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The Decade List: Ararat (2002)

Ararat - dir. Atom Egoyan

Edward (Charles Aznavour), a director twenty years past his prime, finally has the opportunity to make the film he's always needed to make. His only knowledge of his heritage comes from his mother's tales of surviving the devastating effects of the Armenian genocide. The timing couldn't be better for this type of personal "prestige picture," considering both his declining respectability and the release of a new book by an art historian (Arsinée Khanjian) which explores the work of abstract expressionist painter Arshile Gorky and his linkage to the historical tragedy which you won't find in any Turkish history books. The film, titled Ararat, is predictably artless, an exploitive piece of important-with-a-capital-i movie making on the level of a made-for-TV Biblical film (is Charles Aznavour a thinly veiled Nicolas Roeg?).

This is the sort of film one might expect with Atom Egoyan's Ararat, the director's follow-up to his notably disappointing Felicia's Journey which covers his own personal ancestry. Unlike the fictitious Edward, Egoyan doesn't concern himself with the details of what happened, despite using a number of historical consultants for the particulars of the film-within-the-film. Rather, the director uses historical tragedy to probe how it relates to those directly and indirectly affected by it. For the central character Raffi (David Alpay), the events separate him from his late father, who was killed during an assassination attempt on a Turkish government official. While their literal separation was a residual of the events in question (made greater by Turkey's refusal to acknowledge it), Raffi's comfortable existence in Canada, nearly ninety years and two generations removed from the genocide, prevents him from comprehending the mentality of what his father was trying to do.

Of Ararat's abundant complexities, the juxtaposition of Raffi's quest in understanding his father with his step-sister Celia's (Marie-Josée Croze) search for justification of her father's death is one of the more surprising examinations. All of Ararat's conspiracy theories lie within her, and none of them directly relate to the genocide. Celia fluctuates between claiming that her step-mother Ani (Khanjian) either pushed him off a cliff or convinced him to do so. Celia assumes that in both Raffi and Ani's minds his father and her first husband's death symbolized honor, dying for a worthy cause, which in turn makes her father's death both shameful and insignificant by comparison.

Egoyan's Ararat never criticizes Edward's Ararat, despite the negative description I gave it above. Egoyan's even postulates a defense for Edward's, despite some disapproval from Ani, who readily admits she doesn't think in the way filmmakers do, in the various "poetic licenses" the film takes in setting and in relation to Gorky. As Raffi watches Ali (Elias Koteas) and Clarence (Bruce Greenwood) act the scene in which the Armenians refuse to cooperate with the Turks, the visualization of the actions forges the pathway to understanding his father's feelings. Through a later dialogue between Raffi and Ali, Egoyan shows us the purpose of a film like Edward's, and through his own film (and despite the problems surrounding Christopher Plummer's final realization), expresses why this isn't the sort of film he would ever make.

With: David Alpay, Christopher Plummer, Arsinée Khanjian, Charles Aznavour, Marie-Josée Croze, Elias Koteas, Eric Bogosian, Bruce Greenwood, Brent Carver, Simon Abkarian, Raoul Bhaneja
Screenplay: Atom Egoyan
Cinematography: Paul Sarossy
Music: Mychael Danna
Country of Origin: Canada/France
US Distributor: Miramax

Premiere: 20 May 2002 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 12 November 2002 (AFI Film Festival)

Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress - Arsinée Khanjian, Best Supporting Actor - Elias Koteas, Best Music, Best Costume Design - Beth Pasternak (Genie Awards, Canada)

A few DVD updates, Some Acquisitions, 5 May

Nothing terribly exciting has been announced for DVD in the US lately, but here are a few. Lionsgate is releasing a Special Edition of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, HBO has the second season of Flight of the Conchords on 4 August (though I don't know anyone who especially liked this season), Focus is releasing Coraline on 21 July while parent Universal will have Duplicity out on 28 July, and finally Synapse has a special edition of The Stepfather 2 on 29 September, though for some strange reason the first installment has never been released in the US (I suppose in the same way Phantasm II hasn't either, despite 1, 3 and 4 being readily available).

In acquisition deals, Benten/Watchmaker Films landed Wei Zheng's Fish Eyes, which premiered at Tribeca. Cinema Guild picked up Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax, and Film Movement nabbed Adrián Biniez's Gigante, which won the Silver Bear at Berlin earlier this year. And finally, Warner has added 40 more titles to the original 150 in their Archive Collection. Check this link for all of the titles.

Also, Eric's informed us of a number of planned DVD releases from Sony and theatrical releases from The Film Desk. A Sam Fuller box-set and Husbands are reportedly coming from Sony, the latter part of their Martini Movies series. And The Film Desk is releasing a resorted print of Alain Cavalier's Le combat dans l'île [Fire and Ice], with Romy Schneider and Jean-Louis Trintignant, as well as a first-run release of Alexander Olch's The Windmill Movie.

'Twas Here My Summer Exploded

Summertime! Or, as Prince of Freshland Willard Smith once put it, summersummersummertime! All of its joys (such as the sunshine, the wasps, the ever-present sheen of sticky sweat) pale into insignificance next to my favourite thing in the world ever; the summer movie season. As usual, the anticipation is bound to be much more nourishing than the actual movies themselves, though last year saw an unprecedented bumper crop of excellent popcorn entertainment which should, technically, raise my excitement to even greater levels, what with the summer movie season finally offering brainfood as well as robot wars. Sadly, that 2009 highwater mark and the recent writer's strike means I'm less excited about this year's line-up. Sure, I'll see a fair few, but there's only one or two I'm goggle-eyed with obnoxious enthusiasm over. My face is sad.

Those who know me have a pretty good idea which movies have me froth-mouthed, but I'll save that for now, because I'm more interested in what you, the readers of this blog, are most excited about. Just like last year, I want to see what is getting this small cross-section of people most pumped. Sadly, due to RL complications, I forgot to do this earlier, and have therefore included a film that has already been released (The Further Adventures of Logan T. Loganstein And His Whirring Claws Of Kill), but perhaps, if you've already seen it, you enjoyed it so much you can't wait to see it again! I gather it's depressingly bad hella-exciting. Anyway, here's the list.

• Terminator Franchise: Salvage Operation


• I’d Rather Be Dragged To Hell Than Watch Spider-Man 3 Again


• JJ Abrams Risks Death by Unwashed Nerd Rage-On


• Transmogrifiers 2: Return of the Awesome


• The Curious Case of Wolverine Wutton


• Angels, Demons, and Probably Ewan McGregor’s Schlong


• Another Worthless Woody Allen Movie


• The Unnecessary Remaking of Pelham 123


• (500) Days of Self-Conscious Indie Movie Quirk


• The Time-Travelling Bana


• Harry Potter and the Thing in the Place with the Whatsit


• Demetri Martin + Ang Lee + Hippies = WTF?


• District 9 (AKA Neill Blomkamp Rocks Your Face Off)


• Hott Sam Rockwell’s Lunar Oscar Bid


• Pixar’s Whassup, Bitches?


• Depp and Bale in: Untouchablesque


• Sacha Baron Cohen and the Inevitable Lawsuits


• G.I. Joe: The Struggle to Give a Shit


• Quentin Tarantino and the Broken Spellcheck


• Final Destination: Rube Goldberg’s Revenge


• Judd Apatow’s Self-Loathing People (feat. The RZA!)

Seriously! The RZA is in the next Judd Apatow movie! I can't wait, though I'd much rather see a full-length Bobby Digital film than some navel-gazing James L. Brooks homage, no matter how good it is. Anyway, the poll will be up in a sec, and will be around for approximately numerous weeks.

The Decade List: Albums/Singles (2002)

I keep pushing the music post earlier and earlier, mainly because I enjoy doing so. The only glaring omission (of the music I have, or have listened to) was forgetting to include the Chicago-based duo Vitesse's album What Can Not Be, But Is... on 2001's best album list. 2002 also brought us one of the worst-fucking-songs-I've-ever-heard off the Spiderman soundtrack. And, in looking at music critics best of's, I discovered why it seems useless to make these sort of lists. I mean, how many critics who placed Hot Hot Heat's Make Up the Breakdown on their best of the year ever feel the itch to pop that CD in any more? More than film critics, I think the music ones are oblivious to outright flash-in-the-pan mediocrity. Also, to defend the final single on my list, Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny from the Block" was easily the most outrageously awful songs to hit the airwaves in a long while, and despite this, it proves just how clueless J. Lo is in her perhaps-honest, certainly-failed attempt to show the world that nothing's changed since she was drawing her eyebrows on in the Bronx fifteen years ago. I doubt the people getting turned away from malls she shut down to shop in peace are buyin' it. I guess what you get really is what you see. I think all my musical biases are present here, from post-punk-meeting-post-rock (Murray Street), post-shoegaze ( ( ) ), obscene rap ("My Neck, My Back") and guilty pleasures one should never admit to liking (Sean Paul). So as it goes, the albums are listed in vague preferential order, while the singles are not. Check it.

Sigur Rós - ( )
Check It: Untitled 5

Sonic Youth - Murray Street
Check It: Disconnection Notice

Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Out of Season
Check It: Sand River

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People
Check It: Shampoo Suicide

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Check It: Leif Erikson

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
Check It: How Near, How Far

Tom Waits - Alice (also Blood Money)
Check It: Alice

90 Day Men - To Everyone
Check It: I've Got Designs on You

Ugly Casanova - Sharpen Your Teeth
Check It: Cat Faces

Justin Timberlake - Justified
Check It: Rock Your Body

The Roots - Phrenology
Check It: The Seed (2.0)

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Check It: 1969

Do Make Say Think - & Yet & Yet
Check It: White Light of

DJ Shadow - The Private Press
Check It: Fixed Income

Junior Senior - D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat
Check It: Move Your Feet

Vincent Gallo - Recordings of Music for Film

Doves - The Last Broadcast
Check It: M62 Song

Lanterna - Sands
Check It: Windward

Vitesse - You Win Again, Gravity!

Marianne Faithfull - Kissin Time
Check It: Sex with Strangers

Beck - Sea Change
Check It: The Golden Age

mclusky - mclusky Do Dallas
Check It: To Hell with Good Intentions

Missy Elliott - Under Construction
Check It: Work It

Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un m'a dit
Check It: Quelqu'un m'a dit

Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Check It: No One Knows

Xiu Xiu - Knife Play
Check It: Poe Poe

Assorted Jams from the Year 2002

The Flaming Lips - "Do You Realize??" [from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots]
Christina Aguilera - "Dirrty" [from Stripped]
Khia - "My Neck, My Back (Lick It)" [from Thug Misses]
Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles - "'03 Bonnie & Clyde"
DJ Shadow - "Walkie Talkie" [from The Private Press]

Ms. Jade featuring Timbaland and Nelly Furtado - "Ching, Ching" [from Girl Interrupted]
Spoon - "The Way We Get By" [from Kill the Moonlight]
Ashanti - "Foolish" [from Ashanti]
Trina featuring Ludacris - "B R Right" [from Diamond Princess]
Interpol - "Untitled" [from Turn On the Bright Lights]

Broken Social Scene - "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" [from You Forgot It in People]
Piano Magic - "The Season Is Long" [from Writers Without Homes, unfortunately I couldn't find this anywhere; I wouldn't recommend buying the album though, as this is the only good song off it]
Busta Rhymes featuring Mariah Carey and Flipmode Squad - "I Know What You Want" [from It Ain't Safe No More...]
David Bowie - "Sunday" [from Heathen]
Ugly Casanova - "Barnacles" [from Sharpen Your Teeth]

Marianne Faithfull featuring Damon Albarn - "Kissin Time" [from Kissin Time]
mclusky - "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues" [from mclusky Do Dallas]
Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - "Tom the Model" [from Out of Season]
Junior Senior - "Shake Your Coconuts" [from D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat]
Eve featuring Alicia Keys - "Gangsta Lovin" [from Eve-olution]

Denali - "Relief" [from Denali]
The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up - "Distance" [from Homemade Drugs]
Destiny's Child featuring Wyclef Jean - "No No No, Pt. 2" [from This Is the Remix]
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - "Relative Ways" [from Source Tags & Codes]
Justin Timberlake - "Señorita" [from Justified]

The Black Heart Procession - "The Tropics of Love" [from Amore del tropico]
Sean Paul - "Get Busy" [from Dutty Rock]
Coldplay - "A Rush of Blood to the Head" [from A Rush of Blood to the Head]
Broken Social Scene - "Almost Crimes" [from You Forgot It in People]
Jennifer Lopez - "Jenny from the Block" [from This Is Me... Then]

Film Score/Soundtrack

8 femmes - Soundtrack [Ludivine Sagnier - "T'es plus dans le coup"; also Emmanuelle Béart - "Pile ou face"]
Chicago - Soundtrack ["Cell Block Tango," featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mya, et al.]
Sonic Youth, et al. - demonlover Soundtrack [You can find the whole documentary of Sonic Youth scoring the film on YouTube]
Phillip Glass - The Hours score
The Morvern Callar soundtrack