying the DVD. The two authors filmed Egoyan at his home in Toronto and also interviewed some of his closest collaborators, actors, editor, sound designer, a composer (the loyal Mychael Danna), without forgetting his muse, partner and fetish actress Arsinée Khanjian. Egoyan is fascinating when commenting his work and we are touched by his generosity when he takes Mazars and Binh on location during outdoor shoots. What makes this documentary so enjoyable is the strategic choice to examine the work of Egoyan by starting with his last movie, CHLOE (2009), and then going back in time to his first short, HOWARD IN PARTICULAR (1979. Egoyan, who loves using very dramatic and creative perspectives for his own movies, was totally game for analyzing the feelings of vertigo that took him back to the excitement of his beginnings. He rediscovers with us the evolution of his working methods, his topics and his fascination with intimacy that often made him use autobiographical elements in his work, even if only in the form of fantasies. Philippe Rouyer